Chapter 24
“How are we going to get in there?” I ask Cole as we stand in front of the locked ice rink.
“You don’t remember breaking in here when we were kids?” he asks, mischief in his eyes.
When he returned from training camp a couple of days ago, Cole asked me for a date night alone before the hockey season starts, and I agreed. He’s carrying a duffel bag and a cooler, which makes me curious. We often snuck in here as teenagers.
“In case you hadn’t noticed, we’re not kids anymore. A B&E holds a much stiffer penalty now,” I point out to him.
He grins at me and jingles a set of keys in my face, “Not B&E if you have the keys, which we have, thanks to you hooking up with the head coach.”
He unlocks the door and escorts me inside. The lobby is dark and empty. Cole uses the light on his phone to illuminate the building in front of him.
“Stay here,” he says, leaving me on the bleachers. He walks away, and I follow the light until he disappears into another room. Suddenly, all the lights in the rink turn on, startling me. In minutes, Cole is back at my side, and I follow him through a door and down some hallways until we exit the players' tunnel and sit on the bench. He unzips the bag he brought, pulling out a new pair of figure skates.
“I didn’t think you had any,” Cole says as he hands them to me.
“No, I haven’t skated in years,” I tell him.
He helps me put them on and then puts on his skates. He opens the door to the ice and steps out before turning around and holding his hand to me. I take it, using him for balance. I feel like Bambi on wobbly legs as we walk around the rink. After a couple of laps, my confidence slowly returns as muscle memory takes over, and I begin to glide.
“Remember when we took skating lessons together?” Cole asks me.
“Vaguely. We couldn’t have been older than five.”
“Yeah, before I started hockey.”
“And you told your dad you wanted to figure skate with me instead.”
Cole chuckles, “Yeah, that went over well.”
Mr. Thorne was always hard on Cole growing up. He had a lot of expectations for his son and accepted nothing short of perfection. I’m sure he’s proud now, but it came at the expense of their relationship, which is strained.
After a few more turns around the rink, Cole leads us off the ice and back to the bench. He helps me with my skates first, then takes off his. After, he pulls out a thick blanket from the bag and then grabs the cooler.
“Be right back,” he tells me. He returns to the middle of the ice and lays out the blanket before setting the cooler on top. I’m glad I listened when he told me to dress warmly. No matter how thick the blanket is, the cold can be felt through it.
He returns and helps me walk out to the blanket, where we sit side by side. He takes sushi and drinks from the cooler, motioning for me to help myself. We eat mostly in silence. When I’m sure I can’t stuff another bite in my mouth, I stop.
“Good?” Cole asks. He’s already stopped eating.
“So good. Thank you. This was a lot of fun.”
“Not over yet. I brought dessert.”
“Dessert. You should have warned me, so I left the room.”
Cole chuckles as he pulls a pie tin out of the cooler. “It’s your favorite, though, chocolate cream pie.”
He hands me a slice, and I miraculously find a place for the pie in my stomach.
“Ok, now I’m truly stuffed,” I groan.
“That’s a shame. I was hoping to make out in our favorite spot in the locker room,” Cole says with a pout.
“I can probably be persuaded…” I trail off as his lips cover mine.
We enjoy our time in the locker room, doing nothing more than kissing and heavy petting before heading back home.
