Page 31 of New Roots
More importantly, I hadn’t missed the fact that she, too, snuck glances at me when she thought I wasn’t watching.
After learning the basics and practicing a few times, our instructors felt we were ready to play for real, so they broke us up into teams to play a full game. There were usually four to a team, so they set us up with another group of four—two men and two women who were friends and came together. They assigned us the far sheet of ice to play on, so we grabbed our equipment and made our way over there.
After playing two ends—curling’s version of innings or rounds—we were all tied up.
We played the final end by switching up the teams—men versus women. I felt a little bad because Anna was the only one on the ladies’ team who had prior experience with curling. Whereas three-fourths of the men’s team had played before. Not that it made us pros, but it definitely gave us a slight advantage.
Surprisingly, though, their team played great, and it came down to the final stone to determine the winner. Unfortunately for them, I threw the final stone, and it was quite possibly one of the best shots I’d ever made in my life.
In the end, the men’s team won 1-0, but Anna claimed the girls won because me growing up in Sweden gave us an unfair advantage.
We thanked our instructors, handed back our rental equipment, and had just walked out of the building and into the parking lot when Stella grabbed my arm.
“Thank you for inviting me. I had so much fun.”
Even without the words, her smile told me she’d enjoyed her time.
“Apparently the other people we played with were all here on a double date,” she carried on, waving her hands animatedly. “I never think of doing fun things like this on a date. I’ll have to remember that. I think this would be so much fun to do for date night.”
Boom. There it was. The missing puzzle piece.
Now that I knew she wasn’t saying no to all dating, but rather, just dating people like Doucet, I knew I had to take my chance. First, because I had been biding my time, waiting until I knew if she was open to dating. Second, because I didn’t want someone else to bring her here on a date.Iwanted to be that guy.
However, just as I was about to ask her, Archer and Anna walked up and thwarted my plan.
“Pizza time!” Anna yelled as we made our way across the parking lot over to the pizzeria.
“Did you have a good time?” Archer asked Stella.
“Yeah, but it’s a lot harder than I thought.” She was smiling as she said it, though I watched her rub the side of her thigh a bit where I was sure a bruise was forming.
“My favorite part was when she almost pulled your pants down,” Anna said, giggling.
Stella had been standing beside me and reached for her broom but somehow lost her balance. I’d lunged to catch her, but my broom had caught on the back of her shoe and sent her stumbling. She grabbed at anything she could and picked the nearest object—my pants—and I’d instinctively moved one hand from supporting her to hitching my waistband to avoid an accidental strip show. She’d pulled harder with the other arm to steady herself and had dragged me down with her. She’d landed on top of me—right between my legs.Thankfully nothing was injured on my end, but I knew her pride had taken a hit.
Stella let out a combination of a groan and sigh next to me. “Ugh. I just feel bad I crotched into you—I mean crashed!Crashedinto you. Dear God, ignore me right now.”
Archer snorted and Anna chuckled beside us, and I watched Stella’s face turn bright red—which only made her cuter.
