Page 63 of Making the Save
She was so open and honest and curious. About me, about hockey, about the places we drove through, the people we met. She talked non-stop, like she’d been bottled up for years. She was a woman who just wanted to love and be loved.
Could I be her friend? I didn’t know. I didn’t want to fuck any of my female friends.
“Ready!”
She jumped out of the front door in her tennis shoes and one of my old Peaks ball caps. Which I liked, way too much.
Yeah, it wasn’t friendship I felt for this girl and I was going to need to rein that in.
“Let’s go.”
“I’m not reallya nature girl. I don’t like snakes, spiders, mountain lions or bears,” she said as she followed behind me on the trail, careful to put her foot where mine had been. Chatting. Always chatting. She’d be scaring off all the wildlife for miles.
“No one likes bears,” I pointed out, holding branches out of her way.
“But I do like panda bears.”
“Noted.” The air smelled like sunbaked pine and I breathed deep.
“Like I have a whole collection of saved Tik Tok videos of nothing but panda bears.”
“I thought you stayed off social media?”
“I have an extremely curated feed. It’s funny pet videos and that’s it, ” she huffed and puffed. “How much further? I think I’m more out of shape than I realized.”
“It’s the altitude,” I said, stopping so she could catch her breath. “Gets everyone for the first few days. It gives our whole team an advantage when low-country teams like the Bruisers have to come to Colorado for a game.”
“You say Bruisers like you hate them. But Liam plays for them.”
“I can love Liam, and hate his team,” I snorted. “Besides, everyone hates the New England Bruisers. They win too much.”
“Wait.” She stumbled and I reached for her hand to steady her. It was because I didn’t want to let go, that I let go as fast as I did. “Don’t you want to win too much?”
“Of course I do. And everyone will hate us too when we do. It will be joyous.”
“Athletes are weird,” she said, shaking her head.
It was easy to know when we’d reached the hot springs. The smell gave them away. Mine wasn’t the only cabin on this mountain, so I checked for signs of neighbors as we approached, but there were none. It wasn’t ski season and I was one of the few non-locals who came here year-round, so the spring was all ours.
Most of Colorado’s hot springs were on an official map, and many of them were full of tourists. This one, not so much. First, it was real skunky. Second, it was only big enough for two people. Two people if one was huge and the other one was tiny.The spring was more like a crack in the earth than an actual spring.
We spread our towels out on bushes next to the steaming blue green pool.
I looked at her sneakers. She was going to have to take them off, because they weren’t designed to walk in while wet, she’d slip and slide down the mountain. But I couldn’t have her putting her bare feet on rocks that might cut her.
I clearly did not think this through.
“You’re going to have to sit on me,” I explained.
“You sure that’s a good idea?”
Fuck no and it was the best idea ever, all at the same time. “I’ll get in first. Then climb in, but put your feet on my thighs. I’ll lower you down. Can’t risk the bottom of your feet getting cut on the rocks.”
“Okay. But what about your feet?”
“The boots are made to get wet and dry quickly. Your sneakers aren’t. Look, if it gets uncomfortable, we can always leave.”
She sniffed at the water’s edge and grinned at me. “I think we’re fine. It’s too stinky for impure thoughts.”