by Deb Kastner
“Elaine and Lottie, go ahead and get out on the ice. I’ll help Daddy make his way out there.”
“Okay, I’ll admit I may need a little help.” He stood and wavered as he attempted to find his balance, but it wasn’t as easy as he’d hoped. Standing on these little slivers of steel on the ground was incredibly difficult, and he wasn’t even on the ice yet. What kind of horrible person had come up with the idea of using blades to get across the ice, anyway?
Avery held out her hand to him. “Come on. You can lean on me. It’s actually easier to balance on your skates once you’re on the ice.”
He didn’t believe her. Not for one moment. But he followed her, one painful, wobbly step after the other. His ankles were already screaming at him. When they reached the edge of the lake, Avery hopped onto the ice with both feet and skated out a bit, performing a graceful pirouette before returning to his side, holding both arms out in front of her and gesturing for him to hold on to her.
“Trust me. I’m here for you. Grab on to my forearms,” she instructed, “and then just step out onto the ice as if you were walking.”
He tried to do what she’d instructed. He really did. But the second the blade hit the ice, his foot slid forward. He attempted to balance with his other foot, but once both skates were on the ice, his legs went in very different directions than he’d intended, and his feet flew out from under him.
He was so focused on his feet that he didn’t even think about the fact that he was grasping on to Avery for dear life—that is, until he was sprawled backward on the ice with Avery’s head on his chest, her face muffled in his coat and her shoulders shaking.
How bad was she hurt?
Was that why she was crying?
“I’m so sorry,” he said. “Don’t move. Stay right where you are. You may have injured your neck. Someone will call 9-1-1.”
She rolled over onto one elbow on the ice and stared down at him. She had tears in her eyes and her shoulders were still shaking, but now Jake could see her shaking shoulders were caused by laughter.
“I doubt anyone noticed us fall down like that.”
“You aren’t hurt?”
She shook her head. “No, of course not. Are you?”
“Only my pride. I can’t believe I knocked you over like that.”
“No worries. It isn’t the first time I’ve fallen on the ice, nor will it be my last. Kind of goes with the territory. Even Olympic skaters take diggers now and again.”
His lips twitched with mirth. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
She easily rose to her feet, balancing on her skates as if it was nothing. “Are you able to get up?”
“I think so.”
She reached her hand for him, but he ignored it, knowing that way led to another major digger, as she’d called it. He wasn’t going to pull her back down if he could help it. Instead, he rolled to his hands and knees and carefully rose to his feet.
Lottie skated up to him and circled around him, laughing.
“Daddy, you fell down.”
“Yes, sweetie, I did. I’m not very good at skating. Can you show me how you do it?”
The next half hour was spent with Jake gaining ice-skating instructions all around. Lottie liked to show rather than tell, and she was easily bored at having to stay with Daddy all the time, so she would skate around the rink and eventually return to his side, with his mother watching her to make sure she didn’t run into any trouble. He sent up a quick prayer to God, grateful as always for his mother’s help. He didn’t know what he would do without her.
Unlike Lottie, Avery stayed right by his side. She was especially beautiful tonight, with the crisp air giving her cheeks a pretty blush and the light breeze flipping the edges of her hair as she skated. She appeared to be a big Broncos fan. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen her decked out in fan gear. It was in her favor that she looked so good in orange.
He was well aware she could be off skating around the rink at least ten times around for every one lap of his, but she patiently taught him the basics of staying on one’s feet while skating.
He did fall, but after the first time it wasn’t as often as he’d anticipated, and usually it was because his mind accidentally wandered to thinking about the woman beside him instead of what he was supposed to be concentrating on, which was staying on his feet as his blades slid over the ice.
He might be slow, but not having a wall to lean on actually worked in his favor because he had to learn to balance on his own without a crutch. Avery was great with her encouragement. She told him to bend his knees, tuck when he fell so he didn’t hurt himself or trip up other skaters, and use his arms to help keep him steady. He expected he might have been better off if he’d used wrist guards and knee pads, but the minor scrapes he incurred weren’t going to hurt as bad as his feet tomorrow morning.
“Think you’ve got it?” Avery asked after an extended training session where she’d been unbelievably patient with him.
He grinned. “I’ve got the basics down. Enough to stay on my feet, anyway—most of the time.”
“Do you mind if I take one quick turn around the rink on my own?”
He could see she was itching to do some real skating. “Please do. I’ve been hogging all of your skating time. I don’t want you to feel as if I’m holding you back. You must be bored out of your wits having to skate so slowly with me.”
She returned his smile, a sparkle in her blue eyes. “You’re not holding me back. It’s nice to feel useful.”
For once there was no tension between them—and he was totally enjoying that. It was as if all the other problems had gone away, dissipating into the night and leaving only pleasure and happiness.
As he glanced around, he saw people—from little kids to older folks—glorying in mountain life under the twinkling fairy lights. His mom and Lottie were laughing together and having a blast holding each other’s hands and twirling around.
