Down by Contact - A Seattle Lumberjacks Romance Read Free Page A

this?”
    Kelsie didn’t look up, just worked
frantically to clean up the mess. The chef bent down and pointed a
pudgy finger in her direction. “You’re fired. Get the hell out of
here. I’ll be contacting you for reimbursement for the damages.” He
kept his voice low, but Zach heard him.
    Zach stepped forward, a knight not exactly
comfortable in his dinner-jacket armor. “Apologize to the lady. It
was an accident, and your behavior is abusive.”
    The chef gritted his teeth and spoke loud
enough for only Zach to hear. “Who the hell are you? Some dumb
jock? You probably beat up your girlfriend on a regular basis. And
you accuse me of abuse?”
    Zach exploded and charged. Just before he
made contact, two defensive linemen, big suckers, yanked him
backward and pinned his arms behind his back. Zach lunged at the
fat chef again, dragging the linemen with him. More teammates
jumped into the fray and held him back. Several others restrained
the chef, who hurled accusations at Zach and Kelsie.
    “Stop it, you dumb shit.” Harris smacked
Zach on the arm none too gently. Zach grunted and squinted into the
harsh light glaring in his eyes. Someone had a camera trained on
him.
    Harris stepped in front of Zach, blocked the
cameraman, and faced the furious cook. “Let’s calm down and be
civilized. It was an accident.” He spoke in an aside to his
teammates. “Let them go.” The men did as Harris ordered. The cook
made a move toward Zach but Harris countered it, placing his body
between the two dueling men. He put his hand on Zach’s chest and
pushed. Zach staggered back a step, reining in his temper.
    He’d done it again. Screwed up in a social
situation and dragged the whole team down with him. His new team.
The ones who were counting on him to be a leader on and off the
field. He’d led them, all right, almost into a brawl.
    Zach released his breath in a whoosh,
deflating not just his lungs but his ego. He’d made an ass of
himself, embarrassed the team, and even worse, exposed a weakness
to Tyler Harris in the name of one
high-school-crush-on-the-mean-girl Kelsie Carrington.
    Zach glanced off to the side where Kelsie
stood. She’d shoved her knuckles in her mouth again, a sure sign of
her discomfort he remembered from their high school days—not that
he’d forgotten a thing about her from back them. Cheerleader.
Beauty queen. Rich and spoiled. The meanest of the mean girls. Tell
that to a teenage Zach. He’d dragged his sorry ass after her
without an ounce of pride, begging for any crumb she’d toss his
way. She tossed just enough to keep him on her trail.
    Zach scrubbed his hands over his face.
Dropping his arms to his sides, he turned to Kelsie.
    Her confidence of a few seconds ago
shattered like the goblets on the floor. She hunched over and
hugged herself in a gesture of self-protection and flicked a glance
in his direction. Their eyes met for a split second, just enough
time to send his stomach into vigorous calisthenics and reduce his
already damaged knees to mush.
    Without another word, she fled the room, but
not before his foolish heart lunged for her and missed, once
again.
    * * * * *
    Blinded by tears, Kelsie dashed for the
ballroom doors. While making a run for it, she bumped into another
waiter, sentencing a tray of deserts to another appointment with
destiny. Banging into the doors, she pushed them open, and sprinted
down the hall for the elevator. She braked to a stop and wrenched
her ankle in the process. An ominous snap a split second later
confirmed the worst. Her last good pair of Manolo Blahniks
succumbed to the stress of her fifty-meter dash for freedom.
Lurching into the elevator, she stabbed at the lobby button with a
now broken fingernail.
    The elevator doors slid shut and wrapped her
in a temporary cocoon of safety. She yanked off her heels and
clutched them tightly, realizing the broken heel lay somewhere
between the ballroom and the elevator.
    Her day couldn’t get worse. Or her