Page 40 of Snow, Ice, and Spice
I frown at my screen and show Theo. “Shoot. We might have to cancel camp tomorrow if the weather’s gonna be crummy.”
A chorus of sad noises follow. I look up and realize that all the kids heard me.
“But I don’t wanna miss hockey camp,” Emerson whines.
“Yeah, me either,” Annabelle says.
“I know guys, but if it’s raining, it won’t be safe to skate on the pond,” I say. I silently curse myself for talking about the weather in front of them and upsetting them.
“How about we do an inside camp day?” Theo says.
“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” I say. “There’s not much for them to do inside the house.”
He flashes a knowing smile that borders on smug. “Not here. Somewhere else.”
* * *
“Wow, this is so cool, Coach Theo!” Parker says.
“And it’s all ours? No one else can skate here today?” Annabelle says.
I glance around the empty hockey rink that Theo managed to reserve for today’s hockey camp. I still can’t believe he pulled it off, but he was able to pull some strings with his hockey buddies and reserved it for us for the next few hours.
“Yup. It’s all ours,” Theo says as he skates around the kids.
They’re all grinning and giddy, their cheeks rosy from the crisp air in the rink.
He pulls his phone out of his pocket. “Now who wants to do music conga line?”
Everyone cheers, “Yes!” Their adorable high-pitched voices echo in the rink. Theo turns on the Kidz Bop playlist saved to his phone and leads the kids around the rink. I follow behind like usual, grinning to myself at how awestruck the kids are to have an entire ice skating rink to themselves. They look like cute little ants skating around the massive space.
When the first song ends, a familiar-sounding pop song comes on and the kids start cheering when the singer croons about holding hands.
“Let’s all hold hands!” Parker says. Adorably all the kids grab hands. I snap a few photos to send to their parents.
“Coach Maya and Coach Theo, you’re not holding hands,” Emerson says.
“Yeah, you have to hold hands too,” her twin sister says. “We all are.”
In a smooth move, Theo spins around, skates backward, and locks eyes with me. The corner of his mouth hooks up in a half-smile. “She has a point.”
He quirks his eyebrow at me and I can’t help but grin in response. Theo is dangerously charming right now and if I’m not careful, I’ll melt into a puddle on the ice.
“Okay,” I say before skating ahead and joining him at the front of the conga line. When he grabs my hand in his and grins at me, the urge to swoon hits hard.
“Don’t act like you’re not loving this,” Theo teases as we skate along the curve of the rink.
I roll my eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself. I’m doing it for the kids.” I try to keep my tone as uninterested as possible, but I can’t help the grin tempting my lips.
“Keep telling yourself that. I know the truth, Maya,” he says, his voice a low growl.
When he winks at me, my knees buckle. Damn. Things are getting pretty damn flirty between us…and I really, really like it.
He squeezes my hand in his and I swear my skin starts to tingle. Heat flashes across my skin. I breathe in the cool air to steady myself. This is ridiculous. I’m acting like a shy middle schooler who’s silently freaking out that the cute boy in class is holding her hand.
But I can’t deny how good this feels—how good it feels to hold Theo’s hand.
A quiet minute passes between us.