He could seriously get used to this.
He watched as Avery skated away from him, and it was only then that he realized the kind of control she had over the ice. She skated forward, then backward, then forward again, with her arms held out as gracefully as a professional dancer’s. She gained speed, and the next thing he knew she was in the air, twirling once, and then twice, before her blades once more touched the ice.
He knew he was gaping, but he couldn’t help it.
“That’s called a double axel,” said his mom from behind him, startling him. He hadn’t even realized she’d skated to his side.
“That’s amazing,” he countered.
“It sure is. Not too many people can do that, especially as well as Avery just did. There was a time in my youth when I was able to do a single axel, but that was a long, long time ago. If Lottie keeps up with her lessons, you’ll probably be seeing her doing double axels someday soon.”
“Are you having fun, Lottie?” he asked, touching his daughter’s shoulder. “I saw you out there twirling around with Grandma.”
“The ice is so pretty,” Lottie said, but her gaze was wandering to where Ruby was sitting on a bench with Sissy lying at her feet.
“I think we’re going to take a little break,” his mom said. “We’re getting a bit tired out here. Anyway, Ruby brought hot cocoa and has Sissy along with her. Lottie wants to go say hi to the dog.”
Jake counted on his mother to know when Lottie had had enough of something. He still wasn’t great at reading the signs, and Lottie would get cranky if she became overtired.
“Mom?” he said, catching her elbow as she started to skate away.
She turned back with an inquisitive smile on her face.
“Thank you.”
“No need, honey. You know I love you and Lottie more than anything. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be than with the two of you.”
“Still. I
couldn’t do it without you. I’d be totally lost.”
She reached up and patted his scruffy cheek. “I know, son. I know.”
Jake was just circling around the ice to find Avery when the music turned from upbeat pop music to a slow eighties ballad. Frost picked up a microphone attached to his sound system. It squeaked with feedback for a moment, and he laughed as he drew the microphone farther away from his lips.
“Time to find that special someone and slow things down,” he announced cheerily. “Grab your partner. Couples only for this skate.”
Avery skated up beside him and skidded to a halt, causing a cloud of shaved ice to fly into the air.
She looked invigorated. Happy.
And as beautiful as he’d ever seen her. His throat closed around his words.
“My mom said Ruby brought some hot cocoa,” he explained. His words were husky, and his tone had dropped an octave. “She and Lottie are over there with her now.”
Avery glanced in the direction he indicated. “Oh, good. She brought Sissy along like I asked her to. I’d really like Lottie to get to know Sissy better.”
Avery slipped her arm through his arm and started slowly skating around the rink. He, in turn, put his other hand on hers for balance and because it was a couples’ skate and that’s what everyone else was doing—skating arm-in-arm or holding hands.
Seeing as it was a couples’ skate, he’d assumed she’d want to sit this one out. He had intended to ask if she wanted some hot cocoa and had given her an opening to get off the ice, so he was surprised when she’d grabbed his arm so casually.
“You think Sissy would be good for Lottie?” he asked, feeling the need to talk to keep from focusing on the fact that he was hyperaware of her nearness, her arm linked with his, and the floral scent that was uniquely hers wafting around him, making him dizzy.
Romance was definitely in the air. He was feeling it with every beat of his heart. And for once, his brain wasn’t arguing, wasn’t bringing up the past to flaunt it in his face.
Tonight, it was just him and Avery. Together.
Chapter Nine
Avery gracefully swirled around so she was facing Jake, then started skating backward, wrapping her arms around his neck. He placed his hands around her waist. They were able to make eye contact now, and their gazes were tightly locked, lost in each other’s worlds.
For a minute, neither of them said a word.
“I absolutely think Sissy will be a wonderful service dog for Lottie,” Avery said, finally breaking the silence and continuing the conversation from before. “Ever since we met at Sally’s Pizza and I watched Sissy with Lottie when she was having her episode, I’ve been working with her every day to get her more comfortable with what an epileptic seizure looks and feels like and what she should do when it happens. Of course, as you saw that day, Sissy instinctively recognized the signs and alerted us to what was happening even before we could see anything was wrong—I believe Sissy knew what was going to happen even before Lottie felt she was going to seize. That’s the amazing thing about dogs. They have a sixth sense we humans lack.”
Avery took a breath. She was babbling again.
She’d never in her life said so many words in one go. Everything she was saying was important, and it was something she’d wanted to bring up to him at some point in the near future, but during the couples’ skate at the lake was hardly the appropriate time to have such a conversation—or really, any conversation at all.
The truth was, she was reveling in how right it felt to be with Jake, his strong arms clasped firmly around her waist, his crisp masculine scent swirling through her senses.
She hadn’t felt this way about a man in...well, maybe never, and the strength of these feelings frightened her. In mere weeks, she’d be opposing him at the town council meeting, fighting for the Meyers’ land and the small-town way of life for Whispering Pines. And even if God somehow worked everything out in her favor, when it was all said and done, Jake and his family would be leaving.
