Ink and Ice

by Erin McRae

  They kept throwing the seal plushies onto the ice, too.

  In the end Aaron didn’t win or medal, but they all knew that going in. That wasn’t the point. The point was being an Olympian and getting to be in the one place in the world other than his island where people were at least a little bit like him. Besides, coming in seventh was a hell of an achievement for someone who’d hadn’t even been an also-ran a year ago.

  Aaron might not have gotten a medal, but when he got back to Saint Paul he did get his rings. Zack went with him when he went to get them tattooed below his ribcage, where they’d never be seen in any competition-legal costume.

  “I want to go back,” Aaron said, gripping Zack’s hand tight as the tattoo artist worked her magic. “Another four years. I want to do that again.”

  “Whatever you want,” Zack said, gripping back.

  BUT OF COURSE THE ISLAND and the lake and the seals called, and Aaron had no idea what to do but fret about the cost of four more years of hard work away from home, and Zack had no idea what to do other than say he’d be there for whatever Aaron’s choices turned out to be. It was nice to follow something other than destruction for a change.

  In the short term, for Aaron, there were ice shows and tours across the country and around the world. Which was evidently a first for him; as he told Zack, he’d never before felt like he could leave the island in the summer when his family needed him most.

  But he spent most of the previous summer away to no dire consequences, so there was no reason not to do it again. It turned out there was quite a bit of demand among figure skating fans for that year’s surprise star.

  So they spent a lot of that summer apart, but that also worked for them. With distance, they could slow things down and not rush completely headlong into a relationship that still needed time and work to heal and deepen and grow. Zack could sit in Saint Paul and write while Aaron travelled, and the adult hockey league didn’t stop playing just because the pros took the summer off or someone’s boyfriend had gone to the Olympics.

  Katie and Brendan started inviting Zack to the farm for dinner on the weekends—at least the weekends when they weren’t off travelling for their own ongoing skating careers. Zack was pretty clear they hadn’t hated him in a while, if ever, but he was never quite sure when the turning point had been. Now he worried they liked him enough to ask him to babysit the cows while they were on the road. The cows still freaked him out.

  Zack went to the last show of Aaron’s tour, one Aaron, Katie, and Brendan were all skating in together. Since it was in Saint Paul. Matt went too and somehow smuggled in both another seal plushie for Aaron and flowers for some skater he’d been talking to since the whole ridiculous Four Continents road trip situation. They sat in the front row, in the seats basically on the ice. Zack spent the whole time in awe of the art Aaron and his fellow skaters could create—and anticipating the moment when he could, finally, have Aaron back in his arms. They’d been apart for weeks.

  Also, wow did Katie and Brendan really did skate like they were about to fight or fuck. He had suspected that from the beginning, but now he knew that was just how—and why—they worked.

  Zack got himself backstage at the end of the show, and threaded his way through bustling crew and chattering performers to find Aaron outside the dressing rooms talking with one of the other skaters. Even though Zack knew Aaron had had his eyes on him the whole night, Aaron still gave a delighted shout when he saw him.

  Time seemed to slow down as Aaron ran toward him and threw himself into Zack’s arms. He was so warm, so real, and Zack drank in the feel of him.

  “You did amazing,” Zack told him, kissing the top of his head. His curls were sweaty and sticky with gel.

  “I know.” Aaron tipped his head back to beam up at him. That smile still made Zack go weak at the knees. “Let’s go home.”

  Home. Zack loved the sound of the word. “Yours or mine?”

  “Oh for tonight? Whichever. I think you’re closer. But I meant the island.”

  “I thought you were off the hook for the summer,” Zack said, hesitating. He very much wanted to be on the island again, sharing that space with Aaron. But the thought of doing that flight again was almost too much.

  “I am. Technically. But there’s just a few weeks left before pre-season starts, and I want to spend them there. Maybe take an actual break for once. I know I should have talked to you about it before, but I didn’t want to do it from the road, and...”

  “Shhhhhh, that’s not what I meant,” Zack said, rubbing his thumb through the short hair at the nape of Aaron’s neck. “Just... seriously. That flight.”

  Aaron stared at him with that look that said once more, Zack was ignorant of a basic fact of his world. “Ice melts in the summer. The large island is a resort, remember?”

  “Are you telling me we can have a lovely summer vacation?” Except for the flight, the idea was more appealing than Zack could say.

