“Yeah, you’re right. You can’t even move your weighted blanket on your own,” hequipped.
I gasped and pushed his arm. “Can to!”
He just shrugged and turned his gaze back to the rink’s wood ceiling with a smile etched on his face.
“What I mean is with figure skating, you’re nice with everyone around you to their faces, but you’re also not hoping for the best for them. You don’t want them to succeed because that wouldn’t be good for you. You put a lot of bad mojo in the air. I wondered if karma came back at me for that when-” I put my gloved hand up my mouth to stop myself from talking. He was too easy to talk to. It was dangerous. I had to be careful not to simply spill all my guts to him.
He looked at me curiously, but I just cleared my throat and redirected. “Basically you end up looking at every girl as competition, even after you leave the rink. It took a long time for me to break free of that mindset, and I still don’t have many friends. I’m always looking at what angle they’re taking and what their true motivation is in talking to me. What are they trying to get from me? Ya know?”
He regarded me with a crease forming between his eyebrows. “I hear you,” he finally said. “But...That sounds lonely. They should make figure skating like gymnastics and make it more team-based,” he suggested.
“Very forward thinking of you TJ, but I doubt restructuring will happen. This year is the first year we can use lyrics in program music,” I fake gasped for effect. “I grew up skating to straight classical music. These girls have no clue how lucky they are,” I laughed.
“Yeesh, figure skating has to get with the times,” he said.
I smirked back at him. “For real.”
He looked down at our interlaced hands. “This isnice.”
I nodded in agreement.
“I like when you have sweet girl hours,” he said. “You have to mix some more of those in.”
I opened my mouth in shock. I was never necessarily not sweet to him.
“I’m sweet,” I sputtered.
He opened his eyes wide, but he was struggling to keep a straight face. “You’ve almost kicked me to the curb like every day thisweek!”
“Yeah, well…” I thought for a moment as I watched his profile. He was a pretty boy who cared way too much about his hair, but he was strikingly handsome. And he was kind. And he was sitting on the boards with me, holding my hand. And I’d be stupid not to affirm my growing feelings for him and finally make a move at this point, right? I needed to be brave in at least one area of my life, and TJ made me feel capable.
That’s what I told myself as I quickly put a gloved hand to his cheek to turn his head. He looked back at me in surprise, but I leaned forward and swiftly kissed his full lips.
When I pulled back, he looked at me with eyes that filled with desire andneed.
“Game on, Brampton,” he said huskily with a wicked smile. He dropped from the boards to stand on his skates and move in front of me. He nudged my legs apart to make room for his waist, and then he was kissing me again.
His tongue swept through my mouth as he deepened the kiss. “Yes,” he said triumphantly against my lips, which sent a pleasant shudder through my entire body.
I looped my arms around his neck and felt myself arch into him, letting out a gasp as he trailed a scratch down my back.
I moved to kiss his neck then, and he released a groan.
“Fuck, babe-”
The rink’s bright white lights suddenly flashed on.
I pulled back from him, and he let his head fall back.
“Our timing is impeccable,” he said matter-of-factly.
I laughed, feeling completely light and happy.
He stared into my eyes. “I knew kissing you would be magic,” he said in a gravelly voice, sending happy butterflies fluttering into my stomach.
I patted his chest and lightly pushed him backward so I could jump down onto my skates.
“You better get going,” I told him. “My girls will be out here soon.”
