“You’re not going to help me up?” He drops his jaw in shock and indignation.

“You’d help me down before I got you a centimeter off the ground.”

“Dig in your brakes.”

“There are brakes on these things?”

He hits the toe of my skate. “Use the toe on one foot and those core muscles I know you’ve got somewhere.”

“I can do planks.”

“See? This’ll be easy.”

I narrow my eyes. “Use the wall.”

“Come on.” And there’s the dimpled green-eyed puppy face, damn him.

“Which foot do I brake?”

“Use the right.” He takes my hands as soon as I’ve got the guts to lower them. “Ready?”

“No.”

“One, two, three—”

And bye-bye balance.

After I hit Alec and somehow end up right on top of him, I let out a giant huff in his face.

“You owe me two scarves now.”

About an hour and many, many more falls later, we both walk our sore butts to the train station. I’m bundled up tight in my coat, but it’s still not enough. I’ve been whining at Alec to give me back the scarf that he totally swiped from me when we were returning our skates.

“I have a very delicate neck,” I tell him as we wait for the train. “It’s holding up such valuable stock.” I gesture animatedly at my brain.

He rolls his eyes at me. “You can have it when it’s more than sixty degrees out.”

“That was not our deal.”

“It’s going to be.”

“I made ittwicearound that rink.”

“I think I want to argue that.Imade it twice with you in tow.”

I playfully grimace at him, then wildly try to rip the scarf from his neck. “Give it!”

He dodges me easily. “Nope,” he says, clapping thepof the word with his lips. His grin is so victorious that I find myself reaching out and poking that smug little dimple.

“Gimme.”

He shakes his head, ducking away from another poke to his face. When I finally get him, he pokes me back in the middle of my forehead. I jab him in the belly. He pokes me in the hip. I poke him in his pec, which is harder than I expected and hurts my finger a little, and he goes for my stomach, which I suck in, making him miss. My mouth forms a playful O, and before I can poke him again he snatches my wrist. I try with the other hand. He catches that one too. We’re both smiling and grinning like fools, and I suddenly don’t give a crap about the scarf or about how cold I am or aboutanything,really. Electric wires light up under my skin, like they’d been there since I was born but the only conductor is Alec and his green eyes and his blond hair and his one-dimpled smile and his kindness and friendship andfun.

This can’t be the fun Eli was talking about, though. Eli was talking about fun with no strings. With Alec, I feel like if I had a heart that was ready for the taking, the strings would reach out right now and grab hold, and I’d be forever tied to him.

His deep green and very sexy eyes hold mine, and I let them. I always do because I believe in being real with the people I love. And Alec, I realize, is one of those people. He’s quickly heading to the very top of that list of people. And his lips are coming closer, so slowly that I know I can back out if I want to. But I’m pretty sure my lips are getting closer to his too. I know I should be thinking about how this will affect our friendship, and where is this going, and what it will mean for my “fun” for the next few years, and am I still taken or am I available to kiss someone like this? But honestly, I’m not thinking about any of that. I’m thinking that this feels way too good to stop.

His warm, minty breath hits my bottom lip, and damn…damn…I am never going to be the same if this happens. I just know it. And right as I’m about to take that leap of faith, a lovely, drunk stranger runs into the both of us, knocking us off balance and out of kissing distance.

“Duyunoowtagettadowntowwwwn?” he slurs at Alec with a toothless grin and a hiccup. Alec looks up at me, shaking his head and laughing at the absurdity of it all, and—timing of all timing—that’s when our train pulls in.

We don’t attempt another kiss. That moment is past and gone, and whatever was going through my head—ornotgoing through my head—has also disappeared. I breathe a sigh of relief because I really need his friendship right now, and I’m not ready to change that. So when we sit down on the train, I grab his arm, toss it around me, and promptly pretend to fall asleep. I’m not sure if he notices me slip Eli’s promise ring off my finger and push it into my coat pocket, but even if he does, he wouldn’t know what it meant.