“Not really. Well, maybe a little,” she blushed and looked away. “Okay, I’ve done it once,” she finally admitted, “but I spent more time on my butt than my feet.”
“Well, the ice is free for the next two hours. You wanna skate?” he grinned at her and tilted his head to the side.
“I don’t know,” she mumbled. “I really don’t want to get wet spots on my jeans, and I’m not looking forward to falling again. That hurts!”
“We were supposed to call my dad when the game was over, so he could come and get us,” Hannah interjected.
“My mom’s coming to get me in a little while. She knows I have to cool down after a game. She can give you a ride... that is, if you want to stay,” he looked so hopeful. “Please?” he pouted.
“Alright, I’ll ask,” Hannah pulled her cell out to call Austin and wandered away to a quiet spot.
After hanging up the phone, she walked back over and let them know that Austin had said they could stay. Patrick smiled at them as they moved to end of the bleachers and made their way closer to the ice.
“You need to go over there,” he pointed to a counter in the corner, “and rent some skates. Tell them you’re here with me and they shouldn’t charge you.”
Katie and Hannah ambled over to the counter and waited for the attendant to emerge. As Hannah stood grinning at Katie, she elbowed her in the ribs. “So, you’ve only done this once, huh? You must really like him.”
Katie was busy trying to calm her nerves and wasn’t really listening to Hannah at the moment. “Huh, what?” her head shot up at the ‘like him’ comment. “I don’t like him like that. We’re friends. Would you stop trying to hook us up?” she huffed.
“Take it easy. I only meant that you must like him in order to do this. Ice skating is hard, and it can be embarrassing if you don’t know how. Trust me, it took me a long time to learn,” Hannah nudged her and moved up to the counter to tell the attendant her shoe size.
“Who taught you how to skate?” Katie leaned into her side.
Hannah smiled, “My dad taught me when I was little.”
“Are you any good at it?” Katie voice betrayed her nervousness.
“I won’t fall down, if that’s what you’re asking,” Hannah smirked as she grabbed the skates off the counter where the attendant had set them down.
“Come on,” she handed Katie the other pair that had been set out and they made their way over to a bench to put them on.
“Make sure you get the laces nice and tight!” Patrick shouted from across the ice. “I really don’t want you breaking your ankle on my watch.”
Katie rolled her eyes at his cockiness, and then looked in his direction and batted her eyes. “Why don’t you come over here and use your big strong arms to help me?”
Patrick took in a sharp breath and huffed it out. Shaking his head, he made his way over to where the girls were sitting. Hannah’s shoulders were bouncing where she was trying to hold in her laughter and Katie’s eyes were bugging out at the fact that Patrick was actually coming over to help. He secretly was enjoying the fact that he could make her squirm and wanted to see how far she would let him go. When he reached the edge of the ice, he stepped off and wobbled over to stand in front of her.
“Need any help?” he looked at Hannah.
“Nope, I’m fine,” she rose and moved over to the edge of the rink to wait on the two of them.
Patrick snickered and began to kneel down in front of Katie. He placed one hand on each side of the boot and began to roughly pull at the laces, “How’s that? Is it too tight? Can you still feel your foot?” He glanced up and grinned at her.
“Fine,” she grumbled at his obvious enjoyment.
He shrugged as if he wasn’t enjoying her annoyance. Once he had the other boot laced and tied, he slowly ran a hand up the inside of her leg, starting right above the top of the skate and making his way towards her knee. Right when he got to her knee, he dug his fingertips in and tickled her. She jumped as a yelp escaped her and smacked him in the chest.
“Not funny,” she swatted at him again as he moved back out of the way. “I asked for help, not for you to paw all over me.”
Patrick laughed, stood up, and offered her a hand to stand. “You asked for help, and I helped. I was just collecting my fee.”
As he pulled her to her feet, she wobbled and fell in his direction, “I’m not so sure about this.”
“Come on, it’ll be fun,” he coaxed.
Just then, a few other members of the hockey team were coming back out onto the ice to cool down.
“Some friends of mine are going to skate with us!” Patrick shouted as he breezed out onto the ice once again. “Be nice to them or you deal with me.”
Hannah gingerly stepped onto the ice and breezed away. Katie looked at her with her mouth gaping open. Hannah had told the truth, she wasn’t going to fall. Katie on the other hand had a death grip on the side of the rink.
Patrick glided over to where she was holding on, “What’s wrong?”
“I’m just not really good at this,” she waved her hand around, “whole skating thing.”
“I’ll help you,” he held his hand out and a gentle smile graced his face.
She grasped it white knuckled as her legs wobbled under her. “Promise you won’t let go.”
“I promise,” he ran his finger across his heart with a serious look on his face. He turned to where he was facing her and began skating backwards as he reached with his other hand to connect with her. “Don’t look at your feet, keep your eyes on me,” he said in a soothing voice.
