stupid, sexy twinkle in his eyes, he could get her to do just about anything.
Sam called out a few words of encouragement as he sped past. “Is ice skating this scary?” she whispered.
“Worse,” Dylan confirmed. “Because when you fall, it’s cold on your ass.”
“Tell me again why I thought this was a good idea.” She gripped his arm like it was the last lifeboat on the Titanic and tried to concentrate on his warmth, the way the strength of his body supported her still-wobbly legs.
“Look around, Carrie. You’ve created a winter wonderland in Magnolia.”
“It’s pretty cool,” she admitted. “But it wasn’t all me. Everyone pitched in to help. Even you. That’s how it works in this community. You understand that now, right? Magnolia is special just the way it is.”
“One lap already,” he told her instead of answering.
She looked around and realized they’d made it around the rink, and she hadn’t fallen. In fact, she was slowly getting the hang of skating. No way would she let go of Dylan’s arm, and he continued to hold her close. But she started to relax and enjoy the feeling of the cool breeze across her skin as they skated.
“This song,” she murmured as the music changed to another ballad, this one a sweet track by Norah Jones. “I love it.”
“I remember,” he said, his voice tickling her ear. “That’s why I requested it.”
They’d danced to this song at her senior prom. Carrie hadn’t brought Dylan although they’d been dating several months at that point. Her parents had forbidden it, and she hadn’t been strong enough to defy them.
Instead, she’d gone with a group of friends, telling herself she didn’t care about not having anyone to slow dance with when the time came.
But Dylan had surprised her, sneaking into the dance in his rented tux. She’d been shocked because the weeks leading up to the prom, he’d done nothing but make fun of school functions.
He’d come because it was important to her. If she hadn’t been in love with him before then, that night had sealed the deal.
Here she was a decade later, her heart undeniably his again despite her best efforts to keep it guarded.
“Are you ready to go it alone?” he asked and the panic that gripped her was mortifying. He was talking about skating, she realized, not life in general.
Even so, she wanted to protest as he loosened his arm from her grasp. The rink was crowded with skaters and even more people watched from the square. She understood that many of them were watching her and Dylan.
But she put aside her worries about what other people thought as she focused all her concentration on an attempt not to fall on her face.
“I’ve got this,” she answered because she wasn’t going to let fear—even a silly fear about roller skating—dictate her life any longer.
Dylan released her and for a moment her legs stiffened, and she thought she was going down.
“Relax,” he reminded her. “I’m right here.”
She forced herself to take a breath and concentrated on the music and the rhythm of moving her feet. She had no delusion about looking graceful, but she managed an entire loop around the perimeter of the rink without tripping or falling or in any way making a spectacle of herself.
The longer she skated, the more confident she became. How many other trivial things could she master if she tried?
“I can’t ride a bike, either,” she announced when Dylan skated close again.
His eyes widened but he didn’t make fun of her. “Do you want to learn?”
“Yes,” she breathed. “I want to try everything.”
He reached for her hand, the hold gentle but still supportive. “I like the sound of that.”
Just then a trio of prepubescent kids whizzed by, skating far too fast and darting in and out of other skaters.
“Slow down,” a father holding hands with his young daughter called.
The last speedster immediately slowed, his left foot kicking back and catching the edge of Carrie’s skate.
She wobbled and Dylan moved to pull her close, but it was too late. The toe of her skate caught, and she pitched forward. She closed her eyes and instinctively held out her hands so she didn’t actually land on her face. Instead of hitting the hard floor, she was yanked to one side and ended up sprawled across Dylan.
The fall had knocked the air from her lungs, and she worked to make her breathing normal again. People continued to skate around them, giving the pair a wide berth.
“You okay?” he