"You don't know jacks.h.i.t about my life."

"I know that you're bored. You need a hobby. Something to do."

"I don't need a hobby."

"I'm thinking you should get involved in youth hockey camp. I know from reading your fan letters that you were a positive influence in the lives of those kids."

He looked out the pa.s.senger window and was silent for several moments before he said, "In case you haven't figured it out, I can't skate these days."

"When I went to that Stanley Cup final with my sister and Jules, I noticed that the Chinook coaches just stand behind the bench, act really cranky, and yell a lot. You can do that. You're good at being cranky and yelling."

"I've never yelled at you."

"You just yelled 'son of a b.i.t.c.h' at me."

"I raised my voice in reaction to you almost killing me. I survived one car wreck. I don't want to be taken out now by a little person who can hardly see over the dash."

Maybe that explained why he was so horrible when she drove him around. He was terrified of another car crash. Of course, that didn't explain his a.s.shole behavior at home. "I can see perfectly fine and I'm five-one and a half." She stopped at a red light and looked across the car at him. "In order to be considered a little person and attend the annual LPA national convention, I'd have to be four-ten or under."

He turned and faced her. Both his brows rose above the frames of his sun-gla.s.ses.

"What?"

He shook his head. "You know the height requirement of little people?"

She shrugged and glanced up at the traffic light. "When you grow up with kids calling you a midget, you look these things up."

He chuckled, but she wasn't amused. The one time he decided to laugh, it was at her. The light changed, and she put her foot on the gas pedal. Once again he'd managed to change the subject. "One of the letters I answered yesterday was from Mary White. You coached her son Derek."

He turned and looked out the pa.s.senger window once more. He was quiet for a few seconds, then said, "I don't remember a Derek."

She didn't know if that was the truth or he was just trying to shut her up. "That's a shame. The impression I got from his mother was that you were a great coach."

"Sometime today, you need to program my phone," he said, subject closed. "I'll give you a list of names and you can look the numbers up."

She'd drop the subject. For now. "Programming a cell is really easy." Because his phone was lost and he hadn't backed up his numbers to the Ver-izon secure site, he'd lost everything. Yeah, it was easy, but finding all his numbers and programming them into his phone would take time. Time that she would rather spend plowing through the fan letters. "You can do it."

"I don't get paid to do it," he said as they pulled into the garage. "You do."

When they walked into the house, a cleaning service was there vacuuming and washing all those windows. Mark scribbled a list of names, then handed her his cell. "That will get you started," he said, then disappeared into the elevator.

Chelsea plugged in the phone to give it a good charge before she turned to Mark's computer and got back to work. While she answered a fan letter, an e-mail popped in his personal inbox. In case it was a Realtor, she opened his e-mail program. The return address caught her eye, and she opened it.

Coach Mark, it read. it read.

My mom let me read what you wrote I hope you get better really soon I've been practicing my stops like you tot me I'm getting good you should see.

Derek White Derek White? How had the kid managed to get ahold of Mark's e-mail ad-dress? Wasn't he like eight? If he'd been older, she might be scared. As it was, she was slightly alarmed.

Derek, she wrote. she wrote.

Good to hear from you. I don't know if I'll be at hockey camp this year. If I can't, I'll miss you too. I'm glad o hear that you are practicing and I'd love to see how good you are getting.

Coach Mark P. S. How did you manage to get my e-mail address?

EIGHT.

Friday afternoon, Mark looked forward to a day of doing nothing besides watching junk TV. As was true with his life lately, there seemed to be a conspiracy to change his plans. "That double overtime against Colorado in the regular season was grueling. One of the toughest games I've ever played," Sam Leclaire said as he raised a bottle of Corona to his lips. The light in the room caressed the black and purple shiner smudging his right eye.

"It wasn't pretty. Especially with you sitting out a double minor," Mark agreed as he looked at the four hockey players lounging on his couches and chairs inside the leisure room. Through the open gla.s.s doors, two more of the guys stood on the veranda outside, hitting golf b.a.l.l.s across the yard and into the thick, short hedge. Beyond the hedge was the Medina golf course, and Mark hoped they kept the b.a.l.l.s off the green or he'd hear about it from the grounds superintendent, aka Kenneth the n.a.z.i. Kenneth was just one more reason he needed to get the h.e.l.l out of Medina.

"Hensick took a dive on that one. The pansy a.s.s rolled around like a girl. He embarra.s.sed himself."

Which might have been true, but didn't mean that Sam hadn't tripped Hensick. Then punched him for good measure and gave Colorado the power play.

The guys had shown up at his house half an hour ago, unannounced. He was pretty sure they'd organized this little trip without calling first because they knew he'd tell them not to come. He hated to admit it, but he was glad they'd shown up without warning. He'd known most of these guys for a long time. He'd been their captain, but they were more than just teammates. They were friends. Close as brothers, and he missed shooting the s.h.i.t with them. He hadn't known how much until now.

