Breaking Through The Ice Ch. 06

A thousand thank-yous and hugs to all those reading and commenting. I'm glad you're all enjoying this.

A super-duper-extra-big thank you and bear hug to PennLady for her help. I know I'm difficult sometimes but I appreciate the encouragement and editing, even when I say it's my least favorite thing to do. Ever. ;)

Also just a quick note to ask you all to be patient. Real life is interfering big-time with my writing. I'll do my best to keep up with regular posts until this is finished. Thank you for your support!

As always, take care and happy reading!

M. ;)

****

It felt to Drew like he had to wait ages before Mina got home from work. The lunch shift for her went to two-thirty but depending on business, it could be much later before she got home. A Saturday meant it probably would be busier than usual.

Jesus, it could be four before she calls me, he thought and stopped himself from throwing his computer mouse across the room. He allowed himself a rueful smile at how melodramatic he was being. She'll get home when she gets home. Deal with it.

Then he heard the front door open and scowled before rising from his desk. He walked down the hall just as Carter turned from the closet. He started when he saw Drew and smiled.

"Hey. How's it going?"

Drew crossed his arms over his chest and glowered at his little brother. "Where have you been?"

Carter smile disappeared. "I was at work."

"There are no events at Verizon Center today."

Carter shrugged and brushed past him on his way to the living room. "There was a meeting this morning."

Drew followed and sent a pointed look at the clock on the wall.

Carter scowled and mimicked Drew's stance, with his arms crossed. "I went out for lunch with a couple people from work after. So what?"

"So you agreed to no partying," Drew replied. "And here it is, not three weeks later."

"It was lunch, not partying and I don't remember agreeing to not make friends."

Drew scoffed. "Yeah, and you've had so much luck with your friends in the past." Drew knew in some distant corner of his mind that he was being a little hard on his brother but he'd been annoyed to find Carter gone first thing this morning and now his brother was being very defensive. Because you're being pushy, a voice in his head spoke up.

"What the hell is your problem, Drew?"

"My problem is you not being where you say you're going to be and going out with so-called friends that I don't know."

Carter threw his hands up in the air and turned away. "I don't believe this. I went to work and out to lunch. How is that not telling you? You're worse than Mom and Dad!"

Drew frowned. "Why? Because I want what's best for you?"

"I'm an adult. You can't tell me what to do."

"I can if you want to keep living here!" Drew snapped.

Carter's mouth dropped open. Then he rushed past Drew without a word, heading for the stairs. Drew let him go, feeling like the world's biggest jackass for snapping. He rubbed his eyes and walked over to slump on the couch.

I'll go up and talk to him in a bit, he told himself. When we've both calmed down.

He knew he needed to apologize. He'd just done exactly what he'd said he wouldn't, what his parents had done to drive Carter away. If Drew didn't make things right, Carter could end up gone and none of them would know where to find him.

"What is wrong with me?"

No answer was forthcoming and Drew rested his head on the couch with a sigh. Was he agitated because of the late night and almost no sleep? Was he annoyed that he had to wait hours before he could see Mina? Had he really been ticked about Carter disappearing so early this morning?

The answer is 'D,' all of the above.

After a few minutes, he went back to his office to make sure his computer was off. Then he made himself lunch and watched TV. When he figured enough time had passed, he walked upstairs and knocked on Carter's door.

"What?" It was more of an unintelligible grunt than a real word.

"Can I come in?"

"What for? Another lecture?"

Drew winced. He supposed he deserved that. "No. Just to talk."

There was a pause. "Fine. Come in."

Drew opened the door to find Carter sitting on the floor beside his bed. There was an open magazine on his lap and a discarded Men's Health beside him. He glared up at Drew, his chin jutted out at a stubborn angle that Drew recognized.

"So? What do you want?" Carter asked.

Drew walked in a few steps and offered his brother a smile. "I'm sorry, Carter."

Carter's eyes widened for a second before narrowing again in suspicion. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. I shouldn't have given you such a hard time before." Drew moved closer and sat down on the edge of the bed. "And I didn't mean to threaten you."

Carter didn't look at him and offered no reply.

"I just...I really do want what's best for you." Drew rubbed the side of his neck. "I don't mean to be so hard on you."

Carter let out a sigh and nodded. "I know."

"You know Mom and Dad didn't want to drive you away either."

