Fresh Ice by Rachelle Vaughn

him flustered. She seemed interested, well at least he thought she was. He sure caught her looking his direction an awful lot of the time. But whenever their eyes met at the salon, she’d look away and hurry off in the opposite direction.
    Maybe he’d get to spend some time with her at the party. It was the only reason he’d shown up.
    * * *
    “I love this song ,” Destiny declared over the loud music.
    Sarah nodded. The beat was infectious and the female lead singer’s voice was like honey. “I like it. Who is it?” Sarah asked in between lyrics.
    “You don’t know?” Destiny shook her head like Sarah had just told her she didn’t know who the president was or something. Then Destiny shrugged like she should have known better because, after all, this was Sarah she was dealing with. “Crush 21,” she answered. “They’re a band from Red Valley. Kim swears she went to high school with them but I don’t believe her. They’re actually on tour right now. Maybe when they come to the NorCal Center we can go see them together.”
    Sarah nodded again but all she heard were dollar signs. How much did concert tickets cost? She didn’t know but whatever the price she knew she couldn’t afford it. She’d have to cross that bridge later.
    “They have the cutest guitar player ,” Destiny gushed.
    “I think the drummer is hot ,” the girl next to Destiny admitted.
    Sarah thought her name might be Brittany or Becky but she couldn’t remember.
    “Just the drummer?” Destiny asked the girl. “What about the bass player? They are twins after all!”
    Sarah mingled around the snack table until she was full of crackers and chips. She was half tempted to sneak a handful of peanuts into her purse, but she didn’t. She had one of Abigail’s sawdust muffins left at home. She could pick up some cheap snacks over the weekend.
    A game of poker had broken out in the dining room and Sarah watched the group play while she nibbled on a pretzel.
    Sarah didn’t know the exact moment Nathan showed up at the party. He just sort of appeared in the midst of a group of other men. They must’ve been hockey players because none of them were less than ten feet tall, they looked extremely athletic and they all had a look about them like they were members of some sort of secret club. They oozed charisma, confidence and sexuality.
    “Who is that ?” Destiny asked Sarah about the guy standing next to Nathan.
    “He kind of looks like that Zac Enron guy,” Sarah pointed out. The truth was she hadn’t even noticed him.
    Kim scoffed. “You mean Zac Efron .”
    S arah shrugged and shoved the rest of the pretzel in her mouth.
    Destiny licked her lips. “Well whoever he is, he makes my lips water. And I don’t mean these ones,” she said pointing to her mouth.
    Sarah chocked on her pretzel and took a sip of 7up from her glass.
    Kim joined them and looked in the direction of the hockey players. “It looks like the eye candy finally showed up.”
    “Nathan has the hots for you, Sarah,” Destiny giggled.
    “Sheesh Destiny ,” Kim scoffed. “This isn’t high school.”
    “What? I’m just pointing out the obvious.”
    Sarah blushed and wondered what gave Destiny the idea that Nathan had even noticed her at all.
     
    Sarah stood off to the side of the crowd that had gathered around TJ. He was animatedly telling a story about a hockey game he had played in against the Ontario Flurry. When she heard him mention Nathan’s name, Sarah moved in closer so she could hear the whole story. She couldn’t help but smile as he waved his arms and acted out the story.
    Nathan sat next to TJ, looking more than a little embarrassed. It was as if he could sense Sarah’s eyes on him because he looked up at her and held her gaze. Sarah felt blood rush to her cheeks at being caught looking at him. Even though she wanted to escape to the punch bowl she stood her ground. She shuddered at the intensity in his eyes. How was it that he always caught her