Page 21

CHAPTER 21

FROST

F rost was having a blast at the pub quiz. The banter around the table was hilarious. He was finding out some very entertaining things, including the fact that the fake beard Taylor wore was either called the Face Ferret or Bruce the Beard.

Sadie clutched her sides as she chortled and told him the story of Taylor’s first pub quiz, where the whole thing was about Superman, a movie role he had played.

“Hel had a picture of Taylor in his spandex propped next to her for the whole evening, declaring it her ‘boyfriend’ blissfully unaware he was sitting so close.” Sadie was almost falling off her seat as she wheezed with laughter.

Frost glanced across at Hel. She was smiling and chuckling along, but he could see a tightness around her eyes, a slight flush on her cheeks, and her leg bounced under the table. She was embarrassed and trying to pretend she wasn’t.

Reaching down, he put his hand on her thigh to stop the nervous bounce and give her some reassurance. She froze under his touch, and for a second, he worried he had overstepped, but she didn’t make any move to push him away. She relaxed under the contact of his hand, and her body leaned toward him.

He really liked her. It made him wish he wasn’t leaving. He wanted to come to the pub quiz with her ridiculous friends. He wanted to wake up every morning when she had to go to work and make sure she ate breakfast and took a packed lunch with her. He wanted to be with her in the evenings while she told him crazy stories about some of the characters she looked after that day at work.

Reality crashed in on him, and he drew his hand back. He had accepted the NHL contract and was leaving Australia.

He felt cold when he wasn’t touching her anymore, and he frowned down into his lemonade, why did it feel wrong to not be in contact with this woman?

Hel glanced across at him, a quizzical expression on her face as if she could tell he had a lot going on in his mind, and asked, “Do you want another drink?”

Frost dragged himself out of his maudlin thoughts, looked down at his still half-full lemonade glass and shook his head. “No, thanks. If you want another drink, take my credit card. It’s my turn to buy.”

Hel scoffed at him. “I live in your house rent-free, and you buy most of the food. You’re not buying me drinks as well.” She pushed back her chair and announced to the table. “Does anyone need a top-up?”

A couple of the others accepted, but most shook their heads. There was only one more round left of the quiz, and as it was a weeknight, he guessed they weren’t going to hang around long after.

When Hel stood up, so did Frost. Grabbing his crutches, he headed to the washroom.

Frost made it back before Hel and got himself settled, purposefully shuffling his chair towards hers so she would have to sit closer to him. When she arrived with the drinks, she squeezed her way in beside him, putting her hand on the back of his chair as she manoeuvred into her seat.

Frost controlled the grin that threatened. He liked her sitting so close to him. And he couldn’t wait to make her laugh about what just happened.

“Are you sure you’re happy to stay for the last round? We can go now if you want?” Hel offered, taking a sip of her new lemonade.

“No. I want to stay. I’m having a great time.”

Hel looked at him sceptically. “You’re enjoying the shitty pub quiz with my bonkers friends?”

“They’re not bonkers,” Frost said nicely.

“They’re completely mad.” Hel looked around the table affectionately.

“I need to tell you something. Don’t get cross,” Frost whispered to Hel, leaning close to her.

“Oh my god. What did Gloria do?” Hel demanded.

Frost chuckled. “How did you know it was Gloria?”

“Because you have that look on your face. You’re about to tell me something you know I won’t be mad about, which means someone has done something funny or slightly ridiculous, and the most likely culprit is Gloria.” Hel gestured across the table to the older woman, who grinned wickedly and winked at them.

“It was Gloria. Wasn’t it?” Hel groaned.

Frost nodded, barely suppressing a laugh. “Yes.”

“What did she do?” Hel sighed deeply.

“I think she pinched my bottom.” Frost managed to keep a straight face as he said it.

“Oh my god.” Hel shook her head and called out, “Why Gloria?”

Gloria clearly knew exactly what Hel meant and giggled into her glass of champagne.

