Reed (Cold Fury Hockey 10)

"It's ninety degrees with a thousand percent humidity," she says with a wrinkle of her nose.

"Crybaby," I goad her as I start toward the balcony.

She doesn't say anything, but I can hear her walking after me, her tennis shoes squeaking on my hardwood.

I have a round patio table with two chairs on the small balcony that overlooks the set of town homes across the street from me. Behind them, there's a slight glow of light from a large shopping complex.

We are silent a few moments as we eat. She takes small bites of her pizza and chews daintily. I've got two of my slices polished off before she finishes the first.

"Lots more pizza in there," I tell her with a nod toward the double French doors. "Want me to get you another?"

She shakes her head and leans back in her chair. "I'm good. I actually had a protein bar about an hour ago."

"Wow," I say with a smart-ass smirk. "You must be stuffed."

Josie rolls her eyes at me and I laugh. I pick up my last piece of pizza, but before I take a bite, I tell her, "You know, I've been thinking about it and I'm offended you've stereotyped me."

One elegant brow arches high and she purses her lips briefly before she says, "You stereotype yourself, buddy."

"You don't know me," I return confidently. "You've only seen a small part of Reed Olson."

Josie gives a tinkling laugh. "You mean you're not a playboy professional hockey player who's been burning his way through all the hot women in Raleigh."

Not all of them, I think to myself as I surreptitiously take in her large dark eyes that sparkle with intelligence and humor. While her scrubs are baggy, I got a good enough look at her curves at the pool the other day to know she's packing a whole lot of sex appeal.

I jolt slightly when Josie says, "Let me ask you something...what do you get out of casual sex?"

I'm the one who now cocks an eyebrow. "You do understand what comes at the end of sex, right?"

She waves a hand at me. "Of course, but you can do that all by yourself. So, what's the appeal of random hookups?"

"Are you mocking me?" I tease her, amused mightily that she brought this up.

"Not at all," she replies lightly with a wave of her hand. "I'm genuinely curious. It's not something I've ever done before."

"Never had sex?"

Another roll of those gorgeous eyes that twinkle slightly at me. She thinks I'm cute for sure.

She clarifies her question. "Casual sex."

"Only ever had true-love sex?" I ask with a grin.

"Something like that," she says almost wistfully, and my smile slides a little. Little Josie Ives has been in love before, and I don't know what it is, but there's a story there for sure.

Rather than poke at her secrets, I try to explain myself. "Well, sex is good, right?"

"It's great," she says.

"Yes, great," I agree as I prepare to launch into the benefits of casual relationships.

She stops me, though. "You didn't say 'great' right away. You said 'good,' which leads me to believe your Barbie dolls are just giving you good sex and not great sex."

"Dial it back a notch, Freud," I say dryly. "That's not what I mean."

"You're in a rut," she says with a confident nod. "The headboard on the wall has been silent lately."

She's right about that. Last three days I just haven't had the urge to reach out to my list of little-black-book women. I also feel strangely perturbed over the fact my life is so transparent to her.

"Want to go skydiving day after next?" I ask her. "That's your next day off, right?"

"Change the subject much?" she counters.

I give a prissy, exaggerated sniff and sound offended. "I just don't like talking about sex with strange women. It makes me feel shallow."

Josie throws her head back and lets out a deep-from-the-belly laugh that's husky and melodious all at once. When she looks back to me, she chuckles. "You're anything but shallow, Reed."

"You think?" I ask, puffing my chest out in an exaggerated fashion so she'll throw more compliments at me.

She doesn't oblige me, though. Instead, she leans toward me slightly in her chair. "You being shallow isn't the problem. It's that you're seeing women who don't have a lot going on upstairs to challenge you, so that's why it's unfulfilling. That's why your headboard's not been banging on the wall lately."

