He was starving so he bit into his hot dog and crammed a few fries in his mouth. Izzy shot him a disapproving look, and he smiled sheepishly. She probably thought he had the manners of a starving stray dog.
“Did you get your homework done like Cooper asked?” Izzy said, but she never took her eyes off his uncle skating around on the ice with more coordination than most people had on dry land. He made it look easy, but Riley knew enough about skating to know it wasn’t.
“Yeah, the old hag made me,” he said between bites.
“That’s my aunt you’re talking about.” Izzy levelled him a chastising glare.
“Sorry.” Damn, he’d screwed up twice in less than five minutes, and he really wanted Izzy to like him.
“Riley, give her a chance.”
“She’s mean.”
“She’s not mean. She’s firm.”
Izzy didn’t know what she was talking about. Every day he inspected his food for glass and made sure the old witch hadn’t poisoned his milk. Okay, so maybe he was exaggerating a little. But not much.
He flipped the subject to something that’d been nagging at him since last night. “Did I hear you with Uncle Cooper last night after I went to bed?”
Izzy’s mouth pressed together in a way that reminded him of her aunt. He guessed they were related after all. “I finished cleaning up then I left.”
“I heard something else.” Riley was pretty good at reading people. He’d needed that special skill for survival on the streets, and she wasn’t being straight with him.
Izzy stared straight at him, as if daring him to say any more.
He wasn’t an idiot, and he knew shit when he stepped in it. He also knew when he should let stuff go and mind his own business. Uncle Cooper didn’t want him, and he’d better do everything he could to not give the man a reason to send him to foster care. He’d never find his mother then.
“Sorry.” Riley shrugged one shoulder and turned his attention back to the ice. Loneliness swallowed up all the good feelings inside him.
Nobody wanted him. At least his mother needed him, and that was kind of like wanting, wasn’t it? He felt hot tears welling up in his eyes and swiped at them with his napkin. He hated crying, but he did it a lot lately when no one was around but Joker to hear him.
“It’s okay,” Izzy patted his arm and smiled at him. Her voice softened like his mother’s did when she was clean and being a mother instead of an addict.
Riley swallowed hard, remembering the rare good times, but at least his mother loved him. That was more than he could say for Cooper. “I just want Uncle Cooper to find my mom so life can go back to the way it was for everyone.”
Izzy studied him, pity in her kick-ass eyes. He hated pity more than he hated crying. He lifted his chin and gave her his best nothing-bothers-me look. She wasn’t buying it.
“What was your life like, Riley?”
“Okay, I guess. I mean, I don’t have anything else to compare it with, but my mom needs me. We have to find her.” His voice broke, and he stuffed the last of his hot dog in his mouth so he wouldn’t be expected to talk anymore.
Izzy decided to back off on questioning Riley before he started crying and embarrassed them both. He concentrated on his junk food, and she concentrated on Cooper. God, he was beautiful, all raw power and athletic grace. He skated around the ice as if he owned it, body and soul. If it hadn’t been for Junior here, they’d have done it in the entryway.
Damn.
Izzy wanted to do it in every room of Cooper’s house, well, except Riley’s room because that would be just plain weird.
When Cooper skated close to her, he tapped his stick on the glass and winked. She grinned at him.
Despite the bulky hockey uniform, the man’s fluidity on the ice made her panties wet and her breath hitch. Imagining the bare skin and muscles under the layers of clothing made her even hotter.
“It’s okay if you sleep with him. I don’t care.”
Izzy snapped her head around to stare at Riley, mortified that he’d witnessed her drooling over his uncle like a pussycat in heat. “We’re just friends.”
Riley narrowed his eyes and studied her. “Yeah, right.”
“We are.” Not that she wanted it to stay that way lately, or at the least, she wanted to progress to the with benefits type of friendship.
“Then are you with Tanner?”
“Tanner?” Izzy had to laugh. She supposed it was a logical question from Riley’s point of view but not Izzy’s. Tanner did nothing for her, while Cooper did everything.
“I’d understand if you liked him better. He’s nicer than my uncle.”
“No. No, not at all. Tanner and I are definitely just friends.” Izzy ignored the “nice” remark.
“So you want to be more than friends with my uncle,” Riley observed. It was a statement, not a question. “He sure has the hots for you.”
Izzy wracked her brain for a way to steer this conversation to safer ground. “How’s school?”
Riley clammed up. “You asked me that last night. Nothing’s changed.” He brightened. “Are you coming to my game this Thursday?”
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
He smiled, a very rare happy smile, and Izzy smiled back.
The crowd chanted as Cooper skated to center ice for the face off. It was too loud to talk anymore, Izzy and Riley stood and clapped and cheered with the rest of the rabid Seattle fans.
Izzy had never seen NHL hockey before. It was fast, at times brutal, at other times a poetic symphony of skaters all in tune with each other. And it was sexy as hell, even though she held her breath and clutched the armrests when a big brute slammed Cooper into the boards. How he managed to skate away as if nothing happened she’d never understand. The offending defenseman took a turn in the penalty box, and Izzy rose with the crowd to heckle the jerk.
Cooper would need a nice, long soak in a warm tub and a massage after this was over. He’d sink down into a luxurious bubble bath, close his blue eyes, and she’d work her magic on those bruised and sore muscles of his. Then she’d let him work a little magic of his own on her starving body.