Today they all looked rough around the edges. Like warriors who'd just survived a battle. The two defens.e.m.e.n outside looked the worst of the lot. Left guard Vlad Fetisov had a few st.i.tches in his brow, while the team's enforcer, Andre Courtoure, had b.u.t.terfly tape closing a cut on his chin. Inside the house, second-in-command, alternate captain Walker Brooks, wore a brace on his left knee. Of course there was Sam's shiner, but Sam always had a shiner. He was a good guy. Always laughing and joking, but there was something darker inside. Something he tended to work out on the ice. Which made Sam a liability almost as much as a d.a.m.n good hockey player.

"The rumor is that Eddie is leaving," forward Daniel Holstrom informed everyone from his position on the side of the chaise. Unfortunately, Daniel had yet to shave off his playoffs beard, and the growth of blond hair on his cheeks and chin looked moth-eaten.

Sniper Frankie Kawczynski raised a bottle of Corona to his lips. "Isn't he already playing in the Swedish leagues these days?"

"Not Eddie the Eagle. a.s.sistant coach Eddie," Daniel clarified.

"What?" Walker looked across the room at Daniel, incredulous. "Eddie Thornton?"

"Th.o.r.n.y?"

"That's what I hear. He's signing on as the a.s.sistant coach in Dallas."

"Where did you hear that?" Mark wanted to know.

"Around. I bet it's true. Th.o.r.n.y never did get along with Larry," he added, referring to the Chinooks' head coach, Larry Nystrom.

"Nystrom can be a straight-up hard-a.s.s," Frankie said. He sat in a chair to Mark's left, a big kid from Wisconsin whose height and bulk had deceived many opposing players. Frankie was as nimble as a ballerina, with a slap shot clocked at one hundred and fifteen miles an hour. Just three miles short of the record holder, Bobby Hull. Mark had helped handpick Frankie when Mark and the late owner of the team, Virgil Duffy, had looked over the NHL draft several years ago.

Mark shrugged. "Larry's always been a fair hard-a.s.s."

"True," Frankie agreed. "But remember when he got all apoplectic and turned purple after Tampa Bay handed our b.a.l.l.s to us a couple seasons ago? I thought he was going to bust a vessel in his head and blood would shoot from his eyes."

"Apoplectic?" Mark laughed. "Have you been reading again?"

"Unlike most of you guys, I did spend a few years in college before I was drafted."

As much as the guys could get on Mark's nerves, he missed the constant razzing. He pointed to his own chin and asked Daniel, "Why are you keeping the fuzz?" He and the Stromster had played on the same front line for past six seasons. The Swede had been drafted by the Chinooks his rookie year. The same year Mark had been named captain.

"I like it."

"You should have seen Blake's." Sam chuckled and took a drink from his bottle. "He looked like someone had given him a bikini wax on his face. One of those Brazilians like my ex-girlfriend used to get on her patch."

Mark glanced toward the door. The guys didn't know there was a woman in the house. Exactly where his little a.s.sistant was, Mark didn't know. When he'd answered the door, she hadn't been in the office at the front of the house.

"It was bad," Walker agreed, "but I thought Johan's beard was-" He stopped, and his attention shifted to the vicinity of Mark's crotch as "American Woman" played from the pocket of his jogging pants. The nylon pocket had slid to his inner thigh, and he looked around at the curious faces. Mark stuck his hand in his pocket and dug around next to his b.a.l.l.s. He pulled out his new cell phone as The Guess Who warned American woman to stay away. A picture of Chelsea flashed on the cell's screen. "Yeah?" he answered.

"Hi, it's me."

"I guessed that. Tell me about 'American Woman.'"

"'American Woman' was a song written and performed by the Guess Who and later Lenny Kravitz."

"I know all that. Why is it on my phone?"

"It's my ringtone so that you know it's me. I thought it was appropriate given our relationship."

"Where are you and why are you calling?"

"In the kitchen. I'm taking a break from answering fan letters, and I just wanted to know if you or your guests need anything."

There it was again. Need. "I'm sure the guys could use another beer."

"I figured. How many guys are there?"

"Six counting Vlad, but he's not drinking today." Which Mark knew from his long a.s.sociation with the Russian meant he was hungover. He flipped the phone closed and lifted one hip and shoved it back in his pocket. For the most part, when the guys got together at his house to drink or play poker or both, it was just the guys. He didn't know how they'd react to a female in their mix. "That was my a.s.sistant," he told them. "She's bringing more beer."

Sam finished off his Corona and set the empty bottle on an end table. "You have an a.s.sistant?"

"More like a pain in the a.s.s." Mark stuck one finger beneath the brace and scratched the back of his hand. "The Chinooks kept sending nurses over here to check my pulse and make sure I took a c.r.a.p. I hated having them hover over me, watching me all the time, so I guess the organization thought they'd have better luck if they sent an a.s.sistant."

