“Oh, my gosh.” She bounced over to me, wrapping her arms around my neck enthusiastically. “That was so exciting to watch. When is the first game? I definitely want to come.”
“Really?” I asked, surprised, adjusting the skates in my grasp.
“Yeah, of course. I mean, I’ve seen some clips on television before, but it was so different in person, and that was just practice.”
“Well, now I wish you could have seen me play professionally. It would have been nice to have someone cheering for me in the stands.” Nodding to the bench, I handed her the skates while I dumped my bag on the seat beside me and followed suit.
“Your girlfriends never came to the games?” Melancholy rang through her words.
“I don’t want to talk about them,” I said as I relaced my skates. “Have you ever ice skated before?”
“Not since I was little and I don’t recall it going well at that time.”
Standing, I gestured for her to follow me through the rink’s opening, taking her hand when she wobbled on the blades. Autumn hesitated as I glided on the ice.
“Come on.”
Her knuckles were white from where she gripped the ledge and took a step onto the ice. “I don’t think this is the best idea.”
“I think it’s a great idea,” I told her as I pried her hands free and took them in my own. In slow steady movements, I pulled her along with me across the hard surface. When her body started to rock as she tried to push off on her blades, I said, “Don’t look down. Look at me.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t focus on your feet. Focus on me. You’re less likely to lose your balance that way.”
Autumn adjusted her grip on my hands and I worried she was going to break my fingers with her surprising strength.
“There you go,” I said as she began to glide across the ice on her own. I tried to slip my hands free of her grasp, but she wouldn’t relinquish her hold.
“Don’t you dare.”
Laughing, I continued to skate backward as I pulled her along.
“You really love hockey, don’t you?” she asked as we made our first loop.
“I do. I may not play the way I used to, but I’ll always be a hockey player.”
“And one of the greats if the articles I’ve read are anything to go on.”
I had the decency to blush at her statement. I was ranked alongside some of the most well-known players in history and the notion was surreal.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable,” she added as she slipped a bit on the ice. I grabbed her arm as she righted herself.
“Think you can do this on your own?”
“No freaking way. If you let me go, I’ll kill you.”
“But you’d have to get off the ice first,” I joked in return.
“Who knew Colton Crawford was a comedian? I think you’ve found your next journey in life.”
“Actually, you’re not too far off,” I said as I pushed off with my skates, moving us faster around the rink. The wind forced her hair away from her face and her cheeks turned a soft shade of pink that reminded me of the impatiens that lined the Chisolm’s flower bed.
“What do you mean?”
“My agent called and he has a few projects he wants me to work on. I’ll be in New York and maybe LA this weekend.”
“Oh.”