Carter made a derisive noise. "I don't know about that. They weren't exactly sociable."

Drew chuckled. "They're parents. They're not supposed to socialize with you."

"They didn't need to make my life miserable either."

"Oh, come on. They couldn't have been that bad, Carter."

Carter twisted around to look up at Drew. "Oh no? They used to wake me up early in the morning even if I didn't have a morning class. Which they knew because they had copies of my schedules. They'd call my profs every day to find out what assignments I had coming up and whether or not I'd been in class."

Drew's eyes widened but stayed silent as Carter went on.

"They drove me to and from school and would come looking for me if I wasn't outside at the end of the day. They'd argue over and over that I didn't need to study in the library so I wasn't even allowed to stay and do that. When I tried to argue that I had my license, they wouldn't let me drive their cars and working part time at The Gap didn't really earn enough for a car of my own." He ticked those and several other points off on his fingers. By the time he was done, he was irritated again and Drew had to lay a calming hand on his shoulder.

"They made me feel like a ten year-old." Carter let out his breath on a long sigh and looked up with a half-smile. "No lame jokes about me being so much younger than you, OK?"

Drew laughed and cuffed his brother on the same shoulder he'd been patting in comfort. "You are still young and anyway, look at it from their point of view. All I cared about was hockey. When you came along and didn't like hockey, they probably didn't have any clue what to do with you."

Carter tried to frown but started laughing. "Remember my first skating lesson?"

Drew grinned. "Yeah. Mom thought you'd skated over your own leg and just about keeled over."

The brothers reminisced for a little while longer. When a moment of silence fell between them, Drew clapped Carter on the shoulder.

"You're all right, Carter."

Carter punched Drew's leg. "Thanks. You're a decent guy sometimes too."

Drew got up with a laugh and walked to the open doorway. "So we're good?"

"Yeah." Carter grinned. "As long as you don't turn into Mom."

"Right. The day I turn into Mom is the day you become President."

Drew walked away with Carter's laughter echoing behind him. As he reached the main floor, he realized Mina still hadn't called him. A glance at the clock showed him that it was almost three. He scooped the phone into his hand as he sat on the couch and just stopped himself from dialing Mina's number.

She said she'd call when she got home, Drew reminded himself. He didn't need to turn into one of those needy people just days after they'd first started something.

Even as he was clutching the phone and willing it to ring, it rang and he jumped about a foot off the couch.

"Mina?" He said her name without thinking about it.

There was a low chuckle in response. Not Mina.

"No, is Tolya."

"Oh, hey. What's up?"

"Sorry I not Mina."

Drew laughed and rubbed his eyes. "It's all right. I was just...I thought she'd be calling me now, that's all."

"OK. You busy?"

"No. What's going on?"

"I go with Mark and some other guys to have dinner. You should come."

"Dinner? I had planned on going out with Mina."

"OK. If she not call you, you come to dinner."

"Yeah. Maybe. Where are you guys going to be?"

Anatoli named a restaurant nearby in Arlington and Drew agreed to meet up with them if he didn't hear from Mina in the next hour or so. After they hung up, Drew didn't know what to do. He wanted to talk to Mina, see her, hold her. But she could still be at work for all he knew.

He dropped his head back against the couch with a groan and squeezed his eyes shut. What was wrong with him? He'd been perfectly normal before coming home. Then he'd discovered Carter gone from the house so early and it had ratcheted his tension up several degrees.

No. He shook his head. That wasn't fair. Carter hadn't done anything wrong and he'd lashed out at his little brother for no good reason. Maybe I am going crazy.

"What are you doing?"

Carter's voice startled Drew and he jerked upright. Carter was staring at him with narrowed eyes.

"What?"

"You're just sitting there with the phone on your lap. What are you doing?"

Drew looked down and set the phone on the coffee table. "Uh, I was just waiting for Mina to call."

Carter lifted his eyebrows and smirked. "God. I didn't know I had a big sister."

Drew glared at him. "Don't you have something else to be doing?"

"Nope." Carter grinned and walked away with a laugh. "Just call her, you doofus."

Drew glanced at the clock on the wall and shrugged. Then he picked up the phone and dialed her number. There was no answer but he left a brief message. After that, there was nothing to do but choose to mope around his house or go out with his friends.

