“You workyourfeet together.” She shooed away the six-year-olds hobbling along. “Pardon me, excuse me. So sorry.” She crashed into the wall, arms and legs flailing.
Matt rescued her, trying very hard not to laugh as she straightened her shirt, squared the waist of her jeans, and tossed her hair over her shoulder.
“Well, that was fun,” she said, sweat trickling down her back. “Where’s a video camera when you need one?”
“Guess we got tangled up.” Matt took her hand as Nora continued the couple’s skate with the Eagles’ “Best of My Love.”
“You’re laughing,” she said, settling into Matt’s movements, thinking about how goofy she must’ve looked.
“No, not laughing.”
“Then you’re over-smiling.”
Now he laughed and kissed her. “We’re going to be great together, Harlow.”
“We’d better be, or I’m telling Immanuel on you.” She adjusted her feet and rolled along, smiling, feeling all the shy yet glorious sensations of being so close to someone who saw through her.
Harlow enjoyed her unhindered free fall into love. When she’d fallen in love with Xander, she wasn’t free on the inside. Now she was.
On his first day back in LA after the trial, Matt met a man on set who knew a lot about Immanuel, and he started teaching Matt from the Good Book.
Harlow’s skate ran into Matt’s again, and she fell against his chest. He kissed her cheek and eased his hand around to her hip. As awkward as it was to skate so close, she stayed against him, swaying side to side.
After his courtroom victory, Matt bought steaks and corn on the cob from Biggs and grilled out at Dupree’s, who carried home an apple pie from Sweet Conversations. Tuesday tossed a lovelygarden salad, and they ate that night with Bodie and his family at Dupree’s dining room table.
“Harlow, welcome to thefamily,”Dupree said when he’d poured the wine. “If you ever need any help at your place, something fixedor looked at, just call Ma.”
“Tuesday?”
His laugh rang through the kitchen.“Naw, just pulling your leg. Callme. If I can’t come, I’ll send oneof my guys.”
“Don’t pull my leg, Dupree. I’m tall enough as it is.”
Laughter was truly a healing balm.
The techno dance beat of Shannon’s “Let the Music Play” revved up the rink.
“Babe, I got to skate!” Matt shoved off to join a couple of teens in the shuffle line, and in his haste, kind of, sort of, gave Harlow a little push.
“Matt, hey...” She flailed, again, teetering, then tottering, skates clicking and clacking against the floor. “What happened to Elvis and take my hand? Remember the half-wall incident of 1987?” Harlow grabbed at the air, straining to stay on her feet. “Somebody, anybody ... hey . . . take my hand.”
Matt zoomed by, miming a dropped bomb on his heart.
“I’m going to bomb you with these skates when I take them off. No, I’m notevengoing to take them off.”
Suddenly, a gaggle of girls swarmed around her. One of them grabbed her right hand, and another her left, and they held her steady as she worked her skates into alignment.
They talked like she was part of their crowd, ignoring the beat of the music, leisurely skating with one foot extended and tipped up to roll on the back wheels. Round and round she went, finding a smoothness in it all, even managed to do that thing with one foot forward, rolling on the back wheels. Did the Starlight pass out gold medals?
They chatted about the upcoming school year and how so-and-so was the predicted homecoming queen. Two of the girls weregoing out for volleyball, while the other two planned to audition for the school play.
When the Commodores’ “Brick House” poured through the speakers, the girls came to life and skated away, singing and pointing to one another. “She’s mighty, mighty . . .”
They motioned for Harlow to join them, but she wasn’t quite ready for “Brick House” tomfoolery.
“Well, well, we meet again.” Simon skated next to her. “Know what I was thinking, Harlow? The first day you came to Sea Blue Beach, you seemed sort of broken.”
“I thought I was hiding it so well.”
