Page 53 of Fake Skating

Things were normal between us as we exited the rink, but then Alec went rogue.

“Come on,” he muttered, pulling me in the opposite direction from where Burrito was parked. Instead of heading toward his car at the end of the lot, he led me around the side of the building—through the snow—and didn’t stop until we were in a dark corner, my back against the side of the Doug.

“What are we doing?” I asked, my voice almost a whisper. The high winter moon let me see the sharp angles of his face as he looked down at me, and I felt almost breathless with how badly I wanted him to be my real boyfriend.

“No idea,” he said. “All I know is that I need to kiss you.”

“Oh,” I said, feeling warm as his big body pressed my back against the wall and his big hands came up to slide underneath my hair.

“Have I ever told you how obsessed I am with your hair?” he said, his eyes making me feel drunk with the way they were hot on me, roaming all over.

“I—I don’t think so,” I managed, my voice barely a breath in the night.

“I cannot look at it without wondering how long it takes to dry after a shower,” he said, his fingers slowly twisting around random strands. “Or how wild it looks the minute you open those brown eyes in the morning. The things I would do to get a first look.”

His words weren’t risqué, but the way he was saying them was, dear Lord .

“You said… something about a kiss,” I said, feeling hypnotized by the slow-motion twirl of his fingers.

“Impatient?” He rubbed his nose over mine, sending a shiver through my body.

“Yes,” I breathed, going up on my tiptoes to close the space between us.

“Praise Jesus,” he said, and then he was on me in a way that nearly made me pass out.

Because it was different when he slanted his mouth against mine and kissed me as my actual boyfriend. It felt bigger as he dove in, possessive as he boldly fed me feverish kisses that had me gripping the front of his jacket to keep from melting to the ground in a puddle.

God, he knows how to make me feel.

When he kissed me like that, it felt like I was everything he could ever want, like he was desperate to be closer.

Which was powerful because I felt the exact same way.

I snaked my arms up around his neck to pull him closer and he made a noise of approval in the back of his throat, not lowering the heat in the slightest.

“Zeus!”

I jumped at the sound of Vinny’s voice, scrambling to guiltily untangle myself from Alec.

“What do you want, Vin?” Alec said, barely pulling back as he gave me a look that told me he was not happy about the interruption.

“You guys headed to the Cro?”

I looked over Alec’s shoulder to see Vinny in the back seat of a car I didn’t recognize that was pulled up behind the building.

“Yeah.” Alec sighed and dropped his hands to his sides. “In just a sec.”

“Okay—see you there,” he said, and then the car squealed away.

“I guess we should go,” Alec said, his voice so deep as he put his mouth next to my ear that a shiver shot down my spine.

He took my hand and started leading me toward the parking lot, only… was that my parents?

I squinted and yes, holy crap, it was.

My parents—and Grandpa Mick—were standing next to my mom’s car, a few spots down.

“—and she shouldn’t have to live in this place just because you’re trying to recapture your youth, Hannah!”

Oh God. They were arguing.

My always composed father is very nearly yelling in a parking lot, I thought as I watched in disbelief, my stomach sinking to my feet as I grabbed Alec’s hand and tugged him back so we were between cars, where they couldn’t see us.

“That’s bullshit and you know it,” my grandpa said, pointing at my dad’s chest. “If you gave a damn, you’d take any fucking assignment in this country to be closer to her.

You’d move to Offutt, even if you hated it, just so you could see her every once in a while.

You’d take any little crumb you could get because she’s your daughter and she matters to you.

But no, you have to be a manipulative dick and convince her that she has to move one more fucking time to be worthy of your love. ”

Alec grabbed my sleeve and leaned closer. “What is that about? Are you going to move again?”

I could see by the way he was watching me that he knew it wasn’t good, and I could also see that he fully expected me to tell him what was going on.

But I had no idea how to explain, because I knew he wouldn’t understand.

And neither would my mom or my grandpa.

They saw my dad as a huge jerk, which wasn’t necessarily wrong, but because of that, they wouldn’t get that he was trying, in his bossy colonel way, to be a good father.

To spend more time with me.

He was willing to move somewhere he didn’t want to live just for me , which was huge.

Yes, he wanted me to leave my mom, which I just couldn’t do, but it was because he loved me.

And that meant something.

It kind of meant everything.

My throat felt tight, and I just shook my head and said, “It’s complicated, but no.”

“Oh, that’s rich coming from the man who literally kicked them out of his life for years ,” my dad snapped at my grandpa. “How can you talk about spending time—”

“That’s exactly how I can talk about it—”

“Let’s go,” I said, turning and pulling Alec back in the direction we’d come, wanting everything I’d just witnessed to disappear. “Let’s take the long way to your car.”

“You sure?” Alec asked. “You okay?”

I looked into his dark eyes and nodded. “I will be, once I forget about this and go celebrate.”

Suddenly his eyebrow lifted, mischievously, and he pulled out his keys. “Do you wanna blow off the Cro?”

“Do you ?” I asked, surprised he’d want to miss the party but relieved, because I needed space.

“It’s going to be loud and crowded,” he said, shrugging. “I’m kind of in the mood for something a little more low-key.”

“Where can we go, though?” I asked, looking at him as we crossed the lot to reach Burrito from the other side. “Everyone with a house to go to is there .”

“True,” he agreed.

“Wait—what about the spot?” I asked, because I’d been dying of curiosity about it since the minute we’d gotten out of the moving truck in Southview. “Is it still even standing?”

He looked down at my face like he couldn’t believe I was suggesting it. “ Our spot?”

I loved that he thought of it that way too. “Yeah.”

“It actually is,” he said, but there was something strangely guarded about the way he said it.

“I’d love to see it! I mean, unless you don’t want anyone else to know about it.”

“I don’t care if Cassie, Lillie, and the guys know, but for the sake of historical preservation, I think we should keep it small.”

“Yeah, totally,” I agreed, with way too much excitement, but the idea of going back to that spot—tonight of all nights—seemed a little magical. And I needed all the magic I could get to forget about the train wreck that was my dad’s sudden appearance.

He pulled out his phone and sent a group text, then put it back in his pocket. “Let’s go to the spot.”

“This is a great idea,” I said, beaming up at him.

He smiled back. “I think you might be a great idea, Collins.”