****

Mina woke up and blinked bleary eyes as she rolled over. The stench of cooked grease and onions wafted up to her nose and she grimaced. She rubbed her eyes and sat up. Looking down, she realized she'd fallen onto her bed with her work clothes on. And fallen asleep.

"Oh crap." She turned around to look at the clock. She'd come home from a grueling shift at the club and had only meant to lie down for a few minutes before showering. She'd meant to call Drew but now it was after six.

"Double crap!" She scrambled off the bed and searched for the phone. She found it in the living room and dialed Drew's house.

"Hello?"

"Carter, it's Mina."

"Hey, Mina. What's going on?"

"Not much. Is your brother there?"

"No, he went out to meet some of the guys from the team for dinner."

Mina straightened and blinked in surprise. She hadn't been expecting that.

"Oh. OK. Can you tell him to call me later then?"

"Sure thing. Hey listen, thanks again for meeting with me the other day."

Mina smiled. "No problem. Have you told Drew about it yet?"

"No." She could almost picture his pout. "I will though."

"Good. You should."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Well, I'd better go."

"I'll tell Drew you called."

"Thanks. Bye."

"Bye."

Mina hung up and held the phone against her chest as she looked around. She wondered if she should be upset about Drew going out with the guys. She dialed into their voicemail then and retrieved the message from Drew.

"Hey, Mina. I just thought I'd check in and see if you were home yet. Obviously not. Anyway, call me when you get in and let me know when I can come pick you up. Hope your day wasn't too hectic. Talk to you soon."

Mina hung up and tossed the phone beside her on the couch. She sighed and reached up to release her hair from its messy ponytail. She figured she might as well shower and eat something for dinner, since it didn't appear that she had any plans now.

She was eating a sandwich and staring into space, even though she had a newspaper open in front of her, when Hilary came home.

"Hi!" Hilary strode into the kitchen and set down a bag on the counter. "I thought you were going out tonight."

Mina frowned and snapped the newspaper closed. "I was."

Hilary stopped pulling the items out of the bag and turned to face Mina. "What happened?"

Mina shrugged, not wanting to make a big deal out of it. "I fell asleep when I got home from work and forgot to call Drew. Then when I did call, he'd already gone out with some of the guys from the team."

Hilary nodded. "Yeah. Mark told me he was going out too." She paused and cocked her head at Mina. "Are you mad at Drew?"

Mina huffed out a sigh and stood up. She put her dishes in the sink and brushed her hands off. "No. I'm annoyed. Is that wrong?"

"Not exactly. But you did fall asleep without calling him." Hilary's tone was light, not accusing.

Mina sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. "I guess I'm a little hurt that he didn't wait for me to call him. He just went out with someone else."

Hilary smiled as she continued to unpack the bag. "You don't want him to be one of those lame guys who sits around waiting for your call, do you? At least he didn't go out with another woman."

"That's true."

"Did he call?"

"Yeah, he left a message a little before I got home but I just crashed on my bed without calling or checking the phone or anything." Mina shook her head and straightened her shoulders. "You're right, Hil. I'm being silly."

Hilary nodded with a smile and folded the bag before stowing it in the closet. "Well, he'll probably call when he gets home later. I doubt they'll be out to dinner very late." She stopped and turned to Mina with a grin. "In fact, I'm going over to Mark's tonight. Why don't you call again and suggest he come here after dinner? Then you can work out your differences."

Mina's face was on fire before Hilary stopped talking. Hilary hooted with laughter and gave her friend a sympathetic pat on the shoulder before flouncing out of the kitchen. Mina glared after her and touched a hand to her cheek.

Just the thought of a whole night alone with Drew made her heat up to dangerous levels. She didn't even know if she was ready for all that implied. All she could do at this point was hope that Drew would call her after he got home. If he didn't, then they'd just have to wait for another opportunity.

Later, after Hilary had left her alone in the apartment, Mina flipped through the channels, looking for something to watch. The phone rang, scaring her almost out of her skin. "Hello?"

"Mina. It's me."

She let out a long sigh. "Drew. Hi. I'm so sorry I didn't call you before."

"That's OK."

"No, it's not. I came home from work late, right after you'd called, I think, and I just crashed. I didn't wake up until after six."

"Really? Wow. I didn't think chefs were allowed to sleep during the day."

She heard the teasing tone in his voice and rolled her eyes. "Well, we can't all be hockey players, can we?"

