Page 24 of Switching Skates

Today has been … weird. I’ve feltoff.

It’s probably the gluten from this past weekend, if it’s still lingering in my system somehow. You never know. Sometimes, I feel like those symptoms last in me forever.

Maeve and I usually spend every second of the day together, but since she met Jackson in person on Friday, they’ve practically been inseparable, aside from when he’s at practice.

I love that for her—I do—but I also miss our couch snuggles and hangout time.

I glide slowly on my skates, meandering meaninglessly.

“Can’t get off the ice?”

His voice snakes down my spine, and I whip around to see Mason gliding onto the ice, wearing all of his gear, sans his goalie mask, which is held at his side with his glove.

My heart rate picks up, and I stutter back a step. “What are you doing here?”

Keeping my skates in place, I cross my arms and hold my ground. This only earns a smirk from him as he skates out to me.

“I …” He pauses, his mouth closing and opening as he decides what to say. “Honestly? I came here to see you. See how you’re doing.”

I click my tongue against the roof of my mouth. “Doing great, thanks.”

“You look good on the ice.” I feel his eyes on me like a physical caress as they trail longingly down my body. “But you always have.”

Angling my skates, I push away from him as he starts to close in on me. “I know.”

He chuckles and bites down on his bottom lip, smiling. “Some things never change.” He jerks his chin up, gesturing to the open ice behind me. “Show me something, Sunset.”

I raise my eyebrows and drop my jaw. “You want me to do a trick?”

He nods, and my blood ignites with anger.

His question reminds me how little he knows about who I am now and what I can and cannot do anymore.

“I’m not a toy. You can’t just wind me up.” I turn, pushing away from him with strength and vigor.

He catches up to me almost instantly, gliding alongside me, even taller than usual with his skates on. “What? It’s not that hard. It’sjustfigure skating.”

My eyes shoot daggers into him as my head cranes straight back to meet his humorous stare. He’s saying that just to get under my skin because he knows it’ll work. And annoyingly enough … he’s right.

“Just like how being a goalie is so easy when you’re the size of the entire net. I mean, you practically just have to stand there. Your pads do the rest.”

This earns a genuine smile from him. “Oh, yeah, right! That’s why there are so many goalies in the world compared to other positions.”

I scoff. “Maybe most hockey players just don’t want the laziest job on the team and they want an actual challenge.”

“You have no idea what it’s like to be in my skates, Daph.” He glides closer to me.

I shrug.

His fingers slide along my waist as he swings around to the front of me and blocks my path. “The same could be said about figure skating. You just twirl and jump around the ice.”

I cackle uncontrollably at his audacity. Jabbing my finger into his strong chest, I huff out a breath. “You have no idea how hard it is.”

Bending down and crouching, he matches my eye level. “I could probably do it in my sleep. Unlike hockey, that takesrealskill.”

“Yeah? I’d like to see you try to perform one of my old routines,” I sneer.

He smirks, his eyes flicking to my lips for a split second. “With ease. Try having a shutout and making eighty-five saves when your defensemen seem to be playing for the other team.”