Page 65 of Loathe Thy Neighbor

He’s laced up first, while I struggle.

“Need help?” he asks, towering above me with his hands on his hips.

I glower up at him, shoving my hair out of my face. “I’m not a child. I can tie my own skates.”

“Are you sure? Because at this rate, we’ll be here all day.”

“You can go out without me.”

He gives me a look that says he believes otherwise.

Then, he drops to his knees, and I hold still as he curls his hand around my calf.

If I thought having his hand on my lower back was making my skin vibrate before, I was wrong.

This? It’s next level.

It’s not like this is the first time Dean’s touched me. He had me plastered against him in the diner just two nights ago, but I was too focused on food to pay attention to what it felt like to be in his arms.

If the way it feels to have his hand on my leg is any indication, I missed out big-time.

Slowly, like he can feel the difference too, he drags his hand down my calf, lifting my leg until my skate is resting against his giant thigh. His fingers move swiftly as he gets my laces straightened out.

“You should tie your hair up so it’s not flying around in your face out there.”

“I thought you liked my hair down?”

He peeks up at me, brow lifted. “Since when do you care about what I like?”

I don’t answer him.

Instead, I do what he tells me, wrapping my long hair into a bun and securing it messily on top of my head.

He sets my now laced feet back on the floor, then hops onto his with ease, like he was born wearing a pair of skates or something.

He reaches his hand out to me. “You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be.”

I let him pull me up. I truly haven’t been on skates in alongtime, probably since I was about eight or so. That time, Maya and I both decided it would be fun to try to climb the pine tree near our house in them…then proceeded to fall and scare the living shit out of our parents and ourselves. We threw our skates in the Dumpster the very next morning.

“Come on.” He starts to lead us toward the floor. “I know you said it’s been a long time since you’ve been on these, so when we get out there, I can help guide you if you need it. I’ll—”

He jerks to a stop and I run right into him.

Those comedians who do the exaggerated fall with their arms flailing and their feet swishing back and forth like they can’t find traction until they smack into the ground?

Yeah, that’s me right now.

My legs fly out from under me and I land straight on my ass.

Dean topples over right along with me.

“Shit!” he shouts as he goes down.

The air is driven from my lungs as he lands on top of me, all ten billion pounds of muscles pressing against me.

He scrambles up, pushing himself off me until he’s hovering like he’s about to do a push-up or some shit. “Shit! Crap! Shit! Are you okay?”

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