Tending Tara (Alaska Blizzard #7) - Kat Mizera Page 0,15

head. “I was married at his age, but I don’t think I had his game… I mean, it’s a different one every damn night.”

“I don’t know if I could do that,” Tara said thoughtfully. “Sleep with a different man every time I had sex. Not for moral reasons or anything, but I’d get attached. Sex is powerful. At least, good sex is, and why would you sleep with someone a second time if the sex was bad, right?” She dipped a fry in ketchup and peered over at Donovan.

“Sex is definitely powerful,” Donovan agreed. “I stayed with my ex longer than I should have, and a lot of it had to with how good the sex was.”

“Same.” She smiled. “Me and my ex, I mean. Until he slept with someone else. That was the final straw for me.”

“Oh, if Jane had cheated that would’ve been the end, no matter how good the sex was.”

“I’m not fond of cheaters, either.” She popped another fry in her mouth. “That was one of many reasons I left home. I needed a fresh start, you know?”

“Jane wouldn’t come with me,” he said simply. “She hated being married to an athlete, all the travel and games and practices, not to mention moving from place to place. She just wasn’t cut out for it, I guess.”

“But didn’t she love you?” Tara asked in confusion. “She married you, so she must have, right?”

“I don’t think she understood how hard it would be. I think she expected it to be some version of nine-to-five, but the reality was too much for her. She hated being away from her family, and she didn’t like being alone. At all.”

“I wasn’t sure I’d like being away from my family, but sometimes it’s part of growing up. You leave the home you grew up in, then you leave your hometown for work or love or something else, and sometimes you even leave your country. I can’t imagine arranging my life according to how close to my family I should be.”

“Agreed.”

They smiled at each other across the table.

“So, what were you saying about coaching?” she asked, remembering he’d mentioned it before Logan arrived.

“Oh, yeah. I get the newsletter from the local community college sports association because I do goalie clinics there a couple times a year. Anyway, in the last one that I got just the other day, it said they were looking for an assistant coach for the women’s hockey team. I don’t know what it entails, but it might be right up your alley since you love hockey and you’re looking to get into a school environment anyway.”

She frowned slightly. “I’d need my visa for that, but yes, that does sound like something I’d like to do. I played for a long time and once coached a team of grade school children… I wonder if it’s a possibility.”

“Let me forward you the email.” He pulled out his phone and started typing. “What’s your email address?”

She told him, and he typed it in and then put his phone away. “Okay, you have the info now. It might be worth a phone call.”

“Yes. Thank you. I may have never known about it otherwise.”

“Well. That didn’t take long.” His gaze drifted over to the bar and she looked in that direction.

Logan and his date were making out, and she shook her head, though she smiled. “I have nothing against hook-ups and sex. I just don’t think I could have one-night stand after one-night stand.”

“Have you ever had one?” he asked.

She smiled. “Just once. And that’s how I know it’s not for me. It made me feel weird, like something was missing.”

“But was the sex good?”

“Mediocre,” she said, wrinkling her nose. “It was okay, but that’s where the ‘something missing’ comes in. As if the lack of intimacy, the lack of at least friendship, wasn’t enough despite the chemistry between us. And then he was gone, of course, and I never saw him again. So while I’m not a prude by any means, I do need some kind of relationship to go along with the sex, even if it’s just friendship.”

She hadn’t meant to say it that way, but once the words came out, she mentally grimaced. Would he think she was dropping a hint? She really hadn’t been, she was just being honest, but they might not know each other well enough for that.

“I think guys are wired differently,” he said, taking a pull from his beer. “I could probably do one-nighters without giving