“He’s joking, Axel.” She sighed, and her face softened briefly, and then she turned back to Jack, her scowl returning. “But unless you want to find out how deadly this mammal can be, you better go get me something from Stella’s bakery. Besides, it’s not for me. It’s formybun in the oven.”
Jack just looked at her and smiled, but I felt like I was missing something.
I was confused as to why she would need me to bring her something sweet if she was already planning to bake something. “If you’re already baking buns, why do you need something else from the bakery?”
Ruthie’s face softened even more as she turned to me and smiled. “It’s a weird expression we use to refer to a baby,” she said pointing at her stomach. “The stomach is the oven, and the baby is the bun. I don’t know who made it up, but that’s what it means.”
Just when I thought I was making more progress thanks to Stella’s tutoring, there was yet another new phrase to learn. English was a very weird language. I feared I might never truly understand all of it, but I would damn well enjoy letting Stella teach me.
Finally,it was Sunday—four long days later—and I was stoked about curling today. I smiled at my choice of word—a new one Stella had taught me at the bar last week.
I had offered to pick her up and drive her here, but apparently, she and Anna were going shopping beforehand, so they rode together.
I pulled into the parking lot of the curling club and sawStella and Anna talking together. I noticed Archer off to the side talking on his phone, so I made my way over to the ladies.
As I got closer, I took in what Stella was wearing. Anna and I had both told her to bundle up because the club was essentially an ice rink.
She had on a pale-blue puffy coat, a blue hat, scarf, and mittens—all of which had what appeared to be glitter and sparkles on them.
Damn, she looks cute as hell.
I gazed over her body from top to bottom, and when my eyes met hers, they were twinkling, letting me know she’d caught me staring.
“Yay! We’re all here,” Anna announced as I walked up to them. “Archer, let’s go!”
He was still on the phone but gave her the universal signal to hold on just one more minute.
She waved her hand dismissively at him and started walking into the building. “We’ll just head inside, and he can follow us in when he’s done.”
I walked up next to Stella just as we entered the warehouse-style building and checked in with the attendant, who verified our names on the list and told us where to meet the instructors. It was a sold-out class with twenty-four people total—including us.
Anna and I had been here before, so we knew where to go and where to set up.
“Are you excited?” I asked Stella as we walked over to the equipment lockers.
“Oh, heck yeah!” She was beaming from ear to ear. “My goal is to not get injured. I have no idea what to expect, but I am super excited.”
Damn, I wanted to kiss her so bad in that moment, but I settled for putting my hand on the small of her back as we walked onto the ice. “I’m glad to hear it. Hopefully, Anna and I will get you hooked, and you can keep coming back with us. She’s been trying to find more people to get a team together to play in one of the leagues they have here.”
“Oh yes, Stella, I would love to have you on the team.” Anna clapped her hands.
Stella snorted and shook her head. “Okay, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I could suck terribly at this. Why don’t we wait and see how this goes before you add me to your imaginary team?”
“Nonsense,” Anna scoffed.
“Woman, you seriously couldn’t wait two minutes?” Archer said, coming up behind us, but before Anna could answer, two instructors made their way over to us.
They made introductions and taught us a few of the basic rules.
You could immediately tell the difference between the beginners from the ones who had done this before. If you were a newbie, you likely found yourself on your ass because you didn’t realize that balancing was a much more complicated process, which was exactly what Stella did.
When you fell down in regular circumstances, most people utilized the fact that the ground beneath them was sturdy in order to get back up. In curling, though, the ground was ice, which meant you could slip and fall all over again while trying to stand back up if you weren’t careful.
Despite falling—a few times—Stella seemed to take it in stride and smiled and laughed through most of the class.
She was a beautiful woman to begin with, but when she smiled, she washelt otroligt ut. In Swedish, it meant someone with absolutely incredible beauty. The closest English words I could think of would be marvelous or stunning, but those didn’t quite do Stella justice the way the Swedish words did.
I did my best to focus on curling, but also took every opportunity I had to put my eyes on her and just watch her.
