Page 49 of Mile High Coach

“Harrison. That is a very long time to keep at it. Are you sure he’s not just…really sorry?”

Harrison stops, drops his gaze to the mug in his hands, then brings it back to mine. “He should be. Maybe my marriage was going downhill, and maybe Eliza would have ended up with someone else, but it should never have been him. And never the way it happened.”

I nod, knowing there’s some truth to that, and still wondering if Harrison might feel better—if he might get some closure—finally having a decade-overdue confrontation with Brad.

“Anyway,” Harrison says at a fast clip, clearing his throat and pivoting me. “There’s a whole indoor section we haven’t tackled yet. Let’s focus on the Christmas spirit instead of all this sad shit.”

I know I’m not going to convince him of anything right now, and besides—he’s right. It is a good idea to focus on the Christmas spirit while we’re here

The market is impossibly cute. Couples and families pass by us, bundled up in their own coats, some pushing strollers. I can’t help it, my eyes linger on them, tracing their path through the crowd.

They are making me wonder what it would be like to be here with a baby—my baby. To start a tradition and follow through on it every year after that.

“Alright,” Harrison says, when our drinks are gone, we’ve looked at every toy and homemade good, and we’re back outside, on the outskirts of the market. “Final stop.”

I blink and turn, laughing when I see an ice skating rink, surrounded by light-wrapped trees and with its fair share of skaters circling it.

Some of them skate forward confidently, while a group of young girls laugh and wobble, clutching desperately to one another to stay on their feet.

“Come on,” Harrison says, holding his hand out to me. “It’s tradition.”

At first, I reach my hand toward him on instinct, then I pull it back when I realize what he’s saying. “Harrison—I can’t.”

His brow wrinkles. “Why not?”

“I…I’ve never been ice skating before. I don’t know how.”

For a long moment, it looks like he’s processing, like he can’t quite understand how something like that could be true. I wait until he blinks, bending his head down toward me and repeating what I said in a whisper.

“Lovie Waters, you’ve never been ice skating before?”

“No,” I whisper back, laughing a little at the ridiculous look on his face. Like this is a matter of national security. Every time I’m with him, I find myself laughing more than I usually do, giggling like a little girl over every little thing. “I have not.”

“Well, we have to fix that right now.”

Despite my objections, and my terror that I’m going to fall on my ass, Harrison gets me in a pair of rental skates and on the ice in the next twenty minutes.

“Hold on to me,” he says, speaking fast as we stand at the precipice. I grip tightly to the wall, flushing as a little girl racespast me and practically jumps onto the ice, skating away from us with the grace of an Olympian. “Don’t pay attention to that,” he laughs.

I only barely keep myself from saying, “That’s what your kid would be like, Harrison.”

We make slow progress onto the ice as Harrison coaches me. “Shave the ice to stop, turn like that—the side of your foot. Wide stance, keep your knees bent. One leg striding and one leg gliding, switch—yes! Just like that.”

I laugh euphorically when I realize we’ve made a full lap and I haven’t fallen on my ass. Logically, I know it’s because Harrison has his hand on me, and he’s keeping me steady, but it’s been a long time since I asked my body for something and it delivered on the first try.

Like always, my mind flashes back to that negative pregnancy test, and I shove down the sad emotions. It takes a while to get pregnant—I know that. I can be patient. Focusing on anger is only going to make it harder for me.

“So, what do you think?” Harrison asks, while we’re making our second lap.

I shouldn’t, but I lean back and nuzzle into him, liking the feeling of someone else holding my weight, just for a little while. “I think I get why you guys choose to spend your whole lives on these things.”

He laughs, and his arms tighten around me. Even as I know we really, really shouldn’t be doing this, it doesn’t stop me from closing my eyes and breathing in his scent anyway.

Chapter 22

Harrison

The moment I get Lovie Waters back through the door of my apartment, I’m peeling off her coat, pushing it from her shoulders and onto the ground.

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