Reflections on Ice Ch. 03

"You know my name."

"All of it, Sams."

He groaned. "Dylan Theodore Samuels."

"Oh, right. That's where Teddy came from."

"Yeah, but let's not tell anyone about all that."

She laughed. "Deal."

"How old are you?"

"You can't just ask a woman that question."

He smiled at her playful tone. "Fine, when's your birthday?"

"March."

"March what?"

There was a heavy sigh and the distant sound of a horn in the background. "The first."

"OK." He filed that information away, counting the days. It was only two weeks away. "Mine's December twelfth."

"Duly noted."

Dylan paused, looking down for a second. He wondered if they'd still be friends in ten months, when his birthday rolled around. Shoving the thought away, he started to pace again. "What's your favorite color?"

"Really? Are these really the things we need to know about each other?"

"Yes. It's typical first date discussion, isn't it?"

"How would you know? Been on many first dates lately?"

"Well, there was this night at Tapley's that felt like thirty first dates crammed into three hours."

"Oh God, let's never bring up that night again."

He chuckled. "Deal." A pause. "So, color?"

"Oh, I don't know." He heard what sounded like the crunch of feet on gravel and pictured her walking around. "Copper, I guess."

"Copper?"

"Yeah. A nice copper mica, that shines almost red in some light, or burnt orange other times."

He laughed. He should have known a mechanic would give him that kind of color. "All right. What about your favorite food?"

"Like, what kind? Or something more specific?"

He shrugged, his pace slowing as he circled his room. "Whatever."

"Tough one... there are so many things to choose from." She blew out a breath. "I suppose, if I had to pick, I'd go with good ol' southern cooking, like my mom does. But I love pie most of all."

He laughed. "Of course you do. And what are the names of all your brothers? And your mom and dad."

"My brother that's staying with me, that's Kyle, but you met him."

Dylan remembered little about Kyle. His memories of that night were mostly of the way Cassia had pulled him close and the way her eyes had bored into his.

"My older brothers are twins, Kurt and Kent. My dad is Keith, and my mom is Katherine."

"Where did you go to college?"

She hesitated. "I never went to college."

"Oh."

"I mean, I took some classes at the community college here, just to get certified, but I've been working on cars with my dad and brothers all my life."

"That makes sense. Do you like it?"

She hesitated. "It's... all I've known."

"What would you do if you weren't a mechanic?"

"You mean, if I had gone to college?"

Dylan shrugged, stopping at the window again. "Not necessarily. I went to college and didn't become a history professor."

"That's what your major was?"

"I had a double major." Dylan felt his ears heating up, hoping he didn't sound like he was bragging. "History and English literature."

"Wow."

Dylan cleared his throat and then Cassia let out a laugh.

"No wonder you can't talk to women."

"What?"

She laughed harder at his tone. "You spent all your time in college, reading, studying and writing essays, I bet. No time for women. Man, probably barely time for hockey. How did you manage?"

Dylan rubbed the back of his neck, uncomfortable talking about himself. "I don't know, I just did."

"Why did you even go to college? When you were drafted, it was in the second round, right? You could have started playing hockey way earlier, if you'd wanted."

It was a familiar question, one he'd heard many times over the years. "My mom insisted I go to college. She said that hockey was all well and good, but I could be injured or get traded out without warning, and that I'd need something other than 'played a game' on my resume if that happened."

"Your mom sounds like a smart lady."

"She is." Dylan turned his back to the window and leaned his backside on the ledge. "She teaches English at a local high school back home."

"Ah, and she's why you love to read, which explains the literature thing."

"Yeah."

"I like it. A hockey player and a scholar."

Dylan felt warm again, but for a whole new reason. After a long moment, he shook his head to rise himself of the thoughts that had sprung to the forefront of his mind at her words. "So, what do you do in your spare time?"

"Oh, not much. I'm pretty boring. I watch movies, listen to music, go out with my friends. The usual."

"What kinds of movies?"

"All kinds. Action, horror, romance."

"We'll go see something when I get back."

She didn't respond.

"Cassia?"

"You don't need to do that."

"Do what?"

She made a sound and there was more of that crunching gravel sound, like she was walking again. In the distance, he thought he heard someone call her name. "I have to go."

"All right." Dylan straightened. "It was nice getting to know you, Cassia."