"Thank God. I don't think I'd enjoy kissing someone with a playoff beard."

Mina blinked and then burst out laughing. She heard Drew's rich chuckle from the other end and felt her tension ease.

"I am sorry, Drew."

"It's fine!" He laughed. "I'm sorry for ditching you."

"You didn't ditch me. I fell asleep and stood you up."

"You're right. You did stand me up. I'm a mess over here and it's all your fault that Carter is now looking at me like I'm a lunatic."

Mina stifled a giggle with one hand. "I'm sorry you're a lunatic."

"That's what you got out of all that?" He sounded outraged and Mina laughed harder.

"Well, I am sorry about that."

He grumbled something unintelligible. Mina stifled the rest of her laughter and drew in a deep breath.

"Did you have plans for the rest of the night?" she asked.

"Just sleep. Why?"

"I thought maybe you'd want to come over. We could watch a movie or something." She squeezed her eyes shut. That's great, Mina. Very sexy. She so wasn't used to doing this.

"Sure. I'll be over in a few."

"OK. See you soon."

Mina set the phone down and hurried to the bathroom to check her hair. She smoothed a few errant strands and changed out of her flannel reindeer pajamas. It was way past Christmas anyway.

Drew buzzed her apartment not long after that and the butterflies in her stomach turned frantic. She swallowed her nerves and went to let him in. The second he walked in her door, she felt dwarfed by his presence. It hadn't been that long since they'd seen each other but he overwhelmed her with his size, his teasing grin and the way he reached for her before the door was even closed.

"Hi," she whispered and wrapped her arms around him.

"Hi yourself." He hauled her off her feet, making her feel dainty on top of all the rest.

He started to walk her backwards, into her living room, and she laughed. "The door..."

With a grumble, Drew spun around, keeping her in his arms. Mina laughed as he kicked the door shut and released her long enough to pull his jacket and shoes off. When he reached for her again, he lowered his head for a kiss and Mina turned her face up to accept it.

Before she knew it, the kiss turned wild and she clung to his shoulders as he pushed her up against the door. His tongue sought hers and she moaned low in her throat as they tangled. Drew shifted his stance and Mina felt her heart skip several beats when his thigh thrust between her legs. Then his hands moved up her sides and she pressed her back to the door as he cupped the swells of her breasts.

"I've missed you, Mina," he murmured and pressed kisses to her cheek and chin.

Mina smiled as she tried to catch her breath. When he squeezed his hands around her she gasped and looked down to see him grinning at her.

"Did you miss me?"

"You were only gone for a few days."

He gave her a mock-outraged scowl and let her stand on her own two feet. He didn't step back. Instead he loomed over her, crowding her against the door. Mina left her hands on his shoulders and shivered at the dark look in his eyes.

"A few days too long."

She smiled. "Don't you love your job and traveling with the team and all?"

"Sure. But they don't kiss like you do." To punctuate his words, he dipped his head and brushed his lips against hers.

Mina giggled, breaking the moment and Drew moved back and raised an eyebrow. "You've had much time to compare the way I kiss with your teammates?" she asked.

At Drew's expression, Mina laughed again and stepped away from the door. He followed her to the living room and they sat down on the couch.

"What are you in the mood for?" The second the words left her mouth, she regretted them.

Drew chuckled and pulled her into his arms. "Whatever you want to watch is fine with me. I'm just happy to be here with you."

Mina met his eyes and melted a little at the warmth she saw there. "When did you become such a romantic?"

He shrugged. "I'd say around the time you agreed to give us a chance."

"Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh.'" He leaned close and kissed her.

Mina relaxed in his embrace and kissed him back. His arms closed tight around her and she bowed to the pressure, settling against his chest. In spite of the heat that sprang up between them, he kept the kiss gentle and light. Mina felt her body straining, demanding more but Drew broke the kiss and touched her cheek with one hand.

"Where's Hilary?"

Mina blinked, the mention of her roommate scattering the fog around her brain in an instant. "She's out."

"Maybe we should just watch a movie for now." Drew smiled as he brushed another kiss over her lips. "We don't want to get caught like last time."

Mina laughed and nodded. It was on the tip of her tongue to say that Hilary wouldn't be back tonight but her courage failed her. She got up and picked a movie out of the collection on the shelf. Then she snuggled against Drew's side on the couch and let her self-conscious fears fade to the background as the movie began.