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“See?” Shelley pointed toward it. “Looks like they’re early.”
“On time is more like it,” the old man muttered, turning away and walking toward the counter where the kids would collect their skates.
Shelley watched him with a smile as a few kids piled out of the minivan and another SUV pulled in beside it. When she had come to Snowy Pine Ridge a couple of years ago, she had been fleeing her old life—or what she had originally envisioned her life to be, anyway.
Ever since she’d been young, the only thing she had wanted to be was an Olympic figure skater. But those dreams had been shattered when she had suffered a career-ending injury thanks to a painful and humiliating fall during a routine. After that, she had fled to this town to try to figure out some way to cope with the loss of her dream.
But what she had found here had turned out to be better than anything she could’ve ever imagined for herself. Because not only had Snowy Pine Ridge become her home, but it had led her to the love of her life, Matthew, and his son that she had also come to love like her own. This snowy little town had given her a home and a family. And eventually, it had also given her these classes, where she could teach children how to ice skate and pass on some of her knowledge to them. In doing so, it had reignited the passion within her. A passion that she thought had gone dormant along with her Olympic career.
As the kids began pouring out of their parents’ vehicles and traipsing across the parking lot, Shelley threw a quick look over her shoulder toward the owner of the rink. Rudolph was on the other side of the building, behind the counter typically used for ice skate rental. She watched as he picked out the sizes he knew that they’d need for the kids that didn’t yet have their own skates, picking out the best ones that he could while muttering to himself about the inconvenience of it all. But despite his words and his blatant complaints, he couldn’t quite hide the joy that was dancing behind his eyes. Which only served to convince Shelley that his current grumpiness was nothing more than an act.
Rudolph was well known around town for being a bit of a curmudgeon. His usual stodgy demeanor was something almost every single person in Snowy Pine Ridge was familiar with. But ever since Shelley had launched her classes, she had begun to see a different side of the man.
He was still grumpy and still complained about every single thing that occurred around the rink. But it didn’t have the same level of gusto as his complaints about the other goings-on around town. More than once, Shelley had caught him watching the children as they skated, nailing tricks and choreography that they had only dreamed of doing when they first began, and smiling.
Of course, the moment that he had noticed Shelley watching, he’d immediately reaffixed his usual scowl on his face and walked off muttering to himself. But it didn’t change the fact that she had caught him in the first place. Not that Rudolph would ever admit to it, but Shelley had long since figured out that the old man was not only tolerating these classes but was actually enjoying them.
Sound rushed through the roller rink as the door was pulled open, and boys and girls began sprinting through the space. They ran by Shelley, yelling greetings at her as they made their way to Rudolph and the benches by the counter so they could begin putting on their skates. The moment they reached the area where the old man stood, his face broke out in a grin as he began talking to them, handing over the skates to the ones that needed them. And before long, she was out on the ice with all of them, beginning her instruction and leaving Rudolph to his own devices.
She glanced in his direction a few times, noticing that while he was technically working, he never strayed far from the area of the ice rink. And as the training time began to dwindle and the final ten minutes approached, an idea struck her.
“All right,” Shelley called out, and the wide-eyed gazes of all the children alighted on her. “We’re down to the last ten minutes. You all know what that means!”
“Free skate!” The kids all yelled in unison before they started to skate around at random, trying to work on whatever their hearts desired as the time for their parents to pick them up approached.
Shelley usually stayed out on the ice with them, but this time around she turned her back toward them and made her way off the rink to where Rudolph was standing, watching through the glass.
“I need to run to the restroom and grab some water,” she fibbed effortlessly. “Do you want to take over and watch them for a little bit?”
“You want me to watch the little buggers?” Rudolph asked, affixing a scowl to his face despite the sparkle in his eyes at the thought.
“I’ll be back so fast you don’t even realize I’m gone,” Shelley explained, kicking off her skates before he could protest and scurried toward the hallway that led to the bathroom.
The moment that Shelley knew she was out of sight, she pressed herself back against the wall as she waited for a minute or two to pass. When she felt like it had been long enough that Rudolph would have turned his attention back toward the children, she peeked her head out from the hallway to see what he was doing.
Her mouth popped open in a small ‘o’ of surprise when she saw him sitting at one of the benches, lacing up a pair of his own skates as a few of the children cheered him on. He skated onto the ice with them without so much as looking back in her direction, launching into a race between a couple of the kids and him.
No longer caring if the old man saw her, she stepped out of the hallway and stood, leaning against the wall as she watched Rudolph come to life as he skated around the rink with the kids. By the time the front doors were pulled open and the first of the parents arrived, the owner of the rink was red-faced and laughing.
“Is that Rudolph?” a voice said beside her, and she glanced to the side to find Pamela Murphy, a mother of one of the kids, staring with wide-eyed shock at the ice rink.
“It sure is,” Shelley said with a smile, warmth spreading through her as she turned her attention back toward the ice.
She found it hard to believe just how much Rudolph seemed to come alive during these moments with the kids. And if the murmuring from the parents who had just walked in the door was any indicator, they felt exactly the same way.
The large digital clock at the far end of the wall let out a loud, bleating trill, announcing the time and the kids all groaned before turning to double check that their parents were there. Rudolph, who apparently had lost all track of time, blinked his eyes rapidly and his head swiveled to the newly gathered crowd. He balked when he saw all the other townsfolk watching him, murmuring to themselves about the rarity of finding Rudolph Hutchins having fun. And then he skated off the ice as quickly as he could, disappearing behind the counter once more to help the kids return their skates.
Shelley laughed and shook her head, turning her attention back to the parents and the children that were lining up to leave. She was swept away in a flurry of goodbyes and ‘see you next weeks’, and it felt like the next thing she knew, she had blinked, and the children were making their way back across the parking lot toward their parents’ vehicles.
The rink was silent again, so silent that Shelley felt a slight ringing in her ears as she walked toward where Rudolph was disinfecting the used skates.
“You seemed like you had quite a bit of fun tonight,” she quipped, reaching up to tuck a strand of short blonde hair back into the ponytail at the nape of her neck. “I haven’t seen you smile like that in… well… ever.”
Rudolph’s dark brown eyes flicked up to hers, scowl still firmly in place.
“They bet me that I couldn’t beat them in a race around the rink,” he huffed.
“And did you beat them?” Shelley arched an eyebrow at him, despite the fact that she already knew the answer.