  “No,” Aaron said laughing. “I mean yes, we can, even though we’ll probably end up doing work at the restaurant anyway. But no, I’m telling you we can take a boat.”

  Chapter 33

  THE NEXT SUMMER

  Whisker Island

  AARON SAT AT THE END of the dock, his feet dangling in the water. The glaring rays of the setting sun had faded into rosy pinks and oranges at the horizon. Behind him, to the east, the sky was already dusky blue with the coming night. In a few days, he and Zack would head back to Saint Paul so Aaron could start training for the coming season. For now, the air was muggy, but rapidly growing cool as the light faded. The gentle lap of the waves on the shore made him smile with the memory of a thousand childhood evenings spent just like this.

  Footsteps behind him made the dock creak and sway. There was a warm hand on his shoulder and then Zack was sitting down next to him.

  “You finish your chapter?” While Aaron had been spending much of his time pitching in with the restaurant, Zack had been pounding away at his book.

  “Close enough for now. I thought I’d come out and say hi.”

  “You missed the sunset.”

  “There’ll be more.”

  Zack put his hand on Aaron’s knee, and Aaron twined their fingers together. With the ups and downs of the last season, he’d had plenty of occasions to appreciate just how capable Zack was in a crisis, even in crises of his own making. But the last several weeks here on the island had been good, too. They could just exist like this, quiet and together, through the ordinary as well as the dramatic.

  “I can’t believe we have to leave so soon,” Aaron said.

  “I thought you were excited to get back.”

  “I am,” Aaron said.

  He’d been texting back and forth with Katie and Brendan the entire time he’d been away discussing new program ideas. He had momentum now, and couldn’t wait to see what the new season would bring. But...

  “Leaving always feels so hard. Though I guess...” he gave Zack a sly look from under his lashes. “It feels less hard this year.”

  “Because you’ve shown the world what the skating seal boy can do?” Zack said, his voice teasing and apparently not taking the bait.

  Aaron laughed; what had started as an insult from Cayden had now become, somehow, the audience’s fondest nickname for him. Aaron didn’t hate it anymore; how could he, when he’d finally found the way to be who he always was?

  “Yeah, I guess so,” he said, leaning over to kiss the edge of Zack’s jaw.

  “So, question,” Zack said, when Aaron pulled back.

  “Yeah?”

  Zack looked apprehensive. “We still take the ferry when we go, right?”

  Aaron squeezed their twined fingers together. “Yes, of course. It runs until after Halloween.” He sighed, letting himself indulge in wistfulness for the moment. Unlike summer evenings, he had a lot fewer memories of autumn here. “Do you know how long it’s been since I’ve been here in the fall?”

  Zack shook his head. “I
know better than to hazard a guess.”

  “Not since I was seventeen, and even then I was flying out all the time for skating things.”

  “Do you want to come back, when you’re done?”

  Aaron shrugged. “What does done even mean? I can’t skate or tour or coach from here. That’s why I had to leave in the first place. I don’t know what my career looks like after skating. Or if there ever will be an after. Maybe I’ll be like Uncle Ras. Or maybe I’ll coach. Who knows.”

  “Does it still bother Ari?”

  “No.” He and Ari had, had a long conversation after Almaty.

  As displeased as she’d been about Zack’s article—and the attention it had drawn to their island and the seals—as time had gone by she had come to tolerate, if not embrace it. Aaron suspected that both bringing Zack to the island and travelling to Kazakhstan herself, had helped. She was still connected to the island in a way even more profound than Aaron was, but they understood each other better now.

  “I think it helps that—well. It’s not like things could get weirder than they were this season. If we—she and I and the island—survived that, we can survive anything.”

  “I’m glad.”

  “Me too,” Aaron said sincerely. “She still hates my ringtone, though.”

  Zack laughed, his face creasing in a broad smile.

  Aaron gazed at him, his strong jawline and the lines of his shoulders under his t-shirt. He traced a fingertip down Zack’s arm, tracing the swirling pattern of ink.

  “I’m lucky you’re crazy about me,” he said. “I know this isn’t the sort of place where I can ask people to follow. And, to be clear, I’m not doing that. I’m just happy to have you with me as long as you want to be.”

  All of which was true. Aaron knew Zack loved him, his family, and his island, as much as anyone not from it could. But Aaron didn’t know how to look too far into the future, because he didn’t know how to have both Zack and this place forever.

