His smile immediately dropped like a mask as he skated ahead of me. “You want to take a break? Get some more hot chocolate?” he asked.
“No,” I said, struggling to keep up with him. “You can’t run away from talking to me.”
“I’m not.”
But he continued to skate away from me.
Why did he have to be so impossible? Maybe I shouldn’t be pushing, but he knew me by now. I wasn’t carefree like him. I had been pushy with the questions the last time we’d hung out, and he should have known it’d only get worse if he asked me out on a real date. I didn’t have it in me to pretend that I didn’t care about who he was.
“Hey—whoa!” I had attempted to go too fast. My arms flailed as I tried to regain my balance so that I didn’t plop right onto my behind. I was about to lose the battle with gravity when strong hands encircled my waist, easily steadying me.
“I’ve got you,” Oliver whispered.
I breathed a sigh of relief as he loosened his grip, whilestill maintaining contact and moving away so that he was staring down at me.
I smacked him in the chest. “You abandoned me.” I glared up at him, eyes narrowed.
His eyebrows furrowed together before he let out a breath of a laugh. “I was right here.”
“Don’t do it again,” I warned.
“Never.”
We skated in silence for a bit after that. I badly wanted to ask him more, but I didn’t want him to shut down on me again.
My best bet was slow and steady with him. I didn’t know what we were or where this was going—likely nowhere fast. But what I did know was that I cared about Oliver. Probably more than I should. He was special. Maybe we were nothing alike, but there was nothing I wanted more right now than to understand him.
SIXTEEN
Oliver
My entire chestwas on fire as I watched Frankie take off her ice skates. I had already laced up my boots and was ready to get the hell out of there. Shame had overshadowed every thought in my mind.
This date was a bad idea. I should have known that. She was under my skin, completely and effortlessly. She made me comfortable in an unfamiliar way, which had caused me to overshare—something I literally never did. Any sort of reflective, heavy conversations were my kryptonite. Somehow, Frankie had coaxed some of my deepest innermost thoughts and insecurities out of me, and now I was feeling uncomfortable as hell.
She hadn’t had a bad reaction, but I also didn’t stick around long enough to reallygether reaction. I needed to take her home and try to forget some of the things I had told her that were currently whizzing around my mind. She probably thought I was some pathetic guy with mommy and daddy issues. I had wanted to impress her—show her a good time—but instead, I’d done this.
I wasn’t sure if I had scared her off or scared myself off, but either way, I was trying to keep my cool until she was safely dropped off at Giles and Mattie’s house.
As soon as she handed me her skates, I was already walking over to the rental hut and dropping them off with the teenaged worker.
“You ready?” I asked. “That was fun.”
I could tell I was talking too fast, but my facade of normalcy was hanging on by a thread. It was all I could do to keep from cracking.
“Oliver, hold on.”
Her voice sounded distant, and I slowed my pace to let her catch up. I chanced a look down at her to see her eyes wide with confusion.
“Why are you walking so fast?” Her anxious tone tugged at my chest, but I couldn’t bring myself to maintain eye contact.
“Sorry.” I ripped the beanie off my head to rake my hands through my hair. Heat burned through my body. It was like I was wearing my humiliation as an extra layer and it was suffocating me. “You ready to go?” I asked, a strange, fake smile glued to my face.
“Go?” Frankie repeated quietly. “We just got here.”
She looked beautiful tonight. Something I regretted not telling her earlier.
“We went ice-skating, we walked around. I should get you home before you find a way to get injured.” My attempt at teasing was weak, but I was fighting tooth and nail to keep it together.
