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Chapter 18
‘Have I been ice skating? Have I ever!’ Seren muttered to herself, as she got ready for her second proper date with Daniel. Ice skating was the one physical thing she was good at. When Daniel had asked her that very question last night when he dropped her home, she had almost jumped for joy. She hadn’t been ice skating for years because none of her friends would go with her, all of them too scared of falling over and breaking something, so this was going to be a real treat.
Nicole was the worst for worrying about falling and injuring herself, and Seren used to tease her for being a scaredy-cat, even though she empathised with her friend. Trying to look after a small child if you had a broken arm or leg wouldn’t be easy, but Seren had no such responsibilities. Anyway, she was pretty good at skating, even if she did say so herself. Not competition good – but she could do the odd wobbly twirl and propel herself backwards. It might take her a while to find her skating legs again but once she did, she intended to skate circles around Daniel.
Daniel – the very thought of him sent shivers down her back, and she was thrilled she was seeing him again so soon. What could be better than going to a Christmas Winter Wonderland with a gorgeous guy on a Saturday night!
Yesterday would be indelibly written on her heart as their first kiss. The brief peck on the lips that she’d given him after their walk in the woods last Tuesday didn’t count. That had been more of a maiden aunt kind of kiss than the full-on clinch they’d enjoyed last night. Shehopedhe’d enjoyed it, because she most definitely had, and she couldn’t wait to do it again.
After snogging until her toes had frozen to the pavement, they’d meandered back to the car, arms wrapped around each other. Then he’d driven her home, where they’d shared another passionate embrace in the truck before she’d reluctantly headed inside. She’d briefly wondered whether Daniel had expected her to ask him in, but that wasn’t going to happen – not with her dad on full alert. There was no way she had been going to invite Daniel in for coffee (or anything else) when there was the risk of her dad poking his head around the door and asking if they fancied a mug of Horlicks.
She had no intention of inviting him in this evening either, and it was a bit too early in their relationship to go back to his house, because that might suggest she wanted to spend the night with him, and although the thought was immensely appealing, she wasn’t quite ready to take such a big step just yet. That wasn’t to say she wouldn’t after a few more dates…
There, she was finally ready – black leggings tucked into thick woolly socks (no jeans on the ice in case she fell and had to spend the rest of the evening in wet denim), chunky boots, long-sleeved T-shirt underneath one of her many Christmas jumpers, and topped off with her padded jacket and matching hat, scarf and gloves. She might have a Michelin-tyre Man vibe going on, but she’d be warm and cosy for their visit to the town’s Winter Wonderland.
Seren squealed with excitement when she heard the unmistakable sound of a truck pulling up outside her house and she shot down the stairs, calling out to her dad that she was off as she sped out of the door.
‘Can we go and see Father Christmas?’ she asked innocently after she’d got into Daniel’s truck and they’d shared a rather nice embrace.
Daniel threw her a dark look. ‘Don’t even go there. I’m booked to be Santa at the Winter Wonderland next Saturday and for a couple of dates after that.’ He pulled a face. ‘I’m dreading it.’
She leant across and planted a kiss on his cheek. ‘You’ll be fine,’ she said. ‘I wish I could pay you a visit to give you some moral support, but I’ll be at work on Saturday.’
‘You were in today, weren’t you?’
‘I was. It was so busy – I’m dreading the next few weeks. Let’s not talk about it; I want to enjoy myself this evening.’
Visiting the Winter Wonderland was one of the highlights of Seren’s festive calendar and she was determined to wring every last drop of fun out of it. It was going to be even more special this year, with Daniel by her side. In previous years she’d been with friends, and she’d sometimes caught herself envying the couples she’d seen skating serenely around the ice rink holding hands, or the girl whose guy was trying to win her a cuddly toy from one of the stalls in the funfair.
The Winter Wonderland was held in the park, and each year the organisers went out of their way to make it even more magical than the one before. She couldn’t wait to immerse herself in all things Christmas, starting with the heavenly aroma of frying onions, doughnuts, the unmistakable spiciness of mulled wine, combined with the smoke of roasting chestnuts. Seren sniffed appreciatively as they joined the throng of people, and she soaked up the atmosphere eagerly.
Although the Winter Wonderland was open from ten in the morning, it didn’t truly come into its own until after dark, when everything was lit up and twinkling, and as she gazed around, her hand held tightly in Daniel’s, she felt like skipping for joy. Hurdy-gurdy music played from a dozen different rides, the air was filled with the chatter and laughter of many voices, and Christmas songs vied for attention. In the distance she could see the peaked tent of the ice rink, and beyond that thousands of lights danced and twinkled from the Festival of Light illuminations that wove its way through the trees and the flower beds, and around the bandstand to line the small boating lake in the middle.
‘Don’t you just love Christmas?’ she cried, and laughed when Daniel replied, ‘I do now.’
‘What do you want to do first,’ she asked, hopping on the spot with excitement, just like Freya often did.
‘I’ll let you decide,’ he said. ‘Just don’t ask me to eat anything if you want to go on any of the rides.’
‘We’ll start with those, shall we? Dodgems? Helter skelter? The big wheel?’ She tugged at his hand. ‘It’ll be fun,’ she insisted when she saw his reluctance. ‘And don’t tell me you don’t like heights, because I’ve seen you up a ladder.’
‘Helter skelter? How old are you?’ he was chuckling as he said it, allowing her to pull him in the direction of the fair.
‘You don’t have to be a kid to enjoy fairground rides,’ she said. ‘Two please.’ She handed some money to the man at the bottom of the helter skelter stairs, and he gave her a couple of mats in return.
Seren thrust one at Daniel and cried, ‘Race you to the top!’ then set off up the steep steps, taking them two at a time until her breathing grew ragged, and her lungs ached. She sensed Daniel directly behind her, and she tried not to collapse into giggles as her legs threatened to fail her.
When she got to the top, she paused for a moment to enjoy the view, but when a hysterically laughing Daniel tried to push her out of the way and claim that he was there first, she plonked her mat down at the top of the slide and poked her tongue out at him.
Then she was off, hanging onto the mat for dear life as she swirled down the slide to fly off the bottom and land in a heap.
Seconds later Daniel came to a halt against her back. ‘Oof,’ he yelped, setting her off again, and she was laughing so hard that Daniel had to yank her to her feet and pull her out of the way of the next person to come hurtling down the slide.
‘That was fun,’ he said. ‘Not. I’ve got slide burns on my behind because the mat got away from me.’
‘There’s an art to it,’ she told him, taking his hand again, the welcome warmth of his bare fingers seeping through her gloves. Wanting to feel his skin on hers, she slipped her gloves off and stowed them in her pocket. ‘You’ve got to hold it tight with both hands and scoot forward as far as you can.’
‘You’ve done this before,’ he accused, kissing her on the nose.
