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They spent the better part of an hour together, with me sitting on the bench and watching, trying pointlessly not to love them both in desperate ways that made me feel so very vulnerable, and then Sly brought Katie back to me and I folded her into a hug. “You did so good, Bear.”
“I did,” she agreed. “Sly said next time I can learn how to spin.”
By the time they’d left the ice, she was skating confidently on her own, but I doubted stunts were the natural progression from here. I nodded and smiled anyway.
“Your turn,” Sly said, reaching out a hand.
I glanced at Katie, not sure I should leave her on her own.
“Anyone interested in checking out the Zamboni?” The man from the skate rental counter asked, appearing from down the side of the rink.
“What is a Zamboni?” Katie asked, wrinkling her nose. “Do you eat it?”
“Why don’t I help you get your normal shoes on, and I’ll show you. If it’s okay with your mom.” The man stretched out a hand. “I own the rink. I’ve known Sly here since he was about ten. He told me you’re Clara. Ted Connor’s daughter?”
I shook his hand and smiled. “You knew my dad.”
“Good man.”
“He was.” I pushed down the sadness threatening to rise inside me.
“Can I show your daughter the Zamboni? We’ll be right there.” He pointed to the far side of the rink, where I assumed the Zamboni was kept.
“Sure. That’s really nice of you.”
“What is a Zamboni?” Katie asked again, struggling to untie her skates.
Sly dropped down to help her as I put my own skates on, and explained in a soft voice. “The coolest car you’ve ever seen. It’s huge and it drives across the ice and makes it all shiny and smooth again.”
She turned to look up at Arnold. “Will I get to drive?”
Arnold laughed. “We’ll see, okay?”
She nodded. “I don’t have a license.”
He chuckled and they headed around the side of the rink. I turned back to Sly. “That’s okay, you think?”
“I’ve known him forever. He used to drive me home after practice sometimes. He’s got about ten kids of his own, I think. Loves ‘em.”
I nodded, and looked up into those deep caramel eyes. “Okay. Let’s see if I remember how to skate.”
I did. And for a little while, I moved carefully around the ice, staying close to the wall. I was a little wobbly, but my confidence came back slowly.
“You’re doing great,” Sly told me, sliding by like a dancer and then spinning around to face me as he skated backwards.
“Now you’re just showing off,” I teased.
“If I wanted to show off, I’d do this,” he said, and a second later, he was racing away from me toward the center of the ice, where he performed some kind of jump I was pretty sure I’d only seen before in the winter Olympic figure skating competition.
I gasped and laughed with surprise, applauding him as he returned to me. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes sparkled. “I thought you played hockey. Maybe you have a better future as an ice dancer!”
“I took a few years of figure skating lessons,” he said, grinning. He took my hands then, pulling me with him as he skated backwards again, and moved us toward the center of the rink. I did my best to focus on the movement of my feet instead of the hard callouses of Sly’s palms against my own, the warmth of his skin, the nearness of his body.
I could hear the high pitch of Katie’s laughter somewhere off to one side, but it was faint enough that I was in danger of becoming completely entranced by the man before me. By the warm, gentle way he held my hands. By the way his eyes drew me in as he asked, “Do you trust me, Clara?”
Nodding, I listened as he told me how to position my skates, and then he put his arms around my waist, pulling me against him. The warm, hard planes of his body matched to my curves, and I had the sensation of completion, of something aligning on a cosmic level. And then he began to spin us, and my arms gripped him tightly as a gleeful shriek left me.
“Oh my god!” I laughed, the world sliding by at increasing speeds until I slammed my eyes shut and buried my face against the warm reassurance of Sly’s chest.
