"How?"
"The surface is colder."
"Not helpful."
"I'll be right there with you."
"Also not helpful. You're forty and haven't skated since—when did you say? When Elena was twelve?"
“Yep.” I stood, offered my hand. “C’mon, it’ll be fun. You’re the one who said I needed more fun in my life and yet, you’re the one being the wet blanket.”
She straightened as if I’d thrown a gauntlet. “You make a solid point and I hate being called out for being a hypocrite. So let’s do this. Let’shee-heeandhaw-hawright into the emergency room.”
I laughed. “You’re a woman of extremes. I like it. Let’s go.”
She took my hand. Her fingers were coldthrough her gloves, and I resisted the urge to warm them between my palms.
We stepped onto the ice.
The next twenty minutes were an exercise in controlled chaos. Willow clung to my arm with a death grip that would leave bruises, her ankles wobbling in ways that defied physics. I wasn't much better—my muscle memory from a decade ago proved unreliable at best, traitorous at worst.
We fell. Multiple times. Once she went down and took me with her, my attempt to catch her only accelerating our mutual collapse. We landed in a heap of tangled limbs, her beneath me, my hands braced on either side of her head to avoid crushing her completely.
Her face was inches from mine. Eyes bright. Cheeks flushed from cold and exertion. A strand of hair stuck to her lip.
Neither of us moved.
"Hi," she said.
"Hi."
"This is uncomfortable."
"Very."
"The ice is freezing through my jeans."
“Sounds terrible.”
Still, neither of us moved.
A kid skated past, spraying ice in our direction, andthe spell broke. I pushed myself up, helped her stand, and we made our way to the rink's edge with what remained of our dignity.
"Okay," Willow said, collapsing onto a bench. "I think we've established that skating is not our sport."
"We could try again."
"We could also set ourselves on fire. Same energy."
I sat beside her, closer than necessary. Our shoulders touched through layers of wool and down. "Hungry?"
"Starving. Falling down is exhausting."
"There's a restaurant around the corner. Looks Italian."
Her eyes lit up. "With carbs?"
"Extensive carbs."
