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“Would it be a legitimate hot cocoa without one?”
She beamed at me. She’d done away with her coat and sweater and was in a red and white long-sleeved shirt that hugged the lines of her body, like a hot as hellWhere’s Waldo. God, she was beautiful, radiant. If I wasn’t in danger of taking us both down I would have grabbed her and kissed her right now.
Chase offered to get the cocoas, being steadier on her skates than I was, and I watched as numerous heads turned in her direction as she walked away.
In the last week I had tried not to think too much about how it would actually feel to be on a date with her. Part of me was still having trouble believing that it was even happening. Then she’d take my hand or smile at me—a new kind of smile—and it hit me in the center of my chest. It was happening. We were here. I already had an idea for date number two.
“Hot cocoa for the gentleman.” She dropped down beside me and handed over one of the enormous cups with an equally large marshmallow balanced on top.
“If I was really a gentleman, I probably should have been the one to get the cocoas.”
She let out a very unladylike snort. “And have you spill them, or drop my marshmallow, on account of your baby giraffe legs? No, thank you.”
I laughed as she took a sip. The low groan that followed had my muscles locking up.
“So, how exactly did you get so good at this?” I asked to keep my mind off how else I could get her to make those noises.
She chewed thoughtfully on a bite of marshmallow before answering. “Glen, no, Graham, one of Mom’s boyfriends. His daughter, Amber, was a figure skater.”
“Seriously?”
“Uh-huh.” She took another sip. “I was ten, maybe, she was a couple of years older, and I was just in awe of her. We were at the same school so Graham would pick us up and take us to the rink most afternoons. I don’t even know if Amber was that good, but at the time I certainly thought she was, and she had the coolest skates. They were metallic pink and gold leopard print, with gold laces. I had to use the hire skates, they smelled weird and never fit right—that might be where my aversion to bowling shoes started.” She paused, took another bite of marshmallow, and I sat transfixed. How did I not know any of this?
“Anyway, I dreamed of Amber’s skates, of any skates that were just mine really. I begged Mom for a pair of my own but she always shot me down and then she and Graham broke up. So we packed up and moved like we always did. I never saw Amber again and I don’t know if I’ve been back to a rink since. Maybe a couple of times in middle school.”
“You haven’t skated since middle school and you’re still this good?”
She gave a small, shy smile. “Muscle memory, I guess. And I’m rusty.”
“You do not look rusty.”
“I was tagging along to the rink four days a week for almost a year. I picked it up. I even got into a summer intensive program, but the break up happened before the summer and Mom sent me to some god awful sleep away camp instead.”
“You were robbed,” I said and she nodded.
“Totally robbed. I didn’t speak to her for over a month. I was so pissed.”
“And that was it? You just never went again?”
She shrugged. “I was busy, I don’t know if you remember this about me, Mack, but I was kind of a nerd.”
“Funnily enough, I do remember that.” Chase was probably the reason I didn’t fail my classes. She always managed to make studying seem fun, or maybe it was just being around her that made Calculus and English Lit seem more interesting than they actually were.
Everything was better when I was with her. Even falling on my ass on ice over and over again.
I took another sip of my drink and noticed a smudge of marshmallow dust on the tip of her nose.
“You’ve got a little something…”
“What?” She said around a mouthful of marshmallow and wiped both her cheeks.
“No, it’s—here.” My hand came up to her cheek sending a shot of electricity down my arm and my thumb swiped over her nose. “All done.” I dropped my hand but Chase was now staring at me. The gold flecks in her irises bright and shining. My pulse drummed hard in my throat as her attention dropped down to my mouth. Then she was leaning forward, one hand landed on my cheek a second before her lips brushed over mine. It was the barest of touches but it was everything. The marshmallow and chocolate were so much sweeter for being on her lips. I wasn’t sure I’d drink hot cocoa again and not think of this moment. Her fingers curled into the hair at the nape of my neck sending goosebumps down my arms. She pressed in, bringing us as close as we could get while seated side by side. I wanted desperately to pull her over my lap, feel the heat of her even through our layers of clothing. But we were still in public, surrounded by tourists and families.
She broke away, only a fraction, and smiled. I could feel it rather than see it, as her forehead rested against mine.
“I thought I was supposed to be the one kissing you at the end of the night.”
A puff of chocolate-scented laughter escaped. “I guess I couldn’t wait that long. You were being too much of a gentleman.”
