Page 113 of All In Good Time

The laugh Becca was hiding burst out, and she grabbed onto the siding to keep her balance as Derek turned to glare at her.

Maybe this was why he wanted to come all the way to Richmond to skate. Better to make a fool of yourself in a place where no one knew you.

He wasn’t as amused as she was and cursed under his breath as he grabbed back onto the railing to pull himself up.

Derek always held himself with such confidence and ease that it was bizarre to see him so out of his element—she loved it.

It was just a part of him that only she would know about now, and that made it even better.

“Are you okay?” She finally managed to form the words she wanted to ask.

He glared at her, but it wasn’t scathing. If she looked really close, she could see the way his lips struggled to remain frowning.

“Ireallyhate ice skating.”

Becca pushed off the rail and shifted so she was standing beside Derek on the ice. Carefully, she removed Mal’s glove and slid it into the pocket of Derek’s jacket before holding out her hand to him. “You said we’d learn together, right?”

He studied her hand, then looked into her eyes. He must have seen the sincerity in them, because he straightened and did the same as Becca—removing his own glove and putting his hand into hers so that their warm skin connected together.

“Catch me if I fall,” he said, eyeing her as he pushed onto the ice.

She grinned. “I promise.”

She kept that promise for the next hour. Every time he stumbled, Becca somehow found the right way to grab hold of him to keep him steady. Somehow, he did the same for her.

As bad as he was, Derek was a quicker learner, and pretty soon, he moved more smoothly than she did. His movement on the ice became fluid, like real skating, instead of stepping. Just like they said they would, they learned together. From falling every few seconds, to easily following the wave of people around the oval rink, hand in hand.

The cold air pushed her hair back as they rounded the corner, steadying each other. She giggled at the euphoric feeling.

Without having to constantly look at her feet, Becca’s eyes scanned the people around them. Some went slower, some faster. Some of them were families with children, some were friends, and some—like Becca and Derek—held hands around the ice.

One thing stood out to her above any other—she didn’t recognize a single person’s face.

In this crowd of strangers, she and Derek blended in as just another pair of faces, one right next to the other.

In Highburg, eyes would be following them everywhere. The rumors would have already reached the edge of town, and by the morning, everyone would know that Becca Lewis and Derek Stokes were holding hands and ice skating.

Here, it didn’t matter.

There was no backstory. They were a simple couple to the people who even looked twice. A couple on a date with nothing else ruining the story.

How nice that sounded. To be a blank slate with just two words: Becca and Derek. Nothing else.

A girl who loved a boy, and a boy who beamed at the girl with his gorgeous smile and beautiful eyes and messy hair.

She loved Derek. In moments like this, there was no ignoring it.

Once upon a time, they’d talked about going somewhere far away from Highburg. Derek said he’d go anywhere she wanted to go. Now she wanted that more than ever. She wanted Derek to be safe, in a place where they could go on dates without watchful eyes, without the rumors and history lingering on them.

She wanted to just love him, freely and completely.

When the snowflakes started to fall on them, covering Derek in soft white petals, her heart nearly busted from her chest.

It took every part of her willpower to keep herself from spewing out the words she wanted to say to him.

“Sweetheart.”

“Huh?” The nickname snapped her out of her trance. His brow raised.

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