Page 49 of Puck King
I nodded and took a deep breath, then exhaled, bending my knees. I pushed off like he’d shown me. “Good. Now the other foot.” Until then, I had been gliding on two feet. This time, I pushed a little harder and my standing leg wobbled a little bit. Colton squeezed my hand and then let go. “What are you doing?” I panicked as my hand fell to my side.
“You’ve got it.”
Gliding across the ice, I realized that I was standing tall and on my own. Two more pushes and I’d found my stride. Literally. The wind tickled my neck and even though I was wobbly, with each step I felt a little more confident. Jake’s claps echoed off the rocks at the shoreline. I looked back at Colton. “I’m doing it,” I shouted.
Colton raised his hands above his head like a cheerleader. I turned to see Jake directly in front of me. His smile faltered as we both realized that I had no idea how to stop.
“Drag your back foot,” Colton shouted from the far end of the ice. But it was too late, and I veered off the ice, leaving two paths through the deep snow as I careened past Jake and into the snowbank. I rolled over and sputtered as I wiped the snow from my eyes.
“That’s the other way to slow down.” Colton skidded to a stop in front of me. He straddled me and pulled off his glove to wipe the snow from my face. His hands were warm and his touch was tender. He wiped his hands on his jeans and then pulled me out of the snowbank with a dramatic groan. I gave him a smack on the arm of his puffy down coat. All of a sudden, my feet started to pedal backwards. Colton wrapped his arms around my body and lifted me off the ground.
“I'm going to set you down now. Are you ready?”
My face was freezing, but the exhilaration of skating had sent adrenaline pumping through my veins. I nodded. “I'm ready.”
Colton pressed his lips to mine and kissed me in front of Jake.
“All right, lovebirds.” Jake skated to the end of the ice. “Less kissing, more clearing.” He skated by us, the blade of the shovel piling the snow deep around our ankles as he flew by. Colton turned to me and pulled my face tightly to his. “You're everything I've ever wanted.”
It might've been cold outside, but I was warm like I’d just eaten my mom's homemade chicken noodle soup. “Let’s get to work.” I picked up the shovel. Jake was right, it was easier to skate holding onto something. It was also kind of fun, and within twenty minutes, the three of us had cleared off Jake's personal ice rink.
“Are you going to play ‘Crack the Whip’ with her?” Jake asked. He had a weird grin on his face that told me ‘Crack the Whip' wasn’t a good thing.
I looked at Colton. “What's that?”
Colton sighed. “You don't want to know.”
“Maybe I do.” I was feeling brave.
Colton grabbed my hand and together we skated faster than I had on my own. Then, out of nowhere, Colton stopped skating and held onto my hand tightly as he swung me around the corner. I couldn't help but squeal with excitement as the blades beneath me gripped into the ice and the wind whipped in my hair behind me.
“If we were really playing ‘Crack the Whip’, I would've let go of your hand at the corner there.” Colton had a glint in his eye.
“What? I would have gone flying!”
“I know.” Colton grinned. “That's kind of the point.”
Together we skated off the ice to join Jake by the coffee pot. He already had three steaming mugs of coffee poured and was adding a little bit of Baileys Irish Cream.
“Not too much for me there, Boss.” Colton held up his hands. “I don't drink and fly, and I’ve got a game tonight.”
“Right,” Jake said. “I heard you guys had a big shake-up over there with your management.”
I took a sip of the coffee and zoned out while they talked shop. When I focused back in on the conversation, Jake was asking about one of the players, Gunnar.
Colton replied, “He's doing great, one of the best rookies we've ever had on the team.”
“Really?” Jake raised his eyebrows. “He was a cocky little son of a gun when he played for the Otters. I'm glad to see that he’s grown up a bit.”
“Yeah. Kid’s got good hands, and if he keeps it up, he might even have a shot at the first line if we make the playoffs.”
“If?” Jake stared at Colton as he sipped his coffee.
“When,” Colton corrected himself. “When we make it to the playoffs.”
“That's better.” Jake smiled. “Has Coach stopped with the affirmations and neurolinguistic programming?”
This was the first I'd heard of these techniques being used on the team. I realized that Colton and I hadn't really talked about his career, one of the most important things in the world to him. We had a ton of chemistry between us, and we had basically just agreed to be in a committed relationship together – a real relationship, but I started to wonder how well I really knew the man standing beside me. But Colton hadn't let go of my hand, and it felt like the most natural thing to be standing out on a frozen lake with not one, but two hockey superstars, and flying around in a helicopter. Who the hell was I? I shook my head and couldn't believe how much my life had changed in the past month.
