Page 15 of 50 First Skates

“Is he? I hadn’t noticed,” I said sarcastically.

She ran off, blowing kisses like a drama queen.

And Dean and I got back to my lesson.

After he felt I’d nailed the glide, he let me skate in front of him to see how fast I was comfortable going. We had the rink to ourselves by then, which was something.

He told me to just go from one end to the other, down the middle, without trying to turn. I did that five times, working up to a modest speed, without losing my balance.

I was elated.

I felt good.

It was exhilarating.

The sixth time, I decided to attempt a hockey stop without telling him first. I committed to the stop and turned my feet. But one foot caught and the other didn’t. I did sort of a desperate spinning wobble that was not hot and my arms flailed around, grabbing whatever was nearest, and it turned out it was him. He was right there. Behind me. I felt his arms around me. His strong arms around my torso and my arms. I felt the steadiness of him. His height. His stillness. We just stood there like that for infinity minutes, it seemed. His jaw against my temple.

Slowly, I started to angle myself to face him. He loosened his grip on me. I turned around the rest of the way quickly, lost my balance, had to grab onto his hoodie. His arms were around my waist. I was breathless. I could hear my heart beating so fast, but I flattened my palm against his chest because I couldfeelhis.

I tilted my head to look up at him. His jaw was tense. His hazel eyes were searching mine. Questioning me. Did he want me to kiss him? I wanted to. I wanted to kiss him. I tilted my chin, parted my lips. Closed my eyes.

Waited.

“Soleil…” he whispered.

I felt his head jerk back.

The rush of cold air as he pulled away from me. He held on to my forearms. My hands. Made sure I didn’t fall.

He waited until I was definitely steady on my feet before he let me go.

I didn’t apologize. Neither did he. He just stood there, four feet away from me, and said, “I think you accomplished a lot today. How do you feel?”

I felt horny. I felt frustrated. I felt more excited than I’d felt in years. Because I was finally skating. But mostly because of him.

“I’m really proud of myself and I’m happy,” I said.

He smiled. It was the first time he’d smiled all morning. And gosh darn it, he had a dimple. “Good.”

“How do you feel?” I asked.

“Good. I’m proud of you too.”

“Happy?”

His smile faded. “Happy for you.”

“Can we do this again tomorrow?”

His faded smile became a determined frown. “Absolutely. I’ll be here.”

“We’ll continue where we left off?”

He licked his lips, nodded once, and said, “Absolutely.”

I asked him if he wanted to grab a coffee with me, but he said he promised my dad he’d drop me off right after the skating lesson.

So that’s what happened.