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Sitting on the bench near the frozen pond, they removed their skate guards from their blades and stood.
“Well, are you ready to lose?” She picked up one of the hockey sticks and the puck. “Oh. I mean, um, have some fun.” Anna’s grin reminded him of that sly old Mr. Grinch’s smile.
“Are you?” he asked, picking up the other stick.
“What? Ready to have some fun?”
“No. Lose.”
“Nope.”
“Me either.”
“Alrighty then. Game on, mister.” Laughing, Anna glided onto the ice and turned backward, watching him.
Nicholas stepped onto the ice and like a pro skated over to her. As he did, he noticed the hockey nets on each end of the pond.
“Hey, you’re pretty good,” she said as he glided up to her.
“Years of practice.” He smiled. “Okay, enough chit-chat.” Taking the puck from Anna’s hand, he dropped it onto the ice. “Ladies first.”
“How many points for the win?”
“Twenty.”
“Twenty it is.” In a flash, Anna slung the puck across the ice and sped after it.
Nicholas caught up to her but was too late. She scored.
It was his turn now.
Anna fought him all the way toward his goal, but he faked a move to the left and scored. Minute after minute they played, huffing, puffing, and laughing. The score was now tied nineteen to nineteen. This play would determine the winner, and it was his turn.
Down the ice field Nicholas sped, Anna battling him all the way. Their sticks clicked as they blocked one another’s attempts to control the puck. As he neared his goal, Anna fell back. A second and he heard her scream.
He whirled to find Anna sprawled out on the ice. “Anna!” Forgetting the puck, he dropped his stick, hurried over to her, and squatted down beside her. “Anna, are you okay?”
“I—I think so.” She sat up, groaning, and rubbing her leg.
Concern drove through him as his eyes roamed over her, checking for any sign of injuries.
“Can you help me up, please?”
From behind her, Nicholas gently and carefully put his arms under hers and helped her to her feet. In one nanosecond, Anna bolted past him with her stick in hand, took control of the puck, and flew down the ice, scoring the winning point. “I won.” She held her stick up and pumped it into the air. “I won. I won.”
Nicholas skated toward her, defeated but almost impressed by her trickery. “That was a dirty trick,” he said, unable to keep the smile from his face.
“I know.” She lowered her stick. “But it worked every time with my dad. Well, almost. I had done it so many times that one day when I really did fall and hurt myself, he didn’t come and help me because I had cried wolf too many times. After he scored, he left me on the ice thinking I was faking it when in fact I had actually twisted my ankle. I couldn’t stand because the pain was so bad, so I had to crawl over to the bench. I sat there for quite a while freezing my backside off before he finally came back outside looking for me. When he realized I really was hurt, he felt so bad. But I’ll tell you one thing, I never did that again.” She grinned. “Until today.”
“Well, I can see why it worked. You had me fooled.”
Settling her hand on his arm, she asked, “You want a redo of that last score?”
“Nah. Anyone who could come up with the scheme you just did deserves to win.”
Anna giggled. “How about we just call it a tie?”
“Whatever you want.”
“What I want is to go inside and get something hot to drink.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.” Nicholas grabbed the hockey sticks and dropped the puck into his pocket. Hand-in-hand they skated back to the bench, put the skate guards back on and headed inside.
While Anna prepared them a cup of hot apple cider, Nicholas got the fire going. They sat on the floor in front of the popping and crackling fireplace, warming up. Nicholas’s thoughts kept drifting back to him leaving. He didn’t want to leave. He wanted to stay here, with Anna, skating on the pond and sitting in front of the fireplace together, forever. If only there was a solution to how they could be together when their lives took them so determinedly in different directions. God, even though You’ve seemed to be silent about the whole matter of how to make this work, despite that fact, I really thought You were in this. If You are, and if there is a way to make this work, please show me.
Chapter Seven
Nicholas was gone and Anna’s heart hurt like it never had before. Pastor Shane always said to trust God’s timing and pray. Well, she had done that and even had a peace about the two of them even though she had no idea how they would ever work things out with their businesses being in different states. Obviously, she mustn’t have heard correctly from the Lord because Nicholas was on a plane right now heading back to New York.
