Page 79 of You Had Me at Hockey

He wraps his arms around me. “That’s it!”

“Yay!”

“Let’s do it again.”

He gets me to keep my right foot up and glide on my left. This brings about more wobbles, but I do it.

“Good job!”

“Thank you!”

He shows me how to transition my weight from my left foot to my right foot and use the left blade to push off.

“I’m skating!” I probably look like a dork, but I’m doing it!

“Relax!”

“Oh sure, easy for you to say.” I lower my shoulders, which have climbed up to my earlobes.

He skates a circle around me.

“Show-off.”

Grinning, he gets in front of me, skating backward. “That’s it…”

“Am I ready to try a single axel?”

He laughs. “I’m not a figure skater, but I’d say no.”

I make a face toward Connor and the camera. “I really wanted to at least spin or something today.”

“You need a different teacher for that kind of thing.” He smiles down at me. “Let’s do a lap around the rink.”

“I pictured us arm in arm, then maybe you picking me up over your head and spinning around.”

“Ha ha. That is not happening.”

After the lap around, he makes me fall down on purpose and shows me how to get up by setting one skate blade on the ice, both hands on my bent knee, and then pushing up.

“It helps to have a hockey stick,” he says.

“Now you tell me. I could have brought my stick.” I mug for the camera again.

It’s a weekday afternoon but there are still quite a few people here at the rink and we’re getting some interested glances. I don’t know if people recognize us, or they’re just curious because we’re being recorded. I pull out my phone to attempt some video of my own, which challenges my balance. I love how Josh stays close to me just in case.

I get selfies of us laughing, lots of video of him looking so handsome and…athletic. He makes skating look so easy. I can’t even imagine going as fast as he does when he’s playing, all while controlling a tiny little piece of rubber and trying not to get drilled into the boards. It’s…hot. Super hot.

“I want to jump you right now,” I tell him.

His eyebrows fly up.

I’m still recording. “Don’t worry, not everything will go into my YouTube video.”

His slow smile melts my panties. “In that case, let’s go.”

I giggle. “Soon.”

We do skate a bit hand in hand, and then play around where he holds my hands and swings me in a circle and even picks me up and skates with me. Now we’re really getting looks from people. No one else here can skate like him.

---