Love on the Ice

By Kerry Evelyn

Ginny Perdita has traded in her figure skating costumes for coaching at her home rink after a tragic accident took her sister and brother-in-law, orphaning her young niece and nephew. Thrown into instant parenthood and now unable to compete, she’s had to bury her Olympic dreams.

Alexei Kriz is starting over after his girlfriend refused to follow him to Colorado Springs to play hockey. Despite that, he’s thrilled to have been picked up for the Palmer City Voltage and plans to throw himself into the game and volunteer work with the Flying Stars, a youth team of special athletes who also call the rink home. There, he runs into Ginny - the one who got away.

It's been years since Ginny and Alexei first connected back in Sochi. Still frosty that he never called her after the games, Ginny is wary of his intentions and affection for her and the three-year-old twins. Still, she can't ignore the feelings that pull her to the Czech defenseman.

When they are assigned to work together for the Flying Stars program fundraiser, Ginny's ice begins to melt as she watches him guide the young players and dote on the twins. Alexei vows to not let her get away forever this time. When she's offered a high-level coaching job in New York, can he warm her heart for a second chance at love?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Kerry Evelyn
• Release date: Aug 4, 2021

Kerry Evelyn

Kerry Evelyn has always been fascinated by people and the backstories that drive them to do what they do. A native of the Massachusetts SouthCoast, she changed her latitude in 2002 and is now a crazy blessed wife and homeschooling mom in Orlando. She loves God, books of all kinds, traveling, taking selfies, sweet drinks, and escaping into her imagination, where every child is happy and healthy, every house has a library, and her hubby wears coattails and a top hat 24/7.

Book preview

Love on the Ice

Love on the Ice

Kerry Evelyn

Swan Press

Love on the Ice

Copyright © 2019 by Kerry Evelyn

www.kerryevelyn.com

[e-mail]

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Published 2019 by Swan Press

Edited by Nicole Ayers, Ayers Edits

Proofed by Racquel Henry of Writer’s Atelier

Cover design and formatting by Chris Kridler, Sky Diary Productions

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All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying, recording, scanning, information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

This book is a work of fiction. All characters, places, organizations, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Love on the Ice was first published in the Thrill of the Heart Anthology: It Was Always You, February 2019, Edited by L.E. Perez and Published by Palmas Press

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Printed in the United States of America

First Printing: July 2019

Swan Press

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-7332546-3-2

Paperback ISBN: 978-1-7332546-4-9

For Jamie, Justin, Shawn, Tyler, Derek, and Mike (RIP)

for igniting my love of hockey.

Go Bears!

Contents

Love on the Ice

Listen to songs that inspired the story!

Preview of Love on the Edge

Love on the Edge

Love on the Rocks

Love on the Beach

Short Stories by Kerry Evelyn

Welcome to Cat’s Paw Cove!

Acknowledgments

About the Author

For the vision is yet for the appointed time;

it hastens toward the goal and it will not fail.

Though it tarries, wait for it,

since it will surely come and not delay.

Habakkuk 2:3

Love on the Ice

The tiny, hushed voices caught his attention as he rounded the corner of the hockey stick display. Alexei Kriz closed his eyes, concentrating on the words spoken in his native Czech, so out of place in the rink’s pro shop. His gut twisted with a twinge of homesickness.

Řekni jí! (Tell her!)

Ne! Ne! (No! No!)

The voices couldn’t be more than a few years old. Like a piper, they beckoned he follow. Ahead, the backside of a stroller wide enough for two occupants blocked the aisle between benches and a wall of children’s skates. Where was their mother?

Proč? (Why?)

Nemůžu. (I can’t.) The voice increased in desperation.

Alexei approached cautiously. As he rounded the benches, the voices stopped, and two sets of cornflower blue eyes peered at him as he closed the distance between them. He squatted to eye level with the preschoolers. The girl gazed up at him with interest and pulled at the pink hairbow that tamed her curls to one side. The boy tucked his chin into his chest and closed his eyes as if to shut out the big stranger. His white knuckles clutched a ratty black-and-gray stuffed mole, its red nose tattered.

Ahoj. Co vás dnes přivádí? Alexei greeted the children. (What brings you here today?)

The little girl’s face brightened, and she squirmed in her seat. She grinned wildly. Dobry den! My se naučíme bruslit jako tatínek! (Hello! We are going to learn how to skate like Daddy!)

The little boy’s lip quivered, and his face scrunched up as if in pain. A second later, he let out a screeching wail. Alexei was sure it could be heard all the way to downtown Colorado Springs. He turned to the little girl, who’d lost her smile and was now patting the boy on his shoulder.

To je v pořádku, she soothed. (It’s okay.)

Kde je tvá matka? (Where’s your mother?) Alexei asked, and the little boy cried harder, sobs wrenching his whole body.

Matka a otec jsou v nebi, she whispered. (Mother and father are in heaven.)

The little girl’s words shattered his heart. Who was responsible for them? Who parked them here and left them alone? Alexei had spent a lot of time with little kids. Leaving them unsupervised for even a moment could be disastrous. He let out a breath and stood up to his full height of six feet three inches to sweep the shop for the guilty party.

Whoever had left the children parked here was no longer in the shop. He pressed his lips together as he considered what to do. Had they been abandoned? Should he try to calm them? By the looks of it, the little boy was already inconsolable. He was about to call the main desk when the door next to the display wall opened and a woman rushed out. She dropped two shoeboxes on the bench and ran over to the stroller.

Klara! Konrad! What happened? Did this big stranger scare you? Without a glance at the giant man hovering by the stroller, she sank to the floor in front of it and encircled them both within her arms. Sh sh sh sh. It’s all right. I’m here. I didn’t leave you. I promised I would never leave you. I was just behind the wall . . . Her shoulders began to shake.

Something was haunting and familiar about this woman. He knew that voice. He studied her. Ash-blonde ponytail, slim neck, narrow shoulders. She was dressed in the Palmer City Sportsplex’s uniform jacket. Fitted black athletic pants hugged her backside and legs.

She turned to him, a glare on her face. You scared them Her eyes widened as she looked up at him, her mouth freezing in its open position.

Ginny?

The little boy wailed. She turned back to the children. Sh . . . it’s all right. Auntie Ginny is back, and she’s going to get this guy away from you. She swirled up, squared her shoulders, and inclined her face. Again, she opened her mouth, but words didn’t come out. She swiped at the corner of her eye, her pupils gleaming with moisture.

Alexei searched for words. He’d been in the States for over a year, but his English wasn’t fluent yet, especially under duress. He’d met her three years ago at the Sochi Olympics. Time hadn’t changed her stunning features. Her Latin American and Western European heritage blessed her with light hair, blue eyes, and olive skin that made her look tan even in the middle of winter. He recalled the glittery white costume she’d worn when she skated her long program. She was stunning. He was pulled from his recollection as she tilted up her delicate jaw, her expression commanding his eyes to meet hers.

Ginny, he whispered. The night they met came rushing back to him. They sat under the stars for hours, almost freezing to death, until her brother-in-law emerged at daylight