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Which meant, rather than going home to an empty house, here he was spending another day with Paige. From the moment he’d picked up a razor and stared at his ugly mug in the mirror, to the second he’d pulled up in front of Paige’s condo, a contented smile had remained firmly in place.
“You look like the cat that swallowed the canary.” She returned the smile as he opened the car door for her.
Circling the hood, he dashed between raindrops and climbed into the driver side, and still grinning, turned to her. “No canary. Just know it’s going to be a good day.”
“Oh? I sure hope you know what you’re talking about.”
Pulling out onto the main road, he slapped an open-faced hand onto his chest. “Uh, she doubts we’ll have a good day together.”
“No!” Her voice jumped an octave. “That’s not what I meant at all. It’s just that, I mean…” She sighed. “The only thing you mentioned was skates.”
He felt the pull of his cheeks against his lips once again. “That would be because we’re going ice skating.”
The sound of air whistling between her lips as she winced was almost enough to make him change his mind. Almost.
“Just so there’s no surprise, I don’t know how to ice skate.”
“First of all, I thought Houston is supposed to be a filled with ice hockey fans. Folks who love everything ice-skating.”
The way all color drained suddenly from her face almost made him laugh.
“That’s different.” She squirmed, tugging at the safety belt across her shoulder. “I’ve never been very sports minded.”
“Could have fooled me.” A sports gene seemed to dominate the Baron gene pool. He reached over and gently tapped the top of her hand, wishing he could keep her hand in his. “Relax. I’m only teasing. Even in the Northeast, there are plenty of people who don’t skate. Have you ever been rollerblading?”
“As a kid, yeah. But let’s say I left that pastime behind with my braces.”
“You wore braces?” Somehow he’d just assumed every Baron was born perfect, right down to their teeth.
“Doesn’t everyone?”
“I suppose.” He had never considered braces much and had no intention of doing so now. “If you were any good at rollerblading, skating on ice won’t be much harder once you get the hang of it.”
“If you say so.” She didn’t look terribly convinced.
The rink wasn’t far from Paige’s home. Choosing a parking spot under one of the few shade trees in the concrete lot, he hurried to open the car door and then forced himself not to reach for her hand as they walked into the building.
“Ooh.” She hugged herself, rubbing her arms. “This is colder than I expected.”
“You’ll warm up once we’re moving on the ice.”
She shot him a sideways glance that told him she wasn’t holding out much hope that he was right. Or maybe she wasn’t expecting to spend that much time on the ice.
Since everyone working the rink seemed to know who he was, the man in charge of the skate rentals actually moved to the back of the shop and personally sharpened the skates he and Paige would be wearing.
Another few minutes and he helped her with her skates, lacing them up nice and tight. “This will support your ankles better, make it easier to maneuver.”
“Maneuver?” She made a sound that might have been a chuckle. “I’ll be lucky if I can stand.”
“Now, now.” He slapped the side of her booted ankle, set her foot on the ground, and pushed to his feet. “Here we go.”
Even though walking on the rubber matted floors wasn’t too difficult, she wobbled enough to warrant an offer to hold her hand. When she eagerly snatched hold of his hand, he decided this had been his best idea yet.
At the entry to the ice, she stopped in her tracks. “I don’t know about this.”
“It’ll be fine. You’ll see.”
Heaving a deep sigh, he could see her strapping on the Baron determination he’d been used to seeing. Pulling away from his hand, she grabbed onto the side and put one foot on the ice.