Fuck, she's called that exactly right. It's the same conclusion I came to after watching the interaction at the pool between Josie and Kiki. Kiki was glorious in her practical nudity, jiggling tits, and airheaded ways, and that type of woman always guaranteed me entry into their panties. But that day, I had a hard time keeping my eyes and attention off Josie. She's the one I wanted to sit with and talk to and ogle by the pool all day.

Not about to admit that, though, so I ask, "You make a fair point. Know anyone you can hook me up with?"

"Actually," she says as her smile slides just minutely. Way too subtle for me to read anything into it. "I do have a few single doctors I work with. Do they have to be blond and have big boobs?"

"Boobs are overrated," I say with a dismissive wave, and push away the slight disappointment that she didn't offer to go out with me.

She smirks before taking a sip of her water. When she sets the glass down, she asks, "So...when are you going out of town? Do you need me to do anything here for you or just pick up the mail?"

"Oh, I'm not going out of town," I say with a shake of my head.

"But you said--"

"I just wanted to get your phone number, and that was the easiest way," I tell her honestly.

Josie blinks at me. Eyes all round and not comprehending.

"What?" I ask playing dumb. "You're interesting."

That eyebrow goes up.

"And smart."

It arches higher.

"You're not typical," I add with a lopsided grin that I hope she finds charming.

"I'm a doctor who works too much and occupies her free time putting together kitten puzzles," she says drolly. "It doesn't get more uninteresting than that."

I detect mostly humor in her voice, but I also sense a little inner self-loathing that she thinks of herself that way. I lean forward, put an elbow on my knee, and tell her, "You're funny, unflappable, and sarcastic. You're intelligent and you're kindhearted. There are so many ways you could have handled Ditzy Barbie's airheadedness--"

"Her name's Kiki," she admonishes.

"See," I point out with a nod. "You're sweet. And that was also atypical. That makes you inherently interesting because most women aren't l

ike that. You found her amusing, but she never knew that."

"Fair points," she says, giving me an acknowledging nod. "So, what...are we like new buds or something?"

"Sure," I say easily. "Why not? In fact, I bought a puzzle if you want to work on it together."

"You're kidding," she says as her jaw drops slightly.

"Not kidding. But it's not kittens. It's of the Grand Canyon. It looks really hard because it's just all so brown."

Josie laughs again. It's just as rich and beautiful sounding as before. "Okay, fine. Buds. Pizza and puzzles, and there's nothing weird about this at all."

Before I can assure her I don't find it weird in the slightest, a slight boom echoes in the distance before the sky explodes with light.

Josie gives a yip of fright as her head snaps toward the town homes across the street and then she gasps as she sees the outward spreading circle of sparkling lights in the sky.

"Fireworks," she murmurs in awe.

"It's the Fourth of July," I tell her. "Figured you hadn't really thought about watching the fireworks, but they have a nice show over at the shopping complex behind those houses across the way."

Her eyes slide to me and her voice is hesitant. "You got pizza and had me come over here to eat on your balcony so I could see fireworks."

"See," I say with a waggle of my eyebrows. "I'm totally not shallow."

"Are you expecting casual sex in return?" she asks while leveling a schoolteacher, disapproving-type look at me.

I laugh at her and look back to the sky. "Absolutely not, Josie. This is just for you to be able to celebrate the Fourth. Nothing more."

Josie gives me a hesitantly sweet smile before she turns her face back to the sky. I watch as her skin glows from the bright fireworks going off, reflecting in her brown eyes. My intentions were just to establish a friendship with her, because I do find her immensely interesting. But I can't deny that if she were to offer casual sex, I wouldn't say no.

Chapter 4

Josie

I scroll through the news articles on my laptop, trying to be somewhat of an adult so I know what's going on around the world. My eyes keep cutting to the jigsaw puzzle that's about three quarters of the way completed. It takes up most of my kitchen table and I've been working on it a little bit each night before bed. It's a really scenic picture of hot air balloons over grape fields.

So lame.