ask me. Sure, I wouldn’t be able to turn anywhere and would skate into a lot of walls, but it feels preferable to what I’m doing now, which is wobbling like a newborn foal and waiting for the inevitable moment when my skull meets the ice.
Gray, in the meanwhile, glides across the rink like he’s been born with skates attached to his feet. It only took him about ten seconds to get his bearings when he first stepped onto the ice, and now he’s charging across it like the devil is on his heels. Supposedly he hasn’t skated since high school, but I call bullshit. Whatever it is he’s doing looks a hell of a lot like he’s been practicing daily for the last decade.
As if to prove my suspicions, he skates toward me full speed and at the last moment, performs the perfect hockey stop, tiny shards of ice flying from underneath the blades toward me like little missiles. He laughs at whatever he sees on my face.
“Have you moved at all?” he asks with a teasing tone.
“I have in fact moved,” I say with as much dignity as I can muster. “I came from that bench”—I motion toward it with my head. There is no way I’ll risk pulling my hands away from the sweet, sweet railing—“all the way to here.”
Granted, here is a whopping ten feet away, but I’m calling it an accomplishment.
Gray shakes his head with a fond expression on his face, crooks his finger and motions me toward him.
“Come on, then.”
I eye him with disbelief. “Come where?”
“To me.”
“I’m good.” I’m surprised I haven’t pried off the railing at this point, considering how desperately I’m clutching it.
He shakes his head and chuckles as he glides toward me, erasing the last few feet between us. “I won’t let you fall.”
He reaches out his hands, and I grudgingly grab onto them.
“I’m pretty sure that despite all your good intentions, I’ll be able to manage even with your help.”
He smiles at me, and he looks so happy that for a moment I forget that I’m a stumble away from a concussion.
“How is it possible you didn’t learn to skate as a kid?” Gray asks. “We live in Massachusetts.”
“Contrary to popular belief, it’s entirely possible to avoid skating if you’re determined enough.”
“But we went skating as kids,” Gray says with a frown.
“You went skating. I happened to have a conveniently placed cold whenever you started talking about ice and hockey. In fact, I felt a bit feverish while we were buying your skates. Maybe coming here to test them out was a mistake. I better get back to the bench. This might be serious. I might have an allergic reaction to skating. I need to get out of here before my face gets all swollen.”
“You lying liar who lies.” Gray pokes his finger into my side.
“It’s unnatural,” I say as I try to squirm away, which only results in me stumbling on my skates and grabbing onto Gray more firmly. “Who came up with something this crazy anyway?” I point to my skates. “What was wrong with walking?”
“I want to say the Dutch?” Gray says. “And walking on ice is slow and depending on the level of slipperiness, dangerous.”
“You don’t have to walk on ice. Walk on the road. We invented those for a reason,” I grumble.
We stop in the middle of the ice.
“Okay.” Gray’s voice is all business now. This does not bode well for my plan to maneuver us toward the exit and escape to greener pastures. Emphasis on the word greener. What I wouldn’t give to feel some grass underneath my feet right about now.
“Keep your knees bent and your weight leaned forward,” Gray instructs. “What you want to do is a sort of march in one place and then try and move forward, okay?”
“What I want to do is veg out on the couch and not damage my pretty face by using it to cushion my fall,” I mutter.
“I promise you, you’ll be just as pretty after we’re done,” Gray assures me.
Then the bastard lets go of my hands and abandons me in the middle of the rink. Okay, so he’s only about five feet away, but it feels like a mile.
“Put your hands out for balance,” he suggests.
So it begins. And by begins, I mean I’m falling. A lot. Mostly on my ass, which turns out to be the wrong move. Apparently I’m supposed to fall on my side, and Gray doesn’t seem to get