He slowly pulled her around the rink. The more they stayed that way, the better Katie felt.
“See, it’s not that hard,” he smiled at her proudly.
“I don’t know about that. If you let me go, I’d be on my butt in a matter of seconds,” she shook her head from side to side.
“Well, if you keep coming with me, I’ll have you skating like a pro by the end of the winter,” he grinned.
“A pro huh?” she cocked her brow.
Every once in a while, she would look over and see Hannah breeze by. Over time the other players left the ice and began heading to the locker room to remove their gear. Patrick stayed with Katie and continued to pull her around the rink. She couldn’t help but notice that all of his attention was on her. He was tired and winded from the game, but was determined to show her a good time. She couldn’t help the warm feeling that was blooming inside of her. Patrick really was a nice guy. She just wished that he could get over himself and be ‘real’ like this with her all the time.
“You can go with your friends if you want,” she shrugged as he watched a tall dark haired boy disappear into the locker room.
“I am with my friends,” he smiled at her. “I’m enjoying myself right now.”
Hannah happened to fly by again and looked over at Katie, “I’m done,” she waved. “I’m going to go get a drink, and I’ll wait for you.”
“Ok,” Katie called. “I don’t think I’ll be too much longer.”
Patrick smiled at her and turned her in his arms, “Do you trust me?”
“What are you doing?” she squealed.
“Do you trust me?” he said a little louder as he spun so she was the one going backwards.
“I guess,” her voice trembled.
Before she could react, he reached down and lifted her up, grabbing her under her thighs. “Wrap your legs around me,” he laughed as she squealed.
She gripped his shoulders and locked her legs around his middle, clinging to him for dear life.
“Relax,” he soothed in her ear. “I’m not going to drop you.”
When he felt the tenseness leave her body, he sped up. He flew around the rink laughing as she squealed. Once the initial shock wore off, Katie laughed as the wind whipped through her hair. She could feel Patrick’s muscles tensing under her weight. His breath was coming out in puffs across her neck and his chest vibrated with his laughter. Fo
r a brief moment, she forgot who she was with. Her body began to hum with excitement, but just as quickly as it started, it stopped. Patrick was only a friend. He only saw her as a friend, and she didn’t want anything more than that right now. After they made a few trips around the ice, he came back to the door to exit.
He set her down and stepped back. “Pretty cool, huh?”
“That was awesome!” she bounced up and down. She hugged him around the shoulders, “Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome,” he smiled back with a twinkle in his eye. “I’ve got to go get changed and shower real quick. I’ll be back out in a few minutes and we can go.”
Katie nodded and walked over to where Hannah was sitting and drinking a soda. Hannah looked up at her and smiled, “Did you have fun?”
“That was so cool. It’s nice to be able to hang out with a guy and know that we can just be friends,” Katie bounced on the balls of her feet.
“Just friends, huh,” Hannah raised a brow.
“You‘ve been saying that a lot today. He wants to be friends. That’s it. I promise. He’s like an annoying brother,” Katie shook her head.
Meanwhile in the locker room, Patrick was pulling off his gear.
“That your girlfriend?” the dark haired boy from earlier asked.
“No,” Patrick shook his head vigorously. “We’re just friends. She’s my neighbor. Kinda like a sister,” he shrugged.
“Whatever you say dude, but I think you might be either blind or incredibly dense. I see the way she looks at you,” he shook his head and sighed. “Girls don’t look at their friends like that. If I had a girl that looked at me like that, I’d be making a move.”
“No Matt, it’s not like that, and you better stay away from her,” Patrick gave him a warning glare.
After taking a quick shower and changing, he made his way back out to where the girls were sitting.
“Come on,” he waved them over in his direction as he headed for the door. “My mom is going to pick us up next door.”
“Why?” Katie wrinkled her forehead at him.
“Because I’m hungry and I want a pizza,” he smiled. “Come on, my treat.”
The three made their way out of the arena and headed to the pizza shop next door.
“I’m really glad you guys came today,” Patrick smiled and glanced over his shoulder at them as they walked outside. “My mom has a hard time coming to the games since Max is so little. He won’t sit that long and always seems to fuss. My dad is always at work and can’t make it either. It was nice having my own personal cheering section.”
“No problem. We had fun,” Katie smiled and Hannah nodded. “Let me know when the next game is and we’ll try to come.”
Patrick grinned back at her, “No problem, I’ll give you my whole schedule if you want. We can have skating lessons after each game,” he winked.
As they approached the pizza shop, he held open the door and let the girls enter first. They found a booth in the corner and settled in to enjoy their lunch while they waited for Patrick’s mom to pick them up. Katie glanced around taking in her surroundings. She’d had a great day so far, and was looking forward to seeing where this friendship with Patrick was going to lead.