"What's she like?"

"Annoying as h.e.l.l." Mark leaned back against the soft leather couch. "You'll see."

A few minutes later she walked into the room, all five feet nothing of her, carrying a tin bucket filled with ice and Coronas. "h.e.l.lo, gentlemen. Don't get up," she said, even though no one had made a move to stand. She wore those big clunky shoes she favored and a short leather skirt with animal print on it-zebra maybe. Her baggy black blouse had a big bow on the front, and her neon pink cell phone was clipped to the sparkly red belt wrapped around her waist. In the short time that she'd worked for him, Mark had noticed that she wore her tops really loose and her bottoms really tight. He wondered if she thought big shirts made her big b.r.e.a.s.t.s less noticeable. They didn't. "I'm Chelsea Ross, Mr. Bressler's personal a.s.sistant." She bent forward to set the bucket on the coffee table, and Mark watched Frankie's gaze slide to her little behind wrapped up in black-and-white-striped leather. "I've brought beer. Any takers?"

All four gentlemen raised their hands like they were in school.

"You look familiar," Walker said, tilting his head to one side to study her.

Mark had always thought so too.

She grabbed a beer out of the bucket, slid her hands up the bottle, and twisted off the top. "Do you watch The Young and the Restless?"

"No."

"Ever seen Slasher Camp?"

"No."

She handed Walker the Corona. "Killer Valentine? Prom Night 2? He Knows It's You?" She turned back to the bucket. "Motel on Lake h.e.l.l?"

"Don't forget that 'go meat' commercial," Mark reminded her. "The one where you wore a cheerleader outfit."

She chuckled and pulled another beer from the ice. "Good to know you were paying attention."

Droplets of water slipped across the tips of her fingers, ran down the bottle, and dripped into the bucket. Yeah, he was paying attention. Too much attention, although he didn't know why. "Among Chelsea's many talents, she's a scream queen," he informed the guys.

Daniel looked up at her as she moved toward him. "You're a what?"

"I'm an actress." She handed the Swede the bottle and flicked the droplets from the tips of her fingers. "I recently moved here from L.A."

"And you've starred in horror movies?" Walker asked.

"I wish." She shook her head and moved back to the coffee table. "I didn't star in horror films, but I've acted in a number of them. My biggest role was in Slasher Camp. I got the axe, literally, within the first half hour." She dug around in the ice and pulled out a Corona. "The amount of blood was ridiculous. The scene was shot at night in the woods and called for me to be practically nude. They didn't even warm up the fake blood before they splashed it all over my throat. All that gross stuff gushed down my chest and soaked my white underwear. I about froze to death."

Stunned silence filled the leisure room as Mark, and he was sure every other guy within hearing distance, pictured her naked b.r.e.a.s.t.s, nipples hard from the cold, covered in fake blood. Jesus, he was getting that heavy feeling again in his stomach.

It was Sam who finally broke the silence. "What was the name of that movie again?"

"Slasher Camp. I played Angel, the s.l.u.tty best friend." She twisted off the cap and dropped it into the bucket. "In a lot of horror movies, the s.l.u.tty girl is a metaphor for an immoral society and must be killed. You can interchange the s.l.u.tty girl with the pot-smoking boy, but it's always the same message. Immoral choices must be punished, while the virginal, squeaky-clean lead kills the bad guy and gets to live." She took a deep breath and let it out. "I always drew the line at torture p.o.r.n like Turistas or the Hostel films. There's a huge difference between metaphorical stereotypes in society and s.e.xual objectification."

What? What the h.e.l.l did that mean?

"I don't watch those movies. They scare the h.e.l.l out of me," Frankie said, then snapped his fingers. "I got it. You look like the short girl in the PR department." He raised both palms as if he was about to hold two melons in front of his chest, quickly thought better of it, and dropped them. "What's her name?"

"Bo." She walked around the table to Frankie. "Bo Ross. She's my twin sister."

"Jesus. Mini Pit." Of course. It was so obvious, Mark wondered why he hadn't connected the two.

She glanced at him. "Who?"

"Mini Pit," Sam explained. "It's short for Mini Pit Bull."

"You call my sister Mini Pit?"

Sam shook his head. "Not to her face. We're too d.a.m.n afraid."

She chuckled, and Mark was still amazed that he hadn't made the connection. "Short. Bossy. Annoying as h.e.l.l. I should have made the connection that first day." The thought of two identically annoying, short, bossy-as-h.e.l.l women kind of scared the c.r.a.p out of him. The feeling in his stomach dissipated. Which was a good thing. A very good thing.

She looked over her shoulder at Mark as she handed the beer to Frankie. "It's probably the hair that threw you."

"That's bad, but more than likely..." He paused to point to her wild skirt. "It's the brain-numbing clothes you wear."