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“Measuring to be sure you can’t reach mine.”
I punched him in the belly with my free hand, for good measure, although not hard enough to do any damage.
He laughed and skated away, so I’d have to chase him if I wanted to cause him any true pain. He was as bad as Cam, only in his own way.
“You need to hit harder,” he called out over his shoulder.
“You need to work on your abs,” I shot back. “They’re soft.”
Anthony chuckled. “Your man wasn’t there to help with the lessons?”
I couldn’t stop myself from blushing. Good thing he wasn’t looking. “What do you mean, my man?” I started skating until we were doing spirals across from each other.
He automatically mimicked my posture, trying to match me. Yes, we were talking and teasing each other. That didn’t mean practice was over, especially since we’d completely bailed out yesterday.
“Levi Babcock,” he said, dry as ever. “Who else would I be talking about?”
“He was probably sleeping. It was earlier than the butt crack of dawn.” I intentionally avoided saying anything about whether he was my man or not, or how it made me feel. Since I hadn’t sorted out my thoughts on the matter, I definitely didn’t need to be talking to Anthony about it. Or anyone else. No one but maybe Levi.
“Was he up late with you last night? Is that why you’re blushing?”
Now I blushed even harder, which didn’t help matters any.
“Give me details. I need to know everything so I can fill Jesse in later. He’ll eat this up.”
“There’s nothing for him to eat up.”
“There is. You said he stayed after the cops left. Was he still there for dinner? Maybe you played footsie under the table?”
“Footsie?” I rolled my eyes. “What, are we twelve?”
“So it was better than footsie. Please tell me you made out.”
“I’m not telling you anything.” But the fierce heat in my cheeks was probably all he needed to know.
“Mm hmm,” he said.
The longer we were out there, the closer together we moved on the ice. In no time, we were touching again. Anthony took me into a hold, and we started spinning, gradually shifting positions to experiment with what worked well for the ways we each moved.
I lifted a foot, stretched my head and arms back, and let Anthony’s momentum spin me at high speed.
“For as tiny as you are, you get some incredible extension like that,” he said. “You’re like a cat. Weird spine or something. How do you do that?”
“Lots of stretching,” I said when we slowed to a stop. “Maybe you should try it.”
“Maybe.” He waggled his eyebrows at me. “You think Jesse’ll like it as much as your man does?”
“He’s not my man.”
“Whatever. You keep telling yourself that, honey.”
“I will,” I said, laughing. “At least for as long as you two are just fiancés. If you finally set a date, maybe I’ll change my mind.”
“Is that all it’ll take?” Anthony gave me a Cheshire-cat-worthy grin. “Nothing more than setting a date?”
Something told me I might have to eat my words. “Why? Don’t tell me you finally made plans.”
“Valentine’s Day. I was going to give you your invitation after practice. So…” He reached for my hand and pushed off, so we were skating side by side. “He’s your man. Give me deets to give my man.”
I couldn’t stop myself from smiling as big as he did. “Fine. Be that way. There might have been some making out.”
“Only some?”
“Not enough,” I admitted. “He thinks we need to take it slow. Because of Guy and all.”
“I think,” he said slowly, “he might just be good enough for you. Even if he wasn’t helping you learn self-defense.”
