Page 54 of All's Fair in Love and Christmas
“Trust me.” His voice is low, reaching deep inside me to touch a hidden chord. “You won’t be able to move forward if you’re clinging to what’s keeping you rooted in place. If you feel like you need to hold on to something ...” He peels my hands away from the top of the rail and grips them firmly. “Hold on to me.”
Slowly he starts to skate backward, pulling me along. My gaze drops to my feet, and I begin to lose my balance.
“Look at me, Mackenzie,” Jeremy instructs, his voice steady. “Focus on my eyes.”
I raise my gaze and hold on to him tighter as I falter.
“That’s it. Good job,” he croons as my legs steady. “Just keep looking at me.”
I don’t think I can look away if I try. All the other skaters have melted into the background. It’s just me and Jeremy on the ice, our gazes connecting us even more than our clasped hands. Each second our eyes are locked, he’s lacing another strand on the rope binding us together. Maybe this is why I never let myself look into Jeremy’s eyes for too long before. Somehow I knew if I did, my heart would become irrevocably tied to his.
The toe of my skate catches the ice. I pitch forward, my hands leaving Jeremy’s as my arms windmill to try to regain my balance. Visions of my face meeting the cold, hard ice dance in my head. I close my eyes. Brace myself.
And am immediately wrapped in a pair of strong arms, my face pressed against the wall of a chest that smells faintly of citrus but feels like the comfort of coming home. My breathing catches and my pulse begins to race. Two anomalies I’m miserably familiar with, but this time the reactions are different. Instead of pain and panic, they bring with them anticipation and desire. They bring me to life, awaken me, instead of making me want to shut down and run away.
My arms are prisoners, locked between Jeremy’s body and mine. I expect his arms to fall away. For him to glide backward on his skates and put a little space between us. But he doesn’t. If anything, his arms tighten. Draw me closer. Or is that my imagination?
“Mackenzie.” The way he says my name is a caress.
I tilt my chin up. He’s looking down at me, his eyes a riot of emotions. Our lips are only inches apart. If I weren’t wearing skates, I could push up on my toes and press my mouth against his. Put my wonderings to rest andknowwhat it’s like to kiss the man I’ve been longing for, who holds a piece of me and is collecting more each day.
His eyes vacillate between mine. His gaze drops to my mouth.
The whole world stills.
“Mackenzie!”
Keri’s voice shatters the sphere that encompassed Jeremy and me like a snow globe. Jeremy blinks, his eyes clearing. His hands move from my back to my arms, and cold air fills the space he occupied only a moment before.
Keri and Alejandro slow to a stop beside us. “Do you have your cell phone on you?” she asks. “I want a picture of everyone together.”
I dig my phone out of my coat pocket. The screen lights up, showing I have a missed call from Heritage Hills. My heart plummets to my toes.
“What’s wrong?” Jeremy moves closer to my side.
I take comfort in his warmth as I tap first the phone icon and then the voicemail. Keri’s brows fold in concern.
“Heritage Hills called,” I say as I wait for the message to start playing.
“Hello, Mackenzie. This is Gabriellafrom Heritage Hills. I’m calling to let you knowyour mother has been taken to Mercy Memorial Hospital. Thedoctors there can tell you more about her condition, but feel free to call me here if you have anyquestions, and I’ll do my best to answer them.You have the number. Just know we’re praying foryou and for Caroline. Good night.”
Mom’s in the hospital. A dozen scenarios roll through my mind, each one worse than the last, until the weight of them all threatens to bury me in an avalanche. Black spots dance in my vision. A high-pitched ringing sounds in my ears. Somewhere in my mind, I register voices talking, but they’re muffled, and I can’t make out what they’re saying.
A shadow falls over me. Fingers lift my chin. I’m looking up into Jeremy’s concerned face.
“Take a deep breath, Mackenzie.” He draws in a large breath of his own, his chest expanding as his lungs fill with oxygen, then lets the air out slowly.
Now that I have something to focus on, my tunnel vision widens. This time when he inhales, I pull in a lungful of oxygen as well. As I slowly exhale, the static between my ears begins to clear. By the third breath, I’ve calmed enough to think rationally.
I shift my gaze to Keri, who’s standing beside Jeremy. “My mom was taken to the hospital. I don’t want to cut your date short, so I’ll take a rideshare—”
“You certainly will not!” she exclaims at the same time Jeremy says, “I’ll take you.”
Jeremy and Keri stare at each other.
“I’ll take her,” Jeremy repeats.
Keri looks at Alejandro, an apology written on her face before she turns to me. “Kenz—”
