“Who’s ready to skate?” Uncle Teague asked, sounding as excited as Tristan. He also had a pair of skates hanging around his neck so that was kind of funny.
He and Tristan started to the cabin, while Charlie chuckled at their enthusiasm.
“You regretting hitching your wagon to a former jock yet?” I asked him.
Charlie, who was for some reason lugging a traffic cone with him, shook his head. “Nah. Let them have fun. It’s good for Teague to get to do this.”
He squeezed Harper when she went to hug him. “What’s what for?” She pointed at the cone.
“Oh, this is apparently a good support for skating, go figure. Gramps had one in the garage and we picked it up.”
We left the cone, Law, and Marlie at the pond, and went to sort out the gear. It was funny how easy I found walking with my skates on, when I hadn’t done it in a few years. Some things were muscle memory, I supposed.
It took us twenty minutes to get the kids’ skates and gear sorted, and then Charlie carried Tristan while Uncle Teague and I held onto Harper’s hands as she walked down to the ice. I stayed with Harper and let Uncle Teague handle Tristan. Charlie helped, too, and the dogs stayed with Marlie when we told them not to come on the ice.
Charlie couldn’t skate, but he was good at emotional support and had those spike things you put around your shoes so he didn’t slip around too much.
“Yeah, just like that!” he encouraged Harper, who beamed as she managed to glide five feet from Charlie to me after only ten minutes of trying.
Of course, she promptly fell onto her butt when she fist pumped, and we all laughed, even her and Marlie who had looked worried for a moment.
Tristan kept falling but got up every time. At first with the help of Uncle Teague and then by himself by using the cone.
After a while, Marlie got tired of cheerleading, so she and the dogs went exploring around the cabins. Law kept an eye on her as much as he could while also looking after the other two. It was kind of cute. He knew everyone was perfectly safe, but I guess you couldn’t turn parenthood off like that.
When Charlie was walking around the pond with Harper holding onto his arm, I skated to Law.
“Good idea?” I asked him, smiling slightly.
He grinned. “Definitely. Thank you for doing this, Oak. It means a lot for you to include them like this.”
I blushed lightly, but I hoped it didn’t show with how I likely already had red cheeks from being outdoors for so long. “People need new experiences, especially kids.”
I watched how Uncle Teague and Tristan did some stops from a short glide. Half of the time, Tristan tripped and fell into the snow lining the cleared area and they both laughed like lunatics.
Harper was explaining something to Charlie, gesturing with her free hand as she held onto his arm with the other. She didn’t even realize that she was skating, and I wondered if she’d stay upright when she figured out she was doing it.
When I turned to look at Law, I found him staring at me.
“What?” I blurted out.
Suddenly there was thischargebetween us. For a few seconds, my brain suggested he was about to kiss me. Then Tristan let out a loud whoop, and the moment was broken.
I looked back at the ice and ignored my galloping heart. It hadn’t been a moment. He was just happy that I’d included his kids and that was all. Besides, I knew Law well enough by now that he wouldn’t have kissed me there even if he’d wanted to, which he definitely didn’t.
I took a step forward, then rapidly a few more to pick up some speed, and called out to the kids, “Watch out!”
Theatrically, I sped up as much as I could, and then took a leaping dive into the snow at the other end of our little rink.
Snow rushed inside my collar as I sank, and I felt like I deserved that.
As I rolled over, I saw Charlie and Harper peering into my Oak-shaped hole in the snow.
“We’re not going to help you up,” Harper stated, grinning at me. “You did that on purpose.”
Yeah, yeah, I could get myself back up after a fall. Or a swan dive, as it may have been. There was some kind of metaphor for my life there somewhere, but I ignored it on purpose as I rolled dramatically until I was back on the ice.
I was having fun. I’d initiated this whole thing and brought joy to the kids and adults alike. I had a rink where I could skate whenever I wanted until the weather got too warm.