  “Isn’t it?” Zack said. He sounded surprised. “Your island. Who wouldn’t want to follow you here?”

  “People less enamored of hard work, dangerously isolated winters, and fish?”

  Zack fixed Aaron with an intent gaze. “Hey. I am in this adventure with you. If I’m not scared off by skating, your meal plan, an entire Olympic cycle, or my general incompetence at relationships, I’m not scared off by this place or your stories about it.”

  “Or gutting fish in the family restaurant?” Aaron asked.

  “Or that,” Zack said gamely. “And I get that we’re taking things slow and being reasonable people with separate places, and if that’s what you need for the next four years, I’m on board. But I’ll be wherever you are, waiting when you’re done. And if you need something else, I’m here right now too.”

  Aaron opened his mouth to say something in response to that—or at least kiss Zack like he deserved—but in the distance, something on the water caught the corner of his eye. He turned his head sharply to try to get a better look at it.

  “Are you fucking kidding me?” he whispered under his breath.

  He stood up and held his arm out behind him.

  Zack took his hand, but didn’t get up. “What is it?”

  With his other hand Aaron pointed deep into the lake, towards the horizon “What am I looking at? Out there?”

  Zack squinted. “I know what you’re asking, but I’m not sure. I wouldn’t even know what they look like.”

  It was then that the barking started.

  Aaron turned to him very slowly. “Oh my God,” he said. What had been terror in St. Petersburg was simply wonder here.

  “Do you want to go and see?” Zack didn’t sound frightened, only eager, as ever, to follow Aaron into anything as if it were nothing more unusual than a walk in the park.

  “I’d have to swim,” Aaron said. “If they’re real; the boat has always scared them.”

  “I can swim, too, you know,” Zack said.

  “I know,” he told Zack. “But this isn’t your problem.” Truth be told, he didn’t know what the seals, if were even real, would do if confronted by an outsider. But then, if they were showing themselves now to the two of them, perhaps that meant they approved of Zack.

  “Considering how much I want to keep you with me, and know I can only do that by going where you go, I’d say it’s absolutely my problem.”

  Aaron stared at him, his heart fluttering at the warmth in Zack’s eyes. In the distance, the barking started again.

  “Before we go,” Zack said. His fingers tightened on Aaron’s. “There’s something I want to ask you.”

  “Go on then. Before they leave.”

  “Aaron Sheftall.” Zack reached for Aaron’s other hand, pressing both of them together so they were clasped between his own. “Can I marry you?”

  Aaron could feel the smile broadening across his face, his skin heating with a flush of joy. He hadn’t known there would be a way to make this evening more perfect, and yet, here it was.

  But still. Priorities. Zack, he was sure, would wait a moment. The seals might not.

  Still smiling so widely his face hurt, he gently withdrew his hands from Zack’s and pulled his t-shirt over his head. Then he kicked off his sandals, delighting in the moment of pure confusion on Zack’s face as he dove in the water.

  When Aaron resurfaced a moment later pushing his wet hair back out of his face, the bobbing shapes in the water were closer. Yes.

  Zack, still on the dock, was now also shirtless and poised to jump. But his eyes were fixed on Aaron’s face, and Aaron knew Zack wouldn’t move until he had his answer.

  “Yes, of course!” he called, slapping the water to send a splash up at Zack. “Now come on,” he hollered as he turned and kicked off towards the open lake.

  For a split second, he was terrified that Zack wouldn’t follow, but then he heard a splash, far clumsier than his own.

  Aaron laughed as he pulled himself through the water, the gentle waves cool and flowing over his skin. He didn’t know what the future held—not in the next four minutes or in the next four years, but for the first time in his life he knew he was real and loved and tethered, truly and joyfully, to a world so much bigger than himself.

  Whatever happened next was going to be amazing.

  Thank you for reading Ink and Ice! For more information about Racheline Maltese & Erin McRae’s work, visit their website at www.Avian30.com. You can sign up for their newsletter to be the first to hear about sales and new releases, or support their Patreon for deleted scenes, trunked manuscripts, process updates, craft posts, opportunities to name characters and more.

  If you want more adventures on the ice, try After the Gold, the first book in the Twin Cities Ice series.

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  If you're looking for more high-heat romance, complicated relationships, and love in the public eye, try Starling, Love in Los Angeles Book 1.

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  Please be aware, this is a high-heat, high-angst romance and includes characters with a past history of self-harm.