She let out a short laugh. "You too, Sams."

"I'll call you later."

"You will?"

He smiled at her incredulous tone. "It's what a boyfriend would do."

"Even a pretend one?"

His smile faded. "Yeah."

A pause. "OK. I'll talk to you later."

They ended the call and Dylan rubbed his thumb over the screen on his phone for a few seconds. Well, that had gone as well as he could have hoped. All he knew for sure was that he wanted to know more.

Tossing his phone on the bed, he walked into the bathroom to clean up before the team meeting.

****

Cassia eyed her phone for a long minute after their call ended. When her brother, Kent, called her name, she shoved it in her pocket and turned around.

"What?"

"You done messing around?"

She rolled her eyes. "I was on a break, dumbass. Can you not handle one engine without me for ten minutes?"

"Whatever." Kent turned back to the garage, waving a hand over his shoulder. "James needs a hand on that Chevy."

"On it." Cassia walked over the Chevy half-ton, up on the lift, and asked James what he needed.

The next four hours flew by. It was the busiest the shop had been in a long time. Cassia was grateful for the busy work. It kept her mind off Dylan and that mystifying call. She didn't know why she was so amazed that he'd called. He'd said he'd call, and he was a nice guy, not the kind to leave her hanging for no reason. Maybe she was a little thrown by the fact that Dylan was turning out to be a far different man than she'd expected, with his two degrees and all. She had never felt that she wasn't good enough for a man before, if that was what she was even feeling right now.

She stayed in the office for an hour after they'd closed, helping her dad finish the tickets for the day and organizing the next day's work.

"All right, that's enough for tonight." Keith pushed away from his desk and stood up.

Cassia looked over from her corner and set down the stack of receipts she'd been organizing. She rose to her feet, stifling a groan at the way her back popped in two places. She felt like she'd been bent over engines for ages.

"You go on and go, sweetie. I'll lock up."

"OK. See you tomorrow, Dad."

Keith waved her off as she grabbed her jacket and walked out through the garage.

She walked home, huddled in her jacket against the cold wind, and stopped at a sandwich shop to grab something for dinner. She was in no mood to cook her own dinner. As she walked into the apartment, she didn't hear anything from Kyle and breathed a sigh of relief. She wanted nothing more than to eat, have a hot shower, and fall into bed.

Two hours later, she lay wide awake, staring at her ceiling. She listened to the sounds of Kyle coming in, moving around and settling down for the night, and still, she couldn't sleep.

She kept replaying her conversation with Dylan over and over. What was she doing, getting herself involved in this weird deal with him? It wasn't fair to either of them. She knew he had a hard enough time with women, and now she was going to be monopolizing his time for the next month and a half. And she already liked him more than she should. Every passing moment, everything he said to her, she liked him more and more. It was a slippery slope, one she'd been on before, and it terrified her that she was going to become attached only to have him wave good-bye after the wedding, as if nothing had happened.

Rolling over, she pressed her hot cheek to the cool pillow and squeezed her eyes shut. Worrying about it wouldn't do any good. She could fake it for the next five weeks. Except she knew she was no good at that.

****

The end of the week, and the first of their 'dates' approached. Dylan called her the morning after his final road trip game in Minnesota, a loss that she could tell he was down about when they spoke.

She sat at her dad's desk in the office, as standing outside in the pouring rain wasn't an option. She turned around in the chair, turning her back to the rest of the garage.

"Did you watch the game?"

"I did."

Dylan blew out an annoyed breath and Cassia pictured him running a hand through his hair, like she'd seen him do once or twice, messing up his hair. "I wish I could say it was a good effort."

"I thought it was." Cassia honestly couldn't recall much about the game. She remembered seeing Dylan take a rough hit in the first, after which he didn't play a whole lot until later in the second period.

"You're just being a supportive girlfriend."

"Pretend girlfriend." He fell silent at her quick correction and Cassia squeezed her eyes shut. "So, listen, I'm a little worried about this casino thing tonight."

"What are you worried about?"

"Is it fancy? Because if it is, I have absolutely nothing to wear." Add that to her growing list of inadequacies.

He laughed. "You're worried about what to wear?"

"Yes." She bristled, even as her cheeks warmed. "I don't want to embarrass you."

