The only thing Cooper was capable of facing head on was hockey.
And she was certain she knew why.
Cooper didn’t believe he could do anything well but hockey.
Not even love.
Izzy almost choked on that thought. She’d never considered Cooper a love match, definitely a rough-and-ready sex match—another area he excelled in.
She gazed into those deep blue eyes of his, those same eyes that’d been dark with lust last night, and backed a few steps away from him. Anger brought out passions, and while she’d love a repeat of two mornings ago, she’d be damned if she’d reward the man for his bad behavior.
“Cooper, did you ever pull your head out of your selfish ass to really think about Riley and what he’s been through? He thinks he’s a throw-away, and you’re one in a long line of people who’ll toss him out with the trash the first chance you get. He played a really good game. He has his uncle’s athletic talent.”
“He does?” Cooper seemed genuinely surprised.
“Of course, he does. Haven’t you paid any attention? He moves like an athlete. I can see it even though he’s at that awkward teenage boy stage.” Izzy was exasperated with this man. Could he really be that dense?
Probably so. In her experience, it was a common male trait.
“Riley needs you. He needs stability in his life. He needs to know someone has his back.”
“I give him everything he needs. He lacks for nothing.” Cooper’s jaw tightened and he stared over her head at some distant point.
“Everything? You call throwing money at him, everything? What about giving him yourself? Your time? Your attention? Your compassion?”
“I can’t.” Cooper shook his head. “I don’t want him to get attached to me. He’ll be moving on as soon as I find his mother.”
“You’re going to let this poor kid go back to a rat-infested, drug-riddled apartment with a mother who turns tricks and does drugs?” God, she wanted to shake some sense into him.
“I doubt it’s all that bad.” He shifted from one foot to the other. This conversation obviously was making him uncomfortable. Well, he deserved to be uncomfortable because allowing him to stay in the sheltered world he chose to live in wasn’t working for her—or Riley. She doubted it was even working for Cooper.
“Have you ever taken the time to talk to him about what it was like?”
“Uh, no, but I doubt he’d tell me anyway.”
“You are impossible.” Izzy grabbed her purse from the floor, and the car keys from the entry table.
“Where are you going?” He followed her into the garage.
“I’m going home. Understand?”
A muscle jumped in his jaw. “But—” He tried to open the driver’s door but she was faster with the lock. She waved at him and blew him a kiss, backing out of his garage and driving down the street. Her last view of Cooper was of him standing in the driveway, mouth open, arms spread out wide.
Izzy started to laugh, hysterically, then her laughter turned to tears.
A road trip had never looked so good. By the weekend, Cooper was oh-so-ready to get out of town. They flew into San Jose early Saturday for a three-game California and Arizona road trip. Then they’d finish the preseason with two home games. They’d lost tonight, and Cooper had played a crappy game, which matched his mood. His personal life had him too distracted, and his head wasn’t in the game, which pissed him off. He was a professional, damn it, and he’d played long enough to leave his personal issues off the ice.
Only he was struggling with doing just that.
Riley hadn’t said one word to him since Thursday. And Izzy, how did he even handle Izzy? He’d assumed one great night of pool sex would lead to sex in every room of his house, in his car, pretty much in anything they pleased, as long as it ended with him inside her.
Only Izzy wasn’t speaking to him either, or calling him, or texting him. Nothing.
Izzy’s silence hurt him, but Riley’s cold shoulder hurt, too, and that surprised him. The kid didn’t like him anyway. So what if Riley ate his breakfast in silence and preferred Joker’s company to his uncle’s? So what if Cooper caught Riley making plans to hang with that arrogant asshole and crappy excuse for a quarterback?
Yet, it irritated the hell out of Cooper when he overheard Riley on the phone with Tanner on more than one occasion joking and laughing and talking sports. He never talked with Cooper like that. Hearing the two of them made his stomach twist and his heart ache for something he couldn’t begin to explain or even want to explain. Riley was his road not taken, and regardless of what others might think, he couldn’t go down that road because Riley needed stuff Cooper couldn’t give him, like a home, like a stable family life, like love. Cooper couldn’t be that guy.
Then there was Izzy. Sure, she was hot as hell and flipped his shit right back at him like no one else ever did. Yeah, so what? He attracted tons of beautiful women. Izzy was replaceable. But, fuck, it didn’t work for him that she’d completely forgotten about their night together like it never happened, while Coop lay awake each night and replayed every detail in his mind, and later in his dreams.
He was fucked up. Bad. By both of them.
The sooner he found Riley’s mother and banished Izzy from his mind, the better.
An hour later, Cedric found him lying on his hotel bed, staring at the ceiling. His buddy shot him a curious glance as he headed for the bathroom, coming out minutes later in a pair of briefs. Cedric crawled into the other bed and shut off the light.
Cooper faked sleep, but he didn’t fool Cedric. Ced knew him too well.
“I hope I have the energy to play tomorrow night. Since you wouldn’t help me out, I had to satisfy all four of the ladies, and Cedric the Great never disappoints.”
“Sorry. Not in the mood. Too many things on my mind.”
“And one of those things happens to be Izzy.”