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Chapter Six
Luke didn’t have to guess how Alexa felt or what she wanted. She wore her heart on her sleeve and her feelings on her face. And when she reached for him, he knew he was a goner. If he let the kiss go on, they’d end up on the ground, not on the ice.
With more willpower than he thought he had, he broke the kiss. “Skating, darlin’.”
Eyes glazed, she looked up at him and nodded. “Skating.”
“You gonna be steady out there?” he asked, his hands on her forearms, keeping her upright.
“No, but you already said you’d hold me.” She grinned and stepped back. “Do I get to try on my skates now?”
He nodded, already knowing they’d fit. This time, he’d had to go to the source—her best friend Cara Hartley, a Serendipity police officer who Luke found at the police station in town. She’d looked him up and down, placed her hands on her hips, and divulged Alexa’s shoe size. “I have a gun, and I know how to use it,” she then said. “Break her heart, and you’ll answer to me.”
“Message received,” he told her. “I like how you two look out for each other.” He inclined his head. “Well done. And glad to see you’re feelin’ better.”
The big bad cop’s expression softened. “Thanks.”
“Also glad your man came around,” Luke said, pushing his luck a little further.
Her eyes narrowed.
“And now I’m getting out while the getting’s good.” With a wink, he’d taken off, heading next to the small store located in the skating rink in the next town over.
Cole joined him for the ride, laughing all the way there—and back. Luke ignored him, figuring he’d have some chuckles of his own when Cole found his woman.
Now, Luke turned back to his female and watched her lace up the skates.
“They fit!” she exclaimed, her excitement like his niece’s on Christmas.
“But they’re new, so you’ll probably end up with blisters,” he warned her. “We’ll take it easy.” He stood and held out a hand, which she readily grabbed.
A few minutes later, they were on the ice. He wished he could say she was a natural. She wasn’t. But what she lacked in skill, she more than made up for in both enthusiasm and willingness to keep getting back up—no matter how many spills she took. And unfortunately for her, she took plenty. Her ass would be sore tomorrow, which meant he’d have to give her some TLC today.
No big chore.
On what felt to Luke like her hundredth tumble, he caught her before her butt hit the ice. “And we’re all finished for today,” he said.
“I can go more,” she said through chattering teeth.
He wrapped his arm around her waist and steered them toward the lake’s edge. “If you won’t admit to freezing your ass off, I will. I’m cold, and I need your body heat to warm me.”
Her eyes darkened, but she didn’t give up that easily. “One more circle around the lake.”
At that moment, Luke cursed her father for instilling that need to prove herself in his daughter. “No. You’re freezing, and your butt cheeks hurt like hell, but you’ve never given up on anything in your life, so if I don’t call it a day, we’ll be out here while you try to prove something to me you don’t have to prove. This was supposed to be fun, remember?”
She blushed. “I . . . yeah, I remember. And I did have fun!” From the sparkle in her eyes, he couldn’t help but believe her.
“Me too. Now we have a cabin all to ourselves where the heat’s pumping and the bed’s warm. So you tell me, do you want to keep on bruising your pretty behind or let me ease those aches and pains in a way that I promise you’ll like?” His own blood pumped faster at the notion. He raised an eyebrow and waited for her to decide.
“Well, when you put it that way . . . ” She grasped his hand. “Last one to the cabin is a rotten egg.” She took off, but Luke wasn’t about to let her fall again, so he grabbed her around the waist and carried her off the ice, listening to her shrieks of put me down the entire way.
* * *
Alexa had a blast on the ice. Sure, she sucked at skating. Who knew that it wasn’t like riding a bike? Not that her father encouraged that either—concussions are dangerous, Alexa. But Luke never lost patience. He just held out a hand, helped her back onto her feet, and off they went again. He held her tight in his strong arms until she was ready to go solo again. She inevitably fell onto her butt again.
By the end, her feet hurt like hell, she probably had those blisters he’d mentioned, and frostbite was setting in, but he’d still had to drag her off the ice. “Luke?” she asked as he drove them from the lake to the cabin.
