“You were gone before I woke up.” Her cheeks and nose are red from the cool air in the arena, but I swear she’s blushing too.
“Still true.”
She drops her gaze to the ice. Sharks and Minnows has started, and everyone skates toward the other end—some mocking Penn by skating toward him just out of reach and others taking it more seriously. Penn’s pretty fast though evengeared up. He sets his sights on Ruby, who screeches and moves as fast as she can with him gaining on her. Wren falls and D-Low helps her to her feet and pulls her to the other side.
Such a dumb fucking game but damn is it fun. Hannah and I reach the bench.
“Want to sit and watch for a minute?” I ask.
She nods and I take her hand to help her off the ice. Her grin tells me she knows exactly what I’m doing, but she doesn’t pull away even as we take a seat side by side.
Penn must have caught Ruby because she’s in the center with him now as the game starts again. This time D-Low is carrying Wren piggyback.
“I’m so glad you two came by.” I squeeze her fingers in mine and bounce our joined hands down on my thigh a few times.
“Yeah, me too. How was practice?”
“Good. Everything has been great.” Am I smiling at her like an idiot? Check.
She shakes her head side to side, a smirk lifting the corners of her mouth. “You’re kind of adorable right now.”
“Is that so?” I lean in closer, stare dropping to her full lips. I linger there, uncertain if public kissing is allowed and finally deciding it’s worth the risk of being turned down. I brush my lips over hers. Electricity fills my veins. I’m buzzing with happiness.
I pull back far sooner than I’d like. Yep, she’s definitely blushing.
“What are your plans the rest of the day?” I ask instead of dragging her onto my lap like I want.
“I’m not sure. Maybe baking cookies or watching the rest of theTwilightmovies. We talked about going shopping but neither of us have any money so that’s probably out.” Her body tenses like something just occurred to her. “Speaking of money, I want to pay you back for the Jeep. That couldn’t have been cheap.”
My expression shifts into one of clear refusal before I’ve realized I’m speaking with my face.
“You’ve already done too much,” she insists. “Letting me stay with you and the lawyer fees. You can’t also pay for my vehicle.”
“What happened to the Jeep?” I ask coolly, fake concern pulling my brows together in the center. “I don’t remember paying for anything. I think your memory is faulty.”
“Travis.” Her tone is stern, but it only makes me smile wider.
I reach over with the index finger on my free hand and bop her on the nose. “Honey.”
“You are infuriatingly sweet.”
That pulls a laugh from me. “It’s just money.”
The sigh that she lets out has my stomach twisting into knots. “Someday I hope to have enough of it to feel that way.”
“Things are still tough, huh?” I feel awful that I cost her the sponsorship because of the whole breaking-in misunderstanding. Though to be fair, what an asshole her sponsor was for dropping her over that. She deserves better. “Has Everly had any luck finding other sponsorships?”
“Not yet, but she’s hopeful that there will be more opportunities at the beginning of the year so I’m trying to stay optimistic. But honestly, even if they’re covering a portion of my fees, it won’t be enough to keep working with Coach Rodier. I could barely afford him to start with and after everything that’s happened, my savings is basically gone at this point.”
“What about your grandma? Can you ask her for a little help until you get back on your feet?”
She shakes her head. “She isn’t in any position to give me money and asking her would only make her feel bad about it.”
I squeeze her hand. “I already know the answer, but I’ll feel like a jerk if I don’t at least offer to help. We are married and I have some extra dough lying around.”
“Thank you for offering. Truly, I can’t tell you how much it means to me. You’ve been so generous, but I’m going to figure this out on my own. It’s my dream and I want to achieve it knowing that I got myself there. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