"You won't, trust me. And it's not fancy dress. The whole theme is some kind of Old West casino-slash-saloon thing. Everyone's going to be wearing boots, cowboy hats and Wranglers."

Cassia's mind stalled out at the thought of Dylan wearing Wranglers. She swallowed and tried to focus. "OK. Old West. I can do that."

"I'm sure you can."

Cassia smiled at his tone. "And what time does it start?"

"Five, I think, but if you can't get away from work, we'll go later. It goes until midnight or something."

"That's fine. I came in early so I could leave before four."

"Great. I'll swing by to pick you up at five then. Does that give you enough time?"

"You don't have to pick me up."

He chuckled. "Would you rather walk in there alone and have to look for me?"

Cassia blinked. "No. Good point. I'll see you at five."

"OK, see you then."

"Bye." Cassia ended the call and swung around in the chair to see her brother, Kurt, standing in the doorway, a frown on his face. "Jesus, don't sneak up on a person like that."

"Who was that?"

Cassia scowled. "None of your business."

"Sounds like you've got a date."

"How long were you eavesdropping on my private call?"

"Long enough." Kurt took a few steps into the office. "Who was it, Cass?"

Cassia stood and strode over to stand right in front of her brother. She had to tip her head back to look him in the eye - all the Morgan men were bigger than they needed to be. "None. Of. Your. Business." Without another word, she swept around him and out into the garage, heading for the car she'd been working on when Dylan had called.

"Kent, did you know Cass has a date tonight?"

Cassia pinched the bridge of her nose and reminded herself that Dylan wouldn't be able to take her to the wedding if she was in prison for fratricide.

Kent scoffed. "No, she doesn't."

"I just heard her on the phone."

Cassia ignored them as they discussed her dating life as if they knew anything about it. She reached in with a wrench and worked on the engine before her. A minute later, Fernando joined her to help.

"Hope she knows that putting out on the first date isn't a good thing."

Everyone in the shop froze. Fernando lifted his eyes to meet hers, his comically wide, before he backed out of the engine and disappeared around the side of the car.

That's it.

Cassia slammed a hand on the side of the car and straightened. She spun around to see her twin brothers wearing twin idiotic grins. "You really want to start comparing dating etiquette?"

Their smiles slipped, as if they were just now remembering she was their sister and had been privy to most, if not all, of their moronic dating episodes while growing up.

"I seem to recall the time you hooked up with Jolene Hastings in the back of Dad's Cadillac when you were supposed to be changing the oil." Cassia planted her hands on her hips as she turned first to her brother, Kent. "And instead, you forgot to set the e-brake and the car rolled down a hill into a tree. Something about the rocking motion of the car set it off."

Kurt guffawed as Kent's expression turned sour. Then Cassia turned to Kurt, and he clamped his mouth shut.

"And do we really need to go over the time you asked us to lie for you when you snuck out to that Fourth of July party on the coast for three days? All because you wanted to get inside Marie Collins' pants?"

Kurt gasped and pointed a finger. "You swore you'd never tell!"

"You were seventeen, Kurt. Get over yourself. And both Mom and Dad figured it out when Mr. Collins called to let them know you'd all arrived safe in Galveston."

She heard a laugh and looked over her shoulder to see her father standing by the office door, listening to everything. She didn't care. She'd had enough of her family's meddling, well-meaning or not.

"You two need to realize that I'm a grown-ass woman and I can date or sleep with anyone I want, even if it's the entire line-up of the Cowboys."

Another chuckle, this time from James, quickly choked off at Kent's dirty look.

"The point is, I don't answer to you, and if I date someone, I don't need to tell you a damn thing about it until you get the wedding invitation. Got it?"

Kurt opened his mouth to reply but Cassia cut him off.

"No. There is only one response to that, Kurt, and it doesn't start with 'but'."

He clamped his mouth shut, shooting her a mutinous glare. She returned it in full measure and when the twins each gave a jerky nod of agreement, she turned back to the car beside her. Fernando reappeared in another minute, and they finished up what needed work.

The tense silence only lasted a few minutes. Then a customer arrived to pick up their car, told a joke, and everyone laughed. Cassia didn't. She was still pissed and not a little embarrassed that her brother had heard any of her conversation with Dylan. She liked to keep her dating life quiet. With so many brothers, she had a hard time introducing anyone to the family. Never mind that her situation with Dylan wasn't something she could ever explain to her family.

