Page 14 of Joy to the Girls (She Gets the Girl #2)

“Okay, but how do we know the ice is thick enough?” I ask half an hour later, as the four of us trudge through the knee-deep snow, maybe better described as a landmass, in May’s backyard.

“My family has been skating here for decades. If the ice can hold my uncle Randy, it can definitely hold you, Molly. He was a defensive lineman at Penn State,” May replies, but it doesn’t do much to ease my nerves.

It wouldn’t, though, because most of my nerves surround the fact that tonight I’ll finally have to tell the person I love the most that I’ll be moving an ocean away from her for two whole years.

As I struggle to keep up with May’s and Alex’s naturally long strides, my eyes flick over to meet Cora’s, and everything must be written all over my face because she immediately mouths, You okay?

I nod and take a deep breath. I have to try my best to forget about it for the time being, which turns out to be easier than expected once we get to the pond.

“Race you guys to the other side!” Alex says, while I’m still lacing up my second boot. “Let me get my skates on first, and I’ll dust you!” I call after her. She smirks and then glides out onto the ice like a damn swan thanks to our weekly roller-skating dates.

“Oh, thank God,” I say to myself since everyone else is out on the ice already. I breathe a sigh of relief watching her as I finish lacing up and make my way to the edge of the pond. “I was worried this was going to be super different from roller-sk— AHHHH! ”

The second my skate touches the ice, I instantly eat shit and end up completely on my ass. All I can see are the stars beginning to dot the darkening sky overhead.

“Maybe you should just watch from the sidelines, babe?” I hear Alex say from somewhere far off, her voice drenched with sarcasm.

Her skates against the ice get louder and louder until she appears in my field of vision, smirking down smugly at me.

She knows how much I hate being bad at this.

So when she holds her hand down to help me up, I push it away.

I roll over onto my stomach, then push myself back up onto my skates, determined as hell. But… I fall practically every inch of the way to the center of the pond, and my resolve dwindles until I’m just lying there in a sad Molly heap on the ice.

“Who’s the newbie now, Parker?” Alex says, kneeling down on the ice next to me while I huff and puff.

“I go roller-skating with you every week. How are you so good at this, and I can’t even stand up?” I demand, as her green eyes look down at me and crinkle.

“Didn’t I ever tell you that before my dad left, he took me skating at the Philly RiverRink every year?” she asks. The knowing smile stretching across her lips tells me she knows damn well she didn’t.

I cover my face with my hands to hide my eventual smile. Of course.

“Glad he imparted such a useful skill to you,” I reply, letting my hands slide off my face, and I see her laugh.

“Yeah, he didn’t leave me much, but every other winter when I end up on a pair of skates, I can’t help but think what a lucky daughter I am,” she jokes, and then holds her hand down to me for the thirtieth time.

“Okay. Help me,” I say, finally taking it and letting her pull me up onto my skates. The corners of my mouth turn down in defeat.

“Come on. You’ll get the hang of it,” she says, leaning in to kiss my frown away.

“Now quit grumping around. We’ve got some matchmaking to do.

” She glances to the side, where May is skating smoothly around Cora while Cora attempts to glide on one foot.

She succeeds for about half a second, then loses her balance, and the two of them end up in a heap on the ice, their laughter echoing off the pine trees all around us.

“Looks like I need more help than Cora right about now,” I reply.

I spend the next twenty minutes being guided around the ice by Alex like I used to do for her at the roller rink.

Her hands jump from mine to my hips to catch me each time I start to lose my balance until finally I begin to get the hang of it.

At least enough to be able to shuffle unaided over toward May and Cora.

“May, Dirty Dancing lift!” Alex yells as she whizzes by me. May looks like a deer caught in the headlights of a semitruck. Instead of reaching out for Alex’s waist, she quickly skates to the side and lets Alex fly right past her with arms outstretched until she face-plants on the ice.

“Dude, there was no way. What were you thinking?” May calls after Alex, who lets out a long groan before stumbling to her feet and circling around back toward us.

“I’ve seen you clean-and-jerk a hundred and fifty pounds!” Alex replies.

“Yeah, but the hundred and fifty pounds wasn’t coming a hundred miles an hour at me on a sheet of ice!”

“Oh, so you’re saying you can’t do it?” Alex asks innocently.

“I mean, I can do it. Just with someone smaller than you.”

“It’s okay to just say you can’t, May.” Alex shrugs, skating right past her over to me.

“Cora. Get over here,” May says, determined to prove Alex wrong. When she turns her back completely to us, Alex nudges me, a playful smile spreading across her face. I’ll give it to her, that was smooth. I just hope it was worth the face-plant.

“You sure about this?” Cora calls across the ice, her voice wavering.

“I won’t let you fall,” May replies, coaxing her on.

“Come on, you got this, Cora,” Alex mutters under her breath, only loud enough for me to hear, but Cora just stands there, feet frozen to the ice.

“ I’ve had the time of my life…, ” I sing out, then pause and cup my hands around my mouth to megaphone the rest of the song out to her. Alex quickly joins in until Cora is shaking her head but grinning. Finally, she takes off toward May.

I grab Alex’s hand and squeeze it nervously as I realize Cora is actually rocketing toward May to be lifted above her head on rock-solid ice.

I hold my breath as May’s hands meet Cora’s waist and… she lifts Cora flawlessly over her head.

“Oh my… you’re even smoother than Patrick Swayze, May!” I shout, my jaw hanging open.

“Whoa, whoa. I don’t know about that. My man made Jennifer Grey look like a sheet of paper, but… Holy shit! I knew it. You totally could have lifted me!” Alex calls out.

We both whoop and holler and clap, but we trail off as Cora slides slowly down May’s body and back onto the ice in a way that makes me feel like we should look away.

“Come on,” I whisper, pulling Alex’s hand to follow me off the ice and toward the picnic table near the edge of the pond.

As we pour some hot coffee from the ancient thermos May dragged out here with us, Cora comes skating off and walks up the bank to us, leaving May attempting pirouettes out on the ice.

“Hey, guys,” she says casually, like we didn’t just witness what we witnessed.

“?‘Hey, guys’?” Alex asks. “What are you doing over here?”

“What do you mean?” she asks.

“Cora, I’m pretty sure Sapphics would literally kill to get a lesbian scene that hot in a movie,” I say.

“If one of you doesn’t make a move before the end of today, I will,” Alex jokes, and Cora immediately pushes her off the picnic table and into the snow.

But I see her cast a curious look in May’s direction, and something tells me I won’t be the only one having an important conversation tonight.