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“Shush.” I knocked my hip against his, moving him away from the griddle so I could start pouring batter. “And I don’t know exactly. I imagine it’s gotta be a lot of trial and error and even more emotional reassurance when things don’t go how we want.”
“I’m fine with that. I like work.”
“Mmm, one of the things I’m worried about.”
“What are some of the things you felt like you missed out on because of your parents’ situation?”
I sat with that for a bit, watching the pancake batter bubble. There were tons of things that came to mind, things that Niall’s career might also make him miss out on, but the first thing was … “Ice skating. The Baytowne Wharf does one during the winter and in December, they have all the lights and the decor up … I always thought that’d be a fun family activity. And I know I don’t seem like it, but I actually love Christmas. Like I normally spend all my fall/Thanksgiving break decorating the house, but with the shower and everything else going on, I haven't gotten the chance to.”
“Do you have any plans this afternoon?” Niall asked, stepping aside to pull out his phone.
“Besides starting on said decorating?” I flipped this round of pancakes and lowered the griddle’s heat. The first batch was always a bit too close to burnt, no matter what temperature I started on. “Not really. I toyed around with updating my holiday lesson plan, find a different craft for us to do, but I can put that off a little longer. Why?”
“Let’s go ice skating,” he said, turning his phone around to show me the flyer with all the rules and times.
“Seriously?” Every single one of my atoms jolted with excitement, like kid-on-Christmas hyped levels. “You’d really go skating with me? Just like that?”
“Of course I would. We can go after breakfast or if you wanna wait until later in the month when there might be more decorations up, that’s fine too. I don’t have any other games until the championship game in the middle of the month and then around Christmas I’ve got a friendly tournament in Italy.”
“Wait, championships? Is that like your version of the Super Bowl?” I gawked. “How has nobody mentioned that to me?”
“We’re returning champions and it’s sorta bad luck to hype it up your second year in a row.” He shrugged.
“When’s the game?” I asked, putting the cooked pancakes on a plate and starting another round before pulling out my phone to look at my calendar.
“The 19th, but it’s an away game, so I don’t expect—” he started to stay, but stopped when I took his hand.
“You wanna show you support me, I wanna show I support you. That’s what healthy relationships aim for. Or so I’ve been led to believe by the media. Plus, I assume y’all get a private jet to go to away games, so surely you can fit me in as your plus one.”
“Not private, but yeah, I can make arrangements. Might have to leave right after school on Friday though. Is that all right?”
I scrunched up my face. “Depends. Are you buying me dinner?”
“Always, cinn.”
I bit my lip and looked down at the pancakes to fight a stupid grin. It was ridiculous how something as simple as a nickname made me giddy. “Then yeah, I think we can make it work.”
He took my hand and brought it to his lips for a kiss. “We can make this work.”
“Yeah. I think we can,” I said, no longer fighting the smile. But because it wouldn’t feel right to not put up a fight, I pulled my hand away and nudged him with an elbow. “So long as you don’t make me burn my pancakes. That’s a capital crime in this house.”
Niall held his hands up and took a step away, laughing. “I would never.”
The First Date
Niall
“Actually, I’ve changed my mind. I can’t do this, I quit.”
“Leah, you’re being ridiculous,” I chided, biting my tongue to keep from laughing at her.
“But it’s cold. I grew up here, I can’t do the cold.”
“What’d you do when it snowed last year?”
“Cried and called my senator to ask them to take climate change more seriously.”
“Well, I guess that’s reasonable. But what did you think a skating rink was going to be like?” I asked. We were seated outside the rink entrance, putting on our skates. Or at least I had mine on, Leah was dramatically shivering beside me.
