His eyebrows shot up at that. “You drivin’ him there?”
“God willing,” I heaved a sigh. It would be a three-hour drive on the highway, then navigating downtown with probably a million right and left turns. “I’m supposed to. I’ll figure itout.”
I sensed them making faces at each other over my head. “No fair. You guys can’t exchange looks just because you’re taller thanme.”
Griff’s face broke into a smile at me reprimanding them. “You’ll get there just fine, Sav.”
“Yeah.” I shot the puck and was just shy of the net again. “I just wish it wasn’t all snowy right now. Hate driving in the snow,” I mumbled.
I felt Nick come up closer behind me then. He wrapped his arms around my waist and leaned his chin on my shoulder. I practically held my breath because I liked him touching me. I didn’t want him to think I wanted him to move, even though his chin was kind of digging into my shoulder.
“Hate to tell ya this, but we live in Minnesota, darlin,” he said.
Griff’s phone alarm went off then, and I felt my face fall.
For the first time in my skating career, I wasn’t looking forward to jumping back onto the ice. Instead, I wished for a couple more minutes of freedom up here with them. I was genuinely happy up here, unlike how I’d been feeling the past week with the stress over the competition mounting…
But I knew I had to get back to practice.
It’s not like anyone was forcing me to skate… but I felt chained to the ice. That’s just the way it was. Skating was addictive and commanding. The love-hate-relationship I had with it ruled over my life. I thought about quitting practically every other month and filled journal pages about how I hated everything about it… but then, I was never able to actually rip the bandaid off and miss a single practice. I think it had to do with being scared of the unknown… Like if I didn’t have the rink, what would I possibly do with all that free time? Or if I didn’t have skating, who even was I? Skating was the only thing that made me special. It was tied in with my identity. And those questions of quitting always remained hypotheticals that never actually mattered because I’d end up having a great day on the ice, and then all those negative thoughts would take a backseat until the next time a competition neared, or I injured myself.
I quickly handed Nick his stick and jacket back and power-walked over to the door.
I gave the two of them a quick wave before climbing back down.
Just as I threw open the NHL rink’s door, I heard Nick’s voice behind me call, “Sav! Wait up!”
I stopped short and whipped around to see him bounding down the stairs toward me, taking two at a time, and then he was right in front of me, taking up my personal space. His cheeks were flushed from the cold, making the rest of his face look paler than usual.
I felt my mouth drop open in surprise, but then his arms were around my back, hugging me close to his chest. His head dipped closer to mine, and then his warm lips pressed into mine.
It was swift, andlight.
And I wanted more.
When he pulled back, his whole face lit up with a smile.
“I hope that was okay…” he said, suddenly sounding unsure of himself.
In a daring move, I reached up to his head and pulled him back down for another kiss- only the second kiss of my life.
This time, my lips parted, and his tongue swept through my mouth. He released a small groan, which was incredibly attractive. Like I made him do that? I caused that sound? I wanted more than anything to hear itagain…
When he pulled back, his arms were still around me.
“We’ve got to do that again, eh?”
I nodded shyly, trying not to let my face completely give away that I was absolutely elated inside.
“Okay, get back out there, Smol. Have a good practice,” he winked before turning to climb the stairsagain.
“Oh shit!” I heard him cackle. “Moved the stopper and locked Old Griffy Boy upthere!”
I bit my lip to suppress laughing and placed a hand on my chest. I wasn’t sure how to get my heart back into a regular beat to go on with my life like normal after that.
Because that kiss sparked a change.
Standing at the base of that stairwell, I felt a lot less alone here in the rink than everbefore.
