Far From Home

“You don’t have to stop eating,” she said, placing her hand on mine when I went to put the rest of my lunch away. “I’m not in any rush.”

“I said I could eat, not that I was starved. Besides, now I have something to snack on later.” I paused and gave her a serious glance. “Where does your food go?” For as long as I’d known her, she’d loved to eat. Thankfully, she had a metabolism that more or less kept up with her, but I rarely went for a second helping, whereas she did.

She shrugged, then glared at her now-empty soda bottle.

“Seeing as the rest of our day is free, I was thinking we could go check out that skating rink we found online the other night.”

That got my attention! “And here I thought you were going to make me wait until the very last minute.” Even now, I could see the idea bothered her. Not enough for her to say something, but the tightness in her voice whenever we brought it up assured me I was right.

“As tempting as that is,” she began, “I’d rather get it out of the way. That way, if it’s as great as you say it is, we can do even more of it before we have to go back to school.” She was expecting the worst and hoping for the best.

I smiled. “You’ll like it. Hell, as a kid, I spent most of my time out on the ice once I learned how to skate. My folks got tired of me asking to get carted around everywhere, so I either biked or took the bus.”

“How often did you go?”

“A few times a week? At first, it was just something to do, but once I learned a few things, I never wanted to leave.”

“And yet you didn’t go into sports.”

I offered her a partial shrug. “Nothing else interested me.

Dancing is kind of similar, but it isn’t close enough for me to forget my time out on the ice.”

“You’re a figure skater, then?” She smiled and was clearly joking around.

“A bit.”

When I met her gaze, her eyes were as wide as they could go. “You’re kidding.”

“I suppose you’ll just have to wait and find out once we get to the rink.”

Taking our trays, she quickly dropped them off at the counter, then returned to get her coat. “I can’t wait to see this.”

Chapter Ten

Taylor

There was something different about Sam once we stepped through the doors. The shy woman I was used to hanging out with had suddenly been replaced by a kid in a candy store. Her eyes lit up under the bright lights, and her smile grew as we approached the counter. A man greeted us, went over the usual niceties, then asked for shoe size. Before I could get a word in, Sam blurted hers out, practically shaking beside me as the clerk handed Sam her skates.

Smiling, she said, “I’m gonna go lace these up. Come to the bench when you’re ready.”

I nodded, completely numb as I took my skates from the man behind the counter, feeling their weight in my hands as a heavy ball of lead sunk into my stomach.

“Never skated before, huh?” the clerk asked, sensing my hesitation.

“Once.” Sort of. I shivered at the memory.

“Don’t let the intimidation stop you. It looks like you’ll have one hell of a teacher.”

Glancing back over my shoulder, I had a feeling he was right. Sam had her back to me and was in the process of lacing her skates, bobbing her head the entire time. No doubt she had a song stuck in her head and was doing whatever she could not to hum with other folks around. It was one of her small quirks I’d gotten used to at school, which we then made into a game of Guess that show tune.

Lowering beside her, I swallowed hard and let the skates hang between my knees.

“It won’t be that bad,” she promised, offering me a small smile when I met her gaze. “I can see this bothers you, but I’ll be there the entire time. If it makes you feel any better, you can keep the skates off while I’m out on the ice.”

“You aren’t going to join me?” You can’t leave me alone out there. Even with a few people out on the ice, I was bound to crash into something. Another skater. One of the gates. The wall. Definitely the walls.

“Oh, I will,” Taylor said, oblivious to my thoughts. “I’ve just been away from it for so long, I need to get out there real fast and get this out of my system before I can chill and talk over basics with you without shaking.”