Frost shook his head. She had got him with a sneak attack when he was coming back from the washroom, and to be fair, it hadn’t really been a pinch, more a brush over his jeans. But the cheeky grin on her face gave away that it had been on purpose.

“Mom. What did you do to Frost?” Taylor asked, immediately guessing it would be something to do with the hockey player.

“Nothing.” Gloria snorted with laughter.

Hel gestured to Gloria. “She touched his ass.”

She then pointed a thumb at him, and Frost had to stop himself from grabbing her hand out of the air and not letting it go.

“Mom. We’ve spoken about this. You can’t touch people if they don’t consent to being touched,” Taylor grumbled at her.

“Sorry, Frost.” Gloria’s broad smile suggested she wasn’t actually sorry.

“Give her a couple of glasses of champagne, and she gets very inappropriately touchy-feely.” Hel shook her head. “Gloria, don’t touch my m—“ She cut herself off and flushed.

Frost was suddenly very interested in what Hel was about to say and turned towards her, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes. Had she been about to say he was her man?

Shit, he was leaving. He couldn’t think that way.

“Housemate,” Hel finished after a very long silence.

“Sorry for touching your…” Gloria left as long a pause as Hel did, “housemate, Hel.” Then, she raised her glass of champagne to toast the young doctor, frowning when she noticed it was empty. “Be a dear, Taylor, and get me a top-up.” She waved her glass at her son.

“Absolutely not,” Taylor said firmly. “When you start grabbing people, you get cut off from the booze.”

Gloria pouted, and then her sparkling eyes rose to meet Frost’s before they darted to Hel, and the older woman gave him a barely noticeable wink.

“They’re right. You’re a menace,” Frost said and shook his head.

He probably should have been offended by the older woman’s actions, but she had such a cheeky twinkle in her eye that he forgave her instantly. It sounded like she had worked herself to the bone to raise Taylor and was now enjoying herself, occasionally a little too much.

“She is,” Clara agreed.

“You can’t say that! You’re nearly my daughter-in-law.” Gloria sounded affronted and had a haughty expression on her face.

Clara burst out laughing and put her arm around Gloria’s shoulder. “I can. And I will be escorting you for the rest of the evening, especially around Frost. You have lost your privileges.”

“I’m not five,” Gloria sulked.

Clara and Taylor both stared at her with raised eyebrows.

“Fine. I went too far. And I won’t do it again.” Gloria picked up her glass to take a sip, then remembered it was empty and put it back down, sighing in disappointment.

Frost was sure she muttered, ‘It was a nice ass.’ The snort of laughter that escaped from Hel suggested to him he heard correctly.

When it was time to leave, he got up and said goodbye to all the other doctors on the team. When he shook hands with the petite blonde, curly-haired doctor—he wanted to say her name was Maisie—he hesitated for a moment. As he looked at her, his mind for a second pictured a woman with the same face as this one, with long dark hair.

Frowning, he stared at her, his head tilting, trying to place her. “Have we met before?”

The blonde pushed her pink glasses up her nose, her eyes wide behind them. “No,” she said quietly, taking a step away from him.

“Oh. Sorry, you look familiar.” Frost shrugged.

“I have one of those faces.” Maisie’s voice was barely audible in the noisy pub, and now that he thought about it, while she smiled at all the banter, she had been mostly quiet.

“Sure,” he agreed. “That must be it. It was nice to meet you.”

“You too.” Maisie’s gaze was now on her shoes, and her curls covered part of her face. She lifted a hand and waved to Frost and the rest of the group before she strode out of the pub.

Frost watched her go, something nagging at the back of his mind. He pushed it aside and turned to Hel, asking, “Are you ready?”

“Yeah.” Hel flung her arms around Gloria, squeezing the older woman tight, and he was sure Hel whispered to her that she was a menace.

A smile threatened as he wholeheartedly agreed. She was hilarious but definitely a liability.

When Hel joined him to leave, he scowled at his crutches. He wanted to put his hand on the small of her back and guide her out of the pub, but the stupid crutches meant he couldn’t, and he was relegated to hopping along behind her, glaring at any man who even glanced in her direction.