Chapter 19
Christmas Eve 2012
Christmas had been spent the same way every year for the Andrews. Time split going from home to home of all the family. Melanie and Katie were the smallest group of family, so they were expected to do the visiting and go from house to house. Anna, Melanie’s mother, used to host Christmas at her house, but since she had gotten up in her years she’d stopped.
This year, Austin had asked Melanie and Katie to spend Christmas Eve with him at his place. Hannah’s grandparents lived out west and weren’t planning to come to Boston for Christmas, so it would be just the two of them. Melanie had happily agreed to Christmas with the Montgomery’s. She knew that her sisters would complain that she wasn’t spending it with them, but she had promised to visit them in the coming days.
She was currently wrapping presents in her bedroom. She’d been busy at the hospital the last few days and hadn’t had time to finish. Katie was over at Patrick’s watching a movie and wasn’t supposed to be back for a few hours.
oooooooooo
Melanie laughed to herself as she picked up a stack of boxes to carry out to the family room as she thought about the two young people. Watching Katie and Patrick interact was like watching siblings. They would bicker one minute, and then be laughing the next. Patrick was a nice boy. He’d been by several times to help Katie study. Even though he was the same age as she was, he was farther along in his studies, and he seemed to really excel in the sciences and math. He’d confided in them a few weeks back that he was hoping to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a doctor, and Melanie could tell that he was serious about this dream. He reminded her of herself when she was young. He was very determined, with a stubborn streak a mile long.
Despite Katie’s constant argument that he was “obnoxious”, Patrick was showing a softer, more genuine side. He’d been by to shovel the steps of their brown stone more than once so Katie wouldn’t have to, and helped carry things in whenever he saw them outdoors. Just the other night, he brought a package in for them that had been left at the bottom of their stairs by a delivery man. Melanie could tell that there was something special about him. As she thanked him, she had made a mental note to thank his mother for raising him right.
As she wobbled with the armload of presents she had stacked, she clumsily made her way out of the room. When she rounded the corner to the family room, she saw Katie and Patrick standing by the front door laughing. She smiled as she placed the presents on the couch.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” Katie said through a fit of giggles as she opened the door to let Patrick out. “You can pick the movie the next time. I promise.”
“Yep, tomorrow, and I‘m holding you to that. No more chick flicks,” he was laughing in return and shaking his head.
Katie closed the door and turned toward Melanie. “He got me a gift and wants to stop by sometime tomorrow. I hope that‘s ok.”
“We’ll be at Austin’s until around three, but he can come by after that,” Melanie smiled. She watched as Katie’s face went from pure joy to utter panic.
“Mom, I need your help,” Katie squeaked.
“What’s wrong?” Melanie moved in her direction.
“I don’t have anything to give him, and I have no idea what to get,” she waved her arm in the air.
“Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out,” Melanie assured. “Besides, I bet Austin can give you some ideas. After all, he’s a guy. He knows what they like better than me.”
She returned to her room to gather more gifts and bring them out as Katie flopped down on the couch. Her mind was moving a million miles a minute. She didn’t feel like she knew Patrick well enough to get him a gift that was personal, but he had felt the need to get her one. What did that mean? She’d never gotten a gift from a boy before, at least not a boy that was only a friend. What did he expect from her and why was she reading so much into it? This was Patrick after all - Patrick the cocky jokester. She shook her head to clear her thoughts. She needed to stop reading more into this than there was. He was a friend that wanted to give her a gift, plain and simple.
“Don’t get too comfortable,” Melanie called. “We’re heading out as soon as I bring out the rest of these.”
Katie grabbed a box that had been saved from one of the many deliveries that had arrived over the past week, and began placing the wrapped gifts inside. When Melanie reemerged from the bedroom, Katie had everything ready to go out to the car.
“We’re all set,” she looked toward Melanie.
“Alright,” she smiled as she grabbed her coat to put it on.
They made their way out to the car with the box of gifts and an overnight bag for each of them. Austin had asked them to spend the night, and offered to fix an “ol
d fashioned” breakfast for them in the morning. Melanie was looking forward to spending more time with him, and secretly wondered what the evening would entail.
The drive to Austin’s didn’t take as long as Melanie thought it would. The roads had just been plowed and there weren’t as many people out as she expected. Normally driving downtown involved lots of ’stop and go’ traffic. Austin had grumbled many times that that was one of the downfalls of living where he did. You couldn’t beat the view, though.
Melanie sighed as she pulled into the underground parking deck and made her way to the visitor’s spot near Austin’s truck. She’d only seen him drive the F150 when they’d gone out, but there was an Audi SUV and a red Ducati Strada over next to it. Hannah had once mentioned that her dad owned a motorcycle, and that Melanie would love riding on it. Melanie had brushed it off, thinking that it was something small. She swallowed a lump in her throat as she looked at it again. She’d seen many accidents over the course of her time in the ER during med school. It would take a lot of convincing to get her on one of those death traps.
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