Just In Time: An Alaskan Nights Novel by Addison Fox Page B

somehow.”
    “He’s got a big SUV and a trailer.”
    “I’ll see what I can work up. Call a guy I know in Talkeetna to see if I can borrow his rink for a few hours.”
    “Do you really want the responsibility of taking fourteen kids on a field trip?”
    Roman shrugged. She had a point, but he’d made a commitment and he wasn’t shirking it. “In for a penny.”
    “Or a pound of crazy.”
    “I’m the great and all-powerful Roman Forsyth, hockey god and revered town son. What could happen?”
    Even as he spoke the words—solely in jest—an immediate vision of paying for his hubris hung in the air like a storm cloud. What
could
happen?
    “Please tell me you haven’t forgotten our class trip to the Denali National Park.”
    Memories lit up his mind like a pinball machine, and he had to give Avery points for picking one of the worst moments in his entire school career.
    “The guinea pig was an accident.”
    “Is that what you’ve consoled yourself with after all this time?”
    Roman could still recall the trip vividly, the images so clear they could have happened the day before. “It was Walker who stole the fourth grade’s class mascot, not me. He just had no idea it would spend the trip peeing and pooping in his coat pocket.”
    “Which was why he let it go the moment he set foot off the bus.”
    “He was only going to set it down for a minute. Told Mick and me to watch it. Who knew they could run so fast?”
    “Poor, sweet Randall. He’d spent his life in a cage and that single moment of freedom was all he needed to make his escape.”
    A happy grin lit his features. “That little thing could run. He was off down a trail and out of sight before we even knew what happened.”
    “I looked over and all I could see was you and Mick, high-stepping your way through the far side of the rest area we’d stopped at before heading into the park.”
    They walked back toward the front of the building. “How did you manage to escape detention for that one? Nearly every memory I have of getting in trouble involves Mick and Walker as well as you.”
    Avery’s voice rose an octave with fake politeness, and Roman didn’t even need to look to know that her spine stiffened along with the change in her tone. “For whatever reason my mother decided to chaperone that trip, and right about the time Randall took off on his adventure I discovered the doctored coffee in her thermos.”
    Roman remembered Alicia Marks coming along to chaperone the day, but didn’t know about the liquored coffee. “You never told me that.”
    “I didn’t tell anyone.”
    “Why did you keep it from me?”
    “It was a long time ago, Roman.”
    “Doesn’t matter. It had to have been upsetting. And we were dating at that point.”
    “I hadn’t told you yet. About her drinking problem.”
    Roman came to a halt and reached for her forearm, effectively stopping her in place. “My mom told me about last year. About the end.”
    She nodded and he wished there was something he could do about the pain. The horrible, emotional roller coaster she’d spent a lifetime dealing with stamped her face with a mix of emotions.
    Grief.
    Sadness.
    Shame.
    It was the last that he questioned—she had nothing to be ashamed about—but he knew her too well not to understand that emotion accompanied the others. With infinite gentleness, he ran a finger down her cheek. “What’s that look for?”
    “It was pretty bad.”
    “I know.”
    A loud breath whistled through her teeth on a heavy exhale. The cautious, hopeful light he’d seen in her eyes when he touched her vanished, replaced by something dull and lifeless.
    And empty.
    “Do you really, Roman? How? Because someone told you? Your mom or grandmother? Mick or Walker? Because I never talked to you until that lone call after it was all over. I never even saw you while any of it was going on.”
    Her anger was justified and Roman knew it. More than justified, if he were being honest with himself, but