Page 63 of Hearts on Ice
His parents stood straight ahead, at the pass-through bar to the kitchen, both of them looking toward the door, like they were expecting them.
Of course, they probably had seen Declan drive up, and had had enough time while Colby was hesitating to wait for them.
With matching disapproving looks on their faces.
CHAPTER 25
Declan set the gift down on the entryway table and released Colby long enough to step forward to hug his mother, then his dad.
“Mom, Dad, good to see you.”
Then he stepped back beside Colby and took her hand again. His parents zeroed in on that gesture in tandem.
“Cecily, Mark,” she greeted, and her effort to keep her voice from shaking made it sound cool and condescending instead. Great. Great start.
“Colby. Surprised to see you here,” Cecily said.
Colby resisted the urge to look at Declan, to see if he hadn’t let his parents know she was coming as he hadn’t let her know they’d be here. But she wouldn’t display any weakness in front of his family. She couldn’t. She didn’t care how that made her look to them.
She looked past his parents when Meghan walked in the back door to the kitchen, and her frazzled expression turned frosty when she saw Colby also.
But then Tristan zoomed forward, around the bar, and collided full speed with Colby, knocking her breath from her. She released Declan’s hand to catch her balance by holding onto the child, who leaned back to beam up at her.
“I’m so glad you came to my party! Come on, let’s go see the big slide.”
“Oh, I—” She started to protest, and looked at Declan.
“Hey, what about me?”
Tristan released Colby and gave Declan a perfunctory hug, then took Colby’s hand and led her toward the back door. Colby looked back over her shoulder at Declan, who shrugged.
She was actually relieved to be out of the house, though she saw Evan standing at the grill on the deck out of the corner of her eye as Tristan marched her toward the steps of the slide that was nearly as tall as the two-story house.
“Come down the slide with me,” Tristan insisted.
She eased back from the swaying monolith. “Oh, I think I’m too big for that.”
“My mom did it, and she’s bigger than you.”
God, please don’t let Meghan have heard that. Colby glanced around to see a few more adults sitting near the grill, but Tristan was relentless. Other children were bouncing down the slide that didn’t look quite inflated enough, and Colby knew she was going to make a fool of herself. She glanced back toward the closed door, hoping Declan would appear, but no, he was probably still talking to his parents.
So she walked up the ladder-like steps behind Tristan, wishing there was a little more support between her and the ground than air-filled plastic. Ahead of her, Tristan plopped onto the top of the slide, making the whole structure bounce. Colby couldn’t stop the little shriek that burst from her as her fingers dug into the nylon.
But when Tristan dropped out of sight with a whoop of delight, Colby took her place at the top of the slide, aware of several other children mobbed up behind her.
And Declan stood at the bottom of the slide, hands on his hips, smiling indulgently up at her. She gave him a rueful smile in return and pushed herself off toward him.
The slide was steeper than she expected and she gained speed that had her heart lifting out of her chest.
“Declan!” she tried to cry out in warning, because she couldn’t stop herself, and she tried to bounce to her feet when she reached the ground. He caught her, and her momentum took them both down, Declan flat on his back, Colby sprawled on top of him.
As soon as she caught her breath, she scrambled to her feet, looking down at him in consternation.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” The word was an exhale as he sat up slowly.
She reached down to help him up. “Were you trying to catch me?”
