Read Online Breaking the Ice by Shayne McClendon - Free Book Online

It’s not like you’d have taken a vow of
celibacy even if you had known about Dalton.  I didn’t care…who was I to
care?  You needed to go, I told you to go.  You didn’t do anything wrong.”
    “Thad said you had pneumonia
really bad.  Why didn’t you call me then?”
    “You were in the middle of the
play-offs, Diesel.  Are you kidding?”
    “Were you ever going to
tell me, MacKenzie?  Were you ever going to ask me for anything?”
    “Yes, I was going to wait until Dalton
was older and I would have asked you to help him with college.  I want him to
have the best education.”
    He stared at her.  “So…let me see
if I get this straight.  You get all the hard work of sleepless nights, buying
groceries…and I’ve seen how that boy eats…illness, and temper tantrums.  Then,
when he’s old enough to be no trouble, I can swoop in and be king-high-shit. 
Oh, and I can throw a pittance of my salary at his education.” 
    Her lips parted to say something
but his hands settled over her shoulders.  He gave her a tiny shake.  “Why is
it about what’s best for me ?  What about you , MacKenzie?  When do
you get your chance?  When do you stop living for everyone else?  When does your
happiness get to matter?”
    “I…I don’t know.  When I’m done,
I guess.”
    “That is the saddest thing I’ve
ever heard, Kenzie.  You’re giving away everything you have; there isn’t going
to be anything left.  You’re fighting for everyone else but never you.  Who the
fuck am I that my happiness should be more important than yours ?”
    “You’re… you , Diesel.”
    The simplicity of her words made
it all so clear.  He realized just how blind he’d been. 
    Out of nowhere, he remembered
sixth grade, just before the car accident that almost ended her life.  They’d
gone to school together since Kindergarten.  In a town as small as theirs, the
smart, the not-so-smart, and the average were all lumped into the same
classes. 
    His friends were into sports and
goofing off.  Kenzie never had friends other than her siblings.  She fought a
lot when her sisters and brothers started school.  He remembered she was always
stopping them from getting beat up.  It gave her a reputation as a hothead.
    Then in sixth grade, he was
failing Algebra.  She must have watched him for days because when she caught
him alone, she gave him the keys to ‘getting it’ in less than thirty seconds
and shoved some notebook paper in his hands. 
    She’d disappeared when she heard
his friends coming.  He now realized she hadn’t wanted anyone to know he was
talking to her.  Later that night, he went through the papers and suddenly, he
didn’t feel like an idiot anymore.  He passed Algebra with a low B and had
never thanked her. 
    A few weeks later, she almost
died because of her father’s drunk driving.  She switched to home-school and he
kind of forgot she existed until the day he saw her skating.
    Diesel had never participated in
making fun of the Rhodes kids but he hadn’t defended them either.  He was too
wrapped up in his own life. 
    He looked at her, wondering at
the giving nature that had developed despite her parents.  She was a good
person, a beautiful woman, and a wonderful mother. 
    The sensations only Kenzie had
ever been able to inspire the first time he touched her came roaring back and
he didn’t understand how his mind and body had been able to put this woman out of his thoughts. 
    Meanwhile, he had never
been far from hers .
    “Do you remember helping me pass
Algebra, Kenzie?”
    A small frown formed between her
eyebrows.  “You aren’t stupid, Diesel.  I just showed you a simpler way of
looking at it.”
    “I never thanked you for that.”
    “That was like a million years
ago.”
    “Do you remember the girl I went
to senior prom with?”
    “Stacy Cooper.”  She hissed the
name.
    “She tried to trap me into
marrying her, said I got her pregnant.  Turned out, she’d gotten