My skating problems suddenly seemed a lot less important… because I couldn’t get Nick and his long eyelash-rimmed, happy eyes out of my head.
____
When I stepped back out on the ice for practice, Victoria went a little easier on me. She let me work through warming up at my own pace before turning my program music back on again.
She did question why I was in such a happy mood after being kicked off the ice though, but I just shrugged itoff.
For some reason, saying that I just had my first kiss out loud would lessen its importance or make the memory lose some of itsmagic.
I wanted to keep that secret moment close to my heart.
When I did finally begin my program, I spotted Nick and Griff both walking out of the zamboni’s exit door at the edge of the rink and making their way toward the metal bleachers.
My body hummed with nervous adrenaline over performing in front of them. I did not want to fall, even though they’d probably be supportive no matter what because they were nice guys.
When I nailed my double lutz-double loop-double toe combo in the corner near them, they both stood up and hollered with applause that filled the rink.
I caught Victoria’s annoyed grimace aimed at them and could see Craig shoo-ing them away after that, but the boys weren’t the distraction my coach and Craig thought they were. The boys honestly made my day.
—------
After practice, I quickly changed into some joggers and an Ice League T-shirt and baseball cap– my concession stand uniform– and headed to the lobby.
I struggled to open up the concession stand’s large window– it had a gray paneled covering that had to be unlocked with a key and then pushed up to the top of the window’s opening. I sat there jumping to try and push it all the way up, but soon came to the realization that I wasn’t tall enough. I was about to give up and go find Craig when I felt someone behind me hoist me up, causing me to let out a high-pitched screech.
Looking down, I found Nick’s shining eyes, and my panic was replaced with jittery excitement over seeing him again so soon. He pushed his lips together in amusement. “Sorry, thought I could help ya out, Smol.”
“You scared me!” I chastised him.
I spotted Griff across the lobby shaking his head and laughing as he broke into a jog to come near us. The front of his hair spiked up from the light speed.
“Yeah, I can see that now,” he said, pulling my eyes back to him. “You thought you were gonna get tooken,” he grinned.
“Tooken?” I looked down at him with raisedeyebrows.
“Yes,” he smiled, completely un-embarrassed by his fake word. “Let’s get this thing opened up, I want some popcorn.”
I felt my face burn worrying that he would think I was too heavy as I reached to push the window fully open, but that thought was cut off when he shouted out, “Thatta girl!” like I’d just accomplished something major, making me laugh.
“Thank you,” I said as he set me back down.
“No problemo, Smol,” he said with a grin and reached to turn my hat backwards. “So… did that earn me some free popcorn by any chance?”
Griff chose that moment to half tackle him from behind.
It was my turn to shake my head wryly at both of them.
I thought they would buy their goodies and then leave, but they surprised me by staying and hanging out with me. While I worked on preparing hot chocolates and bosco sticks for customers– usually parents and little siblings of players– they stayed busy by giving each other stupid challenges– like throwing up a handful of popcorn and trying to catch as many pieces in their mouths as possible. After a while, I caught on to the fact that they were betting each other to see who could make me crack up in front of a customer first.
After a big rush came through, I lost track of them, and when things finally calmed down, I felt a bit disappointed that they were no longer hanging around… but right before Duke’s game was about to start, they strolled into the lobby in their skates, helmet, and ref uniforms.
They looked so much larger on skates. I felt my face crack into a bright smile as Nick curled his arms up to give me a muscle-man pose, and Griff, who was trailing behind him, just gave me a salute as they walked into the NHL side of the rink.
I watched them skate-run onto the ice and then glide into an easy-going warm-up lap before the squirts were released onto the ice after them.
I continued to help customers, but I felt like my attention was glued to the ice. I usually tried to time out the shifts so I could catch Duke’s playing time. His team had four forward lines, and each line played roughly 45-60 seconds, so every couple minutes, I’d pretend to be busy making something in the back while I secretly just watched him… but now with the guys reffing, I caught myself wanting to watch them too…
7. Savannah
