Excerpt:  Black Ice

Zumaya Publications, February 2003

The post-it note message slip had been filled in. "Ashley Clark, your FIANCEE, will be arriving tonight at five-forty-seven p.m. on TWA flight number 359 and wants you to pick her up."

Jamie fought to regain control once she hung up. Let’s see, first he sleeps with the owner’s wife and now his fiancee calls. And somewhere in all that, I had sex with him. Great! Perfect! Tinman has a fiancee! She stared at the pink slip of paper in her hand. Damn it all! She considered tearing the message into two thousand tiny pieces but chose instead to deliver the message herself when she went to practice. When Margaret returned from visiting her mother, Jamie hurried out, message in hand.

Jamie fumed as she weaved in and out of traffic. It wasn’t road rage. It was rage on the road. What a sucker I am! What a bastard he is! God, I can’t believe it! She pulled into the parking lot and sat, attempting to get her anger under control. The little voice chuckled quietly in the back of her head.

What she really wanted to do was find A.J. and scream at him. But she realized that she couldn’t do that without losing what was left of her dignity. A.J. obviously hadn’t felt anything and she’d been stupid to give in to the heat of being so close to him. But, by God, she would deliver the message.

Jamie took a deep breath and walked calmly into the building, pink slip in hand.

"Hey, Del, you seen A.J.?"

"Yeah, he’s down the hall by the dressing room with some of the guys."

She didn’t have to go far to find him. He leaned against the wall by the dressing room door surrounded by Petr, Mason and Dan. They laughed at something as she approached.

Be cool, Jamie, be cool. She closed in on the group and, excusing herself, stepped around Petr and came face to face with A.J. Slowing her stride only slightly, she reached up to slap the message onto his chest. She really hadn’t meant to actually hit him but at least she was rewarded with "Oof" and a completely astonished look on his face. She continued down the hall and into the training office, hearing A.J. muttering in French behind her.