That was his job, she knew, moving from one town to the next to build resorts for Marston Enterprises. He lived in a fancy Dallas apartment with a car valet and a doorman. No matter what feelings were developing between them, their lives were just too different.
Whether or not she succeeded in winning the Meyers’ cabin, her life was here in Whispering Pines, working with her family to run a successful business and service-dog program.
So, even if Marston Enterprises took its business elsewhere, there could never be a Jake and Avery.
Jake stared deeply into her eyes.
“Penny for your thoughts?” he whispered, then lost his balance and had to stand straight again. He flashed an apologetic half smile.
“That’s the problem with you city boys,” Avery teased. “You try to intimidate people into giving you way more back than what you give to them.”
His gaze widened in shock, and she wasn’t certain he realized she’d just been kidding around with him.
“Okay, for one thing, I’m thirty-six years old. That hardly qualifies as a boy. And second, I’m well aware your thoughts are worth far more than I could ever pay. But I promise to make that penny extra shiny.”
Somehow, he’d made that last part sound romantic, and Avery swallowed hard, trying to regain her wits about her. How easy it would be to forget all the complications between them and just let everything go.
“It was just that your gaze became distant there for a moment,” he explained. “And I wondered why.”
There was no way Avery was going to admit what she was really thinking about, so she diverted his attention to a more pleasant subject.
Or at least a safer one.
“I was just thinking about you and me skating around like this. I don’t get out here as often as I’d like, especially just to enjoy going around the rink with others. Mostly it’s Frost and Ruby who keep things running out here. I pretty much stay in my office. I’m more of a spreadsheets-and-paperwork kind of girl.”
“Woman,” he whispered with a wink.
“Twice corrected, and true on both counts.” He was right—he was very much a man and not a boy. The only boyish thing about him was his charm. And she’d lost her girlish ways long ago. As the oldest sibling, she’d kind of taken over after their parents had passed on.
“This kind of feels like a high-school dance. Haven’t done any slow dancing in a while. Not that I’m complaining.”
“It does, doesn’t it? Except look around you. We’ve got everyone from junior-high kids to folks who have been married for fifty years.”
“In some ways that makes it even more romantic,” he whispered into her ear.
There weren’t that many men who would consider it that way, and Avery had to admit she was impressed, especially when Lottie skated back out on the ice and scooched between Avery and her daddy.
“What’s up, honey?” he asked with a grin.
“I want to skate with you and Miss Avery, Daddy.”
“Of course, sweetie,” Avery said, her heart welling. With a smile, she turned and took one of Lottie’s hands while Jake took the other one. Together, the three of them finished off the couples’ skate.
As much as Avery fought against it, she knew she was losing ground.
And fast.
If she wasn’t careful, she was going to make the same mistake that she had made last time—falling in love with a man with a child. She didn’t think she could handle that kind of heartbreak again.
A smart woman would make excuses. Walk away. Never look back.
And yet she skated on, hand in hand with Lottie and Jake.
* * *
Jake groaned as he unlaced his skates and pulled them off his aching feet, wiggling his toes to see if they were still attached and had any movement. Once he’d been out on the ice with Avery and his family, he’d gi
ven very little thought to the way his stiff skates didn’t have the give they needed.
But he was paying for it now.
Avery had already removed her skates and put her snow boots on, so she walked over to where Jake was bent over his second foot, which still had a skate on it.
“Are you okay?” she asked, grabbing his heel and yanking at the skate to help him get it off.
“Ow,” he answered, screwing up his face in a knot. “Just ow.”
“I will refrain from telling you ‘I told you so,’ mostly because I really enjoyed this evening and I’m glad you and your family came out to skate. Thank you for inviting me.”
“It was worth it,” he agreed, tugging on his snow boots with a sigh as he reveled in the comfortable plush inside.
“When you get home, put some warm water in the tub and soak your feet in Epsom salts. It’ll help a little with the pain and swelling.”
“Yeah, I will,” he agreed. “Can I walk you to your car?”
“Oh, I didn’t drive. It’s only a short distance back to the house, and I enjoy walking in the fresh night air.”
“Even in the dark? Isn’t that a little dangerous?”
“Could be,” she agreed. “But I know the path very well. I’ve been hiking it all my life.”
“What about bears or mountain lions?” he asked, only half teasing.
“Well, I suppose there’s the occasional lynx. And bears, sometimes. We have brown bears and the occasional grizzly. They can be a real nuisance with the trash cans.”
“You are so not walking home alone, Ms. Winslow.”
“Well, Mr. Cutter, I’ve been walking alone in the dark for years. I’ve got a nice, strong flashlight to help me see the path, and I know to make a lot of noise as I walk. Most wildlife will run away when they hear a sound they don’t recognize.”
“Maybe. But even without sharp-toothed tigers lingering in the area, my mama taught me manners. If I dance—uh, skate—with a woman, I walk her home.”
Avery might be stubborn, but Jake could and would hold his own.