An hour later, she wiped her hands on a rag, checked the line-up of tickets and shrugged. She'd been there since seven in the morning. She'd had enough. She packed up without saying a word to anyone, and left.

On the short walk home, the rain had eased so she didn't get soaked on the way. As she walked in her apartment, she was relieved that Kyle was out. She was still in enough of a mood that she'd have taken his head off even if he said 'hello.'

She checked the time as she walked into her bedroom. She had a little over an hour to get ready. Stripping down, she glanced in her closet to make sure she had a clean pair of jeans. She tossed the dark denim on her bed and turned back to the closet to dig out her boots. When she couldn't pick a shirt right away, she shook her head and walked across the hall to have her shower first.

After, she stood in a towel before her open closet, her hair drying around her shoulders and still couldn't decide on a shirt. Sure, she had some western-style shirts but even they were a bit dated. When she pulled one on and tried to button it, she realized they were also old, and didn't fit the same way they used to. Shoving the hangers to one side, she groaned in frustration. Dylan was going to be arriving in fifteen minutes and she hadn't even done her make-up yet.

"Are you all right, Cass?"

She turned as her brother appeared in the doorway. He took in her appearance and scowled. "Kurt told me you were going on a date tonight."

Her eyes narrowed. "I told him to mind his own damn business."

"Is it that Dylan guy?"

Cassia sighed and turned from the closet. "Yes, OK. I'm going on a date with Dylan and there's nothing any of you can say to stop me."

Kyle returned her glare for a moment before shrugging. "Fine. So what's the problem here?"

She blinked at his quick change in demeanor but lifted a hand to her selection of shirts. "I can't decide what to wear."

Kyle came into the room and walked over to rifle through her clothes. He chuckled at a couple of her older shirts and then pulled out a plain black, button-up, sleeveless shirt with silver thread. "When did you get this?"

She shook her head. "No idea."

He handed it to her and grabbed a belt, something classic with a big buckle. "Here you go." And then he reached up and pulled her black cowboy hat from the top shelf. "And you have to wear this one."

Cassia took the items from Kyle and gave him a narrow look. "When did you become a fashion expert?"

He shrugged. "I took a design course when I was still in Austin."

"I thought your major was architectural design?"

"I was branching out." Kyle crossed his arms as she moved to throw the clothes on the bed with the dark jeans she'd pulled out before. "I know you don't want to hear this, but be careful."

Cassia laughed. "What?"

"I don't want to see you get hurt again."

Turning to him, Cassia couldn't help but smile. "I know, Kyle. Thanks."

He nodded and left her to finish getting ready, closing the door behind him.

She pulled all the clothes on, leaving the hat off for now. In fact, she might just leave the hat off for the night. The event would be inside, and there'd be enough cowboy hats floating around without her adding hers into the mix. Fluffing her hair a bit, she leaned close to her mirror and applied mascara, and a touch of color to her cheeks, finishing with some dark lipstick.

She was just tucking her shirt in again, making sure it didn't bunch anywhere, when there was a knock at the front door. With a gasp, she tried to hurry, but Kyle answered the door.

"Hi. Kyle, right?"

"And you're Dylan. Come on in."

"Thanks."

The front door closed again and Cassia heard them moving further into the apartment.

"So where are you going tonight?"

"There's a team charity event, a sort of Old West casino night."

"I see. Will there be alcohol?"

Dylan chuckled. "Probably."

Cassia smiled at their exchange.

"Don't let Cassia have too much, she can't hold her liquor."

OK, that's enough. She yanked open the bedroom door and shot down the hall to the living room before her brother could offer any other useful tips.

"Hi." Oh, damn, Dylan looked good. He had on a plaid button-up shirt and loose-fitting jeans instead of the snug Wranglers she'd been expecting. He had on proper boots though, scuffed and marked up like a real cowboy's. Then again, he had grown up in rural cattle country in Alberta. He held his hat in his hand, taken off at the sound of her greeting, like a proper gentleman.

Dylan's face turned to her, his smile at Kyle's comment fading when he saw her. For a moment, she thought she'd forgotten to button her shirt or something.

"You look..."

She glanced down at herself, one hand rising to her chest to check the buttons. No, all good. When she looked up again, Dylan was shaking his head. "Is this all right?"