Page 67 of Falling Like Snow

“Well, if I go down, you’re going down with me. We’re in this together.”

I grab his hand and rise on shaky legs. We stand completely still with our arms out, trying to keep our balance.

“I have no idea how to ice-skate,” I laugh nervously.

“Me neither. We’ll figure it out.” We shift so we’re standing side by side. “Ready?”

“I guess?”

We push off, each with one foot gliding forward… except I lose what little balance I had. My legs are flailing when Asher grips my waist, making my stomach swoop as he holds me up.

“This is a lot harder than it looks,” I say, catching my bearings and locking my knees.

“Can’t believe it takes more than enthusiasm to be good at it,” he says sarcastically.

“Shut up.” I slap him on the arm.

And fall on my butt.

Asher squats and helps me stand, and we try again.

And again.

And again.

Fifteen minutes later, we’re inching around the circle without falling every two seconds, so I’m calling it a win. The shops surrounding the square begin turning off their lights and flipping their signs to closed. A few of the employees wave at us as they lock up.

I gaze at Asher’s profile, my heart swelling. “I can’t believe you did this. It’s incredible.”

His eyes flit to mine; then he shrugs. “I had a lot of help. I was using an extended garden hose from the library until Dorothy started complaining that one of her girls was going to trip over it while they were walking around the square.”

“Oh my god, you were the one in Dorothy’s way…,” I say, putting the pieces together.

“It was taking forever, so I asked the fire department to help.”

“You didn’t!”

“Dorothy was really mad then. I had a fire truck here blocking the street, flooding this thing every couple of hours.” He laughs. “Once they started talking about taxpayer dollars and claiming they had to leave, I went back to using the garden hose. But by then, it was almost finished. The problem was a million things popped up this past week. I had to have Cooper, Ellis, and Jake help since I couldn’t be in two places at once and it was supposed to start warming back up tonight.”

“Ellis knew?”

“Her job was mostly to keep tabs on you. I told her and your mom to keep you away from the town square for a few days—hence the reason you couldn’t come shopping with me for the gingerbread-house contest.”

“My mom knew?” I ask.

“You think I could pull this off without the mayor knowing?”

“I guess not. Still, I can’t believe I didn’t know.”

“It helped that lately you’ve been pretty… distracted,” he says, and I swear there’s an edge to his voice. But then he smiles at me. “But, yeah, keeping a secret from you is not easy—especially when you keep getting upset with me about it.”

“Wait,” I say, “this has been your secret?”

“Well, yeah,” he says. “I thought that was obvious.”

“So you don’t have a girlfriend?” The words fly out of my mouth before I even realize they’ve escaped.

“Um, no?” Asher says, looking positively puzzled. “Why would I keep having a girlfriend a secret from you?”