Page 68 of Snowflakes and Ice Skates

I almost laughed. We saw each other several times a week, either in passing at the arena or when he stopped by here with Jake. So asking me to go to lunch wasn’t just an excuse to see me. He wanted to spend time with me. Alone.

My heart throbbed in my chest.

This was Lance. I shouldn’t be getting all flustered over him, but he wasn’t the two-dimensional playboy I’d thought of him as for the past year. I realized that gradually over the past few months as we spent more time around each other, but after last night I knew that was so far from the truth.

He was thoughtful and caring. Maybe the reason he kept himself emotionally distant from others was because of how his parents treated him. That could be why he didn’t stay committed to one woman. There was pain and abuse in what should have been his most solid relationships. If you couldn’t trust your own family, then who?

He opened up and told me. Did he trust me?

I couldn’t imagine why. I hadn’t exactly given him any reason to. I did everything I could to establish distance between us. I treated him like the rest of the guys on the team.

That could be it. I didn’t fawn over him. I didn’t play games. I was myself, the same person to Dani and Jake and Chloe and him.

“So do I need to respond in some way or just wait for him to show up?” I looked at each of them.

“Wait,” Dani and Taylor said at the same moment Chloe declared, “Respond.”

My shoulders dropped. Why couldn’t just one thing be simple?

“What?” Chloe looked to the others. “It would be cute to keep things going.”

I narrowed my eyes. Did I want things to be cute? This was just a lunch date. A pre-date for the party. Two friends meeting up to share a meal.

Cute would only be necessary if I wanted this to turn into more.

Did I want that?

The fluttering in my chest just thinking about that was the terrifying answer. I think I did.

“What should I do?” I asked Chloe, and she grinned like the mastermind she was.

“He’s at the arena. They have practice until eleven,” she replied while taking her phone out of her purse. “My first instinct would be to send food, but you’re going to lunch so that’s not a good idea.” She paused and drummed her thumbs on the screen.

“You could hire carolers to sing to him. Have them waiting in the hallway or something.” Taylor said with a laugh.

I chuckled at the image of him being bombarded with Jingle Bells when he leaves the locker room. “That might draw a little too much attention from the rest of the team. I’m not sure he wants everyone to know about today.”

Okay, it was more that I didn’t want everyone to know.

Taylor shrugged as Dani perked up, “This might not be the best idea, especially if you don’t think he wants people to know, but you could have someone announce it during one of their water breaks. Have someone go on the speaker and just say Jess says yes.”

Chloe barked out a laugh. “That will definitely get the attention of the entire team.”

It would be funny to see his reaction to that, but again it felt too big.

“Can’t I just text him?” I asked.

They shared a look before agreeing.

“Fine, there goes the chance for a cute story,” Chloe grumbled.

I almost laughed as I picked up my phone from my desk and sent him a quick message thanking him for the flowers and telling him I looked forward to seeing him later.

There, short and sweet. I wasn’t the grand gesture type, so this felt much more comfortable to me. If Lance wasn’t on board with that, well, better to learn that now.

I went back to finishing the gift bags while they discussed the final details and tried not to check the time after every bag I finished. There was at least an hour and a half until he would have the chance to reply. I needed to distract myself, so I put my phone on the work table and hit play on the audiobook I’d been listening to for the last few days. I got lost in the story and nearly jumped when it stopped suddenly, and Lance’s name appeared on the screen.

I hesitated for a few heartbeats before I answered. “Hi, Lance.”