Chapter 2
There are certain things that a woman needs time to prepare for that you can't just spring on her. A wedding with formal attire or a work deadline or a shirtless man with chiseled muscles. The world can't just say "Hey, look! Here's a gorgeous shirtless man right in front of you!" That's just going to lead to embarrassment for everyone.
Which is exactly why it happened to Lucy.
She had gone up to her parents' cottage on Harbor Lake to escape her job and friends and life really. She needed to get some final pieces done on a case she had worked on for more than a year. A case that involved her friend who lived in the apartment next door to Ryan McCloud, star defenseman of the Detroit Pirates.
That's why Lucy didn't expect to see him up here in the cottage her parents owned. The one that was right next to where she was staying with that dumb door she knocked on this morning.
The one with the gorgeous shirtless man.
Did she stare? Yep. Was she flustered and nervous? Yep. Did she make a fool of herself? Oh definitely. All of that could've been avoided if she had been able to prepare herself ahead of time. All of that could've been avoided if it wasn't Ryan McCloud.
She knew he was well built and knew he took pride in his athletic body. There would be times when she was visiting her friend Sydney to just hang out or talk about the case Lucy was working on for her. Inevitably, Sydney's boyfriend Andy would swing by and a few minutes later, Ryan would always show up. His family lived up in Canada so he relied on Sydney for things, especially when he went on road trips. She would take care of whatever goldfish he owned at the time or would hold on to a spare key for whenever he came back from a trip and realized he locked himself out — again.
Andy had issues with all of this when the two first started dating. He had a girlfriend cheat on him with a player, telling him he was only the team trainer. But he worked through his trust issues and actually seemed to like having a girlfriend who lived close to one of his players, especially one of his less mature players.
Ryan was only twenty-one years old and there were definitely moments when that was painfully obvious. The different young women he would bring home was just one of the signs that he was all about having fun. There were also the late nights when Lucy would run into him in the hallway as they were both leaving — Lucy to go home after spending time with Sydney, Ryan to go out drinking with his friends. There was also the fact that Ryan was probably on his seventh goldfish in two years.
"Those fish are just like women," he once told Lucy. "They love me and they leave me."
And then he gave her a lopsided smile that just made Lucy roll her eyes.
All of that was so Ryan. Fun Ryan. Athletic Ryan. Young Ryan.
But in all of those instances at all of those times, Lucy had never seen Ryan with his shirt off. Although in her defense, when that door opened, all she saw was a broad shirtless chest with a bit of dark hair — enough but not too much — that trailed down his stomach and into his boxer briefs. So yeah, she was flustered and could barely remember her own name.
Plus, who answers the door at eight o'clock in the morning in boxer briefs? It wasn't like it was barely past sunrise or something.
She was at least thankful that Ryan asked her to pick up a coffee for him. Maybe some caffeine would help clear her head. But the drive back just made her more and more nervous the closer she got to the cottages. The smell of coffee filled her BMW sedan — a respectable lawyer car — as she turned on to the dirt road that led to a series of cottages and homes along the shoreline of Harbor Lake. Some were the original homes built decades ago. A few were newer and bigger places with huge windows looking out over the water and a gourmet kitchen.
Near the end of the road was her parents' place, or rather, places. They bought their cottage when Lucy was just a kid, maybe ten or so. They updated the inside with a new kitchen and an extra bathroom on the main floor as well as an outdoor shower to wash off after a day in the water. Then about a decade ago, the neighbors decided to sell their place and asked Lucy's parents if they wanted to buy it. Her dad jumped at the chance and spent the summer fixing it up before renting it out to summer visitors.
The Evans family inevitably found some return renters — people who would come back year after year to the cottage. One of the families would always book a week in June, but they canceled a month or so ago. Something about finally selling off the dental practice and buying an RV to travel around the country. Lucy thought the cottage next door would just be empty then, giving her some quiet time to get work done.
Except the place wasn't empty, and there was someone staying there: A hard-bodied hockey star in peak physical form.
Ryan's pick-up truck came into view through the trees as she got closer. She had pulled in yesterday afternoon and no one was there, his truck seemingly appearing out of thin air in the middle of the night. It was black and had a small Detroit Pirates logo stuck to the tailgate in the left-hand corner. There was extra dirt near the wheel wells like he had been driving it through all kinds of back roads. It was still where he had left it after pulling it forward that morning.
Lucy parked her own car and got out. She had done this before and knew there was a certain process for all of it. First, you unlock the front door, then you come back for the groceries. There was no front porch to set the groceries on while you unlock the door. She tried that once, thinking she could balance a grocery bag on that little step. An apple went rolling out of the bag and down the slope towards the shoreline. She found it the next day swarmed by ants.
She had several bags because she actually enjoyed cooking when she was up here. Without the stress of her job at her law firm, she had some time to sit and chill or start leisurely making dinner at five o'clock. It also meant she had to make more than one trip to the car and back.
Lucy got the cold stuff inside first — the frozen vegetables and ice cream and some chicken she was planning to make later that week. Then she headed back, swinging the door out as she hopped down the first two steps and ran into something solid.
Ryan McCloud.
Her hands lingered on his chest a little longer than they should have and when she realized her mistake, she immediately pulled them away as if she had touched a hot stove. At least she had the common sense to actually look him in the eye this time.
"Sorry, I wasn't expecting you there."
The bags in his hands swung around a bit as he shrugged. "I heard you pull in and thought I would come out to get my coffee. Figured I should help since I was out here anyway."
"Thanks," she said. "I can take those."
She reached for the bags that looked so small in his big hands, but he pulled them away. "It's fine. Where do you want these?"
"The kitchen. Just inside the door."
