Read Online In the Zone (Portland Storm 5) by Catherine Gayle - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Catherine Gayle
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to the other side of the city. Even though I was searching my mind to figure out where he might be taking me and what he intended for us to do, I couldn’t come up with anything. I hadn’t lived here long enough to know the sorts of places people might go on a date. I didn’t have a clue until he pulled up in front of Oaks Park, at least. But even then, I was confused.
“Aren’t they closed for the winter?” It was an amusement park, full of insanity like Ferris wheels and bumper cars and all sorts of things I hadn’t gotten on or in or even thought about in years.
“The amusement park is,” he said, shutting off the engine. “But the skating rink is open.”
My heart skittered, but he flashed me a sexy-as-hell smile and came around the front of the car to help me out. I put my hand in his and let him lead me inside despite my moment of hesitation. Thank goodness it was roller-skating and not ice-skating. I hadn’t been on ice skates since well before I’d gained all the weight, and frankly, I didn’t know how well my ankles would hold up on those tiny blades. My legs were still relatively strong from dance, but not like they used to be. Besides, skate blades and dancing heels fell into two entirely different categories.
We rented skates and put them on, and he took our coats and my purse to a locker. Before I was ready for it, he took my hand again and was leading me out to the rink.
“Roller-skating,” I mumbled, completely thunderstruck. “You hounded me after that class so you could take me roller-skating?”
Keith turned around to skate backward, reaching for my other hand to help pull me along. There was something about the colorful lights bouncing around the room, and the shimmery flashes coming off the disco ball in the center that made him look almost sinful out there. “This is just part of it. There’s a lot more to come before the night’s over, Brie.”
I laughed, despite myself. Roller-skating .
I T WAS A rare occurrence that I used my clout as a local sports celebrity to get something that an everyday person might not have access to, but I’d had no qualms about doing it when I was preparing for this date. Obtaining reservations for any of the restaurants along the river when the Christmas Ships Parade was taking place was generally next to impossible. A lot of the restaurants were booked solid more than a year in advance for this annual event. I’d begged and pleaded and used every bit of my minor fame, and even that hadn’t been enough at first. It was only once I’d promised that we would finish our meal and leave before the parade started that I’d found a restaurant to agree to squeeze us in for dinner.
That had been an easy promise for me to make. I didn’t want her to see the ships from behind a pane of glass. I wanted to be right on the bank, where she could really experience it like a local. I’d done that my first year here, and it had been such a uniquely Portland experience that I’d made sure to do it every year since.
I’d come to appreciate the Christmas ships in my time playing with the Storm, especially in the last few years since I’d bought my big house on the river. The parade didn’t come quite far enough for me to watch it from my own balcony, but I always made an effort to find somewhere to watch it when I was in town on a night we didn’t have a game. The parade had become one of my holiday traditions as much as it was a Portland tradition.
A couple of years ago I’d invited my surviving brother, Shane, to come out and see it with me. I’d thought that maybe it could help me to build a bridge with him, that maybe we could start to mend fences and other shit like that. He hadn’t come, though. Not that year, or last year, and so far this year he was still telling me he didn’t think he could do it. He said it was work that was keeping him from visiting, but I didn’t buy that for a minute. He didn’t want to spend his holiday with me. Shane
“Aren’t they closed for the winter?” It was an amusement park, full of insanity like Ferris wheels and bumper cars and all sorts of things I hadn’t gotten on or in or even thought about in years.
“The amusement park is,” he said, shutting off the engine. “But the skating rink is open.”
My heart skittered, but he flashed me a sexy-as-hell smile and came around the front of the car to help me out. I put my hand in his and let him lead me inside despite my moment of hesitation. Thank goodness it was roller-skating and not ice-skating. I hadn’t been on ice skates since well before I’d gained all the weight, and frankly, I didn’t know how well my ankles would hold up on those tiny blades. My legs were still relatively strong from dance, but not like they used to be. Besides, skate blades and dancing heels fell into two entirely different categories.
We rented skates and put them on, and he took our coats and my purse to a locker. Before I was ready for it, he took my hand again and was leading me out to the rink.
“Roller-skating,” I mumbled, completely thunderstruck. “You hounded me after that class so you could take me roller-skating?”
Keith turned around to skate backward, reaching for my other hand to help pull me along. There was something about the colorful lights bouncing around the room, and the shimmery flashes coming off the disco ball in the center that made him look almost sinful out there. “This is just part of it. There’s a lot more to come before the night’s over, Brie.”
I laughed, despite myself. Roller-skating .
I T WAS A rare occurrence that I used my clout as a local sports celebrity to get something that an everyday person might not have access to, but I’d had no qualms about doing it when I was preparing for this date. Obtaining reservations for any of the restaurants along the river when the Christmas Ships Parade was taking place was generally next to impossible. A lot of the restaurants were booked solid more than a year in advance for this annual event. I’d begged and pleaded and used every bit of my minor fame, and even that hadn’t been enough at first. It was only once I’d promised that we would finish our meal and leave before the parade started that I’d found a restaurant to agree to squeeze us in for dinner.
That had been an easy promise for me to make. I didn’t want her to see the ships from behind a pane of glass. I wanted to be right on the bank, where she could really experience it like a local. I’d done that my first year here, and it had been such a uniquely Portland experience that I’d made sure to do it every year since.
I’d come to appreciate the Christmas ships in my time playing with the Storm, especially in the last few years since I’d bought my big house on the river. The parade didn’t come quite far enough for me to watch it from my own balcony, but I always made an effort to find somewhere to watch it when I was in town on a night we didn’t have a game. The parade had become one of my holiday traditions as much as it was a Portland tradition.
A couple of years ago I’d invited my surviving brother, Shane, to come out and see it with me. I’d thought that maybe it could help me to build a bridge with him, that maybe we could start to mend fences and other shit like that. He hadn’t come, though. Not that year, or last year, and so far this year he was still telling me he didn’t think he could do it. He said it was work that was keeping him from visiting, but I didn’t buy that for a minute. He didn’t want to spend his holiday with me. Shane
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