“I should warn you,” I said as I pulled the skate onto my foot. “This could endverybadly.”
“Not experienced with skating?” Grey asked.
I shook my head. “You’ve known me how long? Hand-eye coordination is nowhere on my list of strong suits.”
He nudged me playfully with his shoulder. “Guess I’ll just have to hold you up.”
Heat crept up my neck, threatening to spill into my face. The idea of Grey holding me in any sense had my mind flashing back to that night before Christmas break—him on top of me,me pressing myself into him. It had felt like we were trying to fuse ourselves together, like no matter how close we got or how tightly we held onto each other, it wasn’t enough.
I shook my head to clear the memories from my mind. I was not in the right place to dwell on those thoughts. I didn’t want to get turned on at an ice rink.
“You ready?” Grey asked.
I wasn’t even close to ready to risk my life on a giant ice cube. But I took Grey’s outstretched hand anyway. He led me onto the ice, joining the small crowd of people enjoying the rink. I had all the skill and grace of a newborn deer, tripping on my own feet. But Grey, good for his word, held me with one hand on my arm and the other arm wrapped around my waist, keeping me steady.
Electric currents ran through my body, radiating from the places where his body touched mine—my elbow, my hand, my waist. I glanced at him as he concentrated on keeping us both on our feet. It was enough to make me want to kiss him.Why have I not kissed him yet?The stupid peck earlier didn’t count.
At that moment, my right foot slipped, and I fell into him. Grey winced as my elbow hit him in the ribs. He managed to keep us upright, but it was a close call.
“Maybe we should get to the railing,” he suggested with a chuckle.
“I hate to say, ‘I told you so,’” I began.
“Do you?” He smirked crookedly at me.
“No, not really,” I admitted slyly. “I love saying ‘I told you so’ under most circumstances. But I don’t love being so uncoordinated.”
We made it to the handrail, and I grabbed onto it like it was a life preserver and I was struggling to stay afloat in the ocean. My breath caught in my throat as we made eye contact again. I would have to get used to him looking at me like that. Before, his gaze had held a level of control—a self-imposed distance thathe’d kept except for the few times we’d pushed things too far.But now?Now he looked at me likeIwas the life preserver—or the first day of sun after weeks of rain, fire to a freezing man, water to someone dying of thirst. It was a lot to take in, and it stirred the urge to throw myself at him and kiss him in front of everyone in the facility.
“You okay to move?” Grey asked, clearly more focused on the activity at hand than I was.
I nodded, banishing phantom thoughts of his lips on mine. “Should probably hold onto the rail for a while though.”
He smiled, and we started skating around the circumference of the ice rink. My hand never strayed too far from the railing while Grey stayed at my opposite side, making the whole skating activity look much easier than anyone had a right to. His body moved with an unconscious grace as he glided across the ice.
“How did you learn to skate?” I asked, slightly annoyed that he seemed just as good at it as he was at everything else he did. Surely he had to be bad atsomething. Otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair for the rest of us mortals.
“My mom actually used to be a skater,” Grey said. “She taught me. She absolutely loved skating, and it gave us a way to bond and for her to skate.”
“That’s sweet.” I could picture it so clearly, his mother holding her young son’s hands as they swirled around on the ice.
We stayed at the ice rink for a couple of hours. Eventually, I found my sense of balance and could follow Grey through the more treacherous inner rink, away from the safety of the guardrail. He was a good sport and never left me far behind, though he could’ve easily skated circles around me.
The longer we stayed, the more people began to recognize Grey, but it didn’t bother me so much anymore. No one approached us, and I found myself better able to handle a littlestaring from a distance. I would probably be staring too, if I weren’t the one with him.
It seemed like a weight had been lifted from Grey’s shoulders. I hadn’t realized it until now, but much like his gaze, his every movement had been so guarded around me before, as if he’d been worried about saying or doing the wrong thing and scaring me off. Or maybe he’d been worried about exposing himself to the dangers that had plagued him in the past.
None of that seemed to be on his mind now. He wore a huge smile, and his eyes were bright with joy as we skated and joked and talked. We caught up with everything the other had missed during our silence over the past few days. I told him about coming out to my parents in greater detail. He told me about his trip with his parents and a new song he’d written over break that he couldn’t wait to try out with the band—and of course, more about his decision to officially break up with Carina and date me.
The hours flew by, and before I was ready for it, they were closing down the rink for the night. Grey and I were two of the last people in the building, and my heart sank to think that the night was about to end.
“I guess we should head out.” Grey glanced at the employees closing up shop. His chest still heaved a bit from the exertion of skating, and a single bead of sweat glistened on his temple.
“Yeah,” I agreed, trying not to sound too disappointed. There was always tomorrow, though tonight felt more like a dream than reality.What if I woke up, and it was all just a dream?I wondered how long it would take me to believe it was real.
“Come on.” Grey grabbed my hand.
I followed his lead off the ice, ignoring the tingling in my fingers that shot straight up and into my heart. The whole night had been full of electric moments—the most painful kind of bliss. It couldn’t be healthy.
