Page 104 of In the Danger Zone
“Daisy?”
I gasped, almost falling over as I turned around to see who had said my name. But I already knew. Of course I knew. How could I ever forget Evan’s voice?
“What are you doing here?” Evan asked, stepping on to the ice. He moved with ease and skill, gliding over to me like he had done it a million times before. It took him just seconds to get to me. “I didn’t know you’d be here.”
“Tanner….” I cleared my throat. “Tanner suggested that I come here to clear m-my head.”
Evan scoffed. “Fucking Tanner. He told me to do the same thing. That’s the last time I listen to him.”
“He’s trying to play m-matchmaker, I guess.”
“Yeah. I’ll get him later for this, don’t worry.”
I couldn’t help but laugh for a second. “Don’t do that. He… He gave m-me the card b-back.”
Evan’s eyebrows lifted. “Oh. Great. I hope it looks okay. Brie kinda messed it up. We used some of Tanner’s Bigfoot books to try and flatten it. Those things are heavy.”
“Does he have a lot of those?”
“Too many to count.”
“I figured.”
“Well, uh...” Evan let out a loud sigh. “I’ll leave you alone. I don’t wanna interrupt you. You were probably having a nice time out here until I came along…”
“It took m-me a while to get to this spot,” I admitted. “This is actually really terrifying. M-Maybe you should just stay…” It was an offer that I probably should have just kept to myself. But the look in Evan’s eyes screamed pure hurt. I was probably looking at him the same way.
“It might not have been a good idea for you to come out here by yourself,” Evan mumbled.
“I know. B-But… It sounded like a good idea when Tanner suggested it.”
“Here… Can I…?” Evan reached forward, his big hand nearing mine. He stopped just before he could get to me. Like he needed my permission to move that one more inch.
I nodded at him, and finally, after what felt like a whole decade without him, he touched my hand. Long fingers grazed mine and I held back a gasp as he finally grabbed at my hand, pulling me oh so slowly towards him.
“There,” he said. “You ready to move now?”
“Y-Yeah. I think so.”
Evan moved backwards at that. He didn’t even have to look over his shoulder. Skating was like walking to him, but I was still getting used to just standing on the ice. But Evan kept moving along the ice like he was made for it. Maybe he was. Maybe he was always destined to play hockey, and I was always destined to stay far way from him.
But it felt so good to have him so close again. To have him beright there. I looked at him and I quickly blushed when I saw that he was staring at me. It was like he could read my mind, but I couldn’t read his. I focused on what was below me instead.
“Skating is scary,” I mumbled out, my eyes stuck on the sea of white below me.
“You get used to it.”
“I feel like hockey players don’t get enough credit for how dangerous the sport is.”
“Thanks. The boys will appreciate that, actually. I’ll tell ‘em tomorrow.”
“There’s a game tomorrow?”
“Yeah. Home game. The Sharks. Brutal team.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
