Page 36

Grant

My heart broke for Brooke earlier when I saw her at her dad's grave. Having lost no one nearly that close to me, I can't imagine how she feels having lost another parent.

She's tougher than she looks; she's put on a brave face trying to enjoy the rest of the day, but when she steps onto the ice, it's like she lights up and feels relaxed for the first time today.

She glides around the rink, getting a feel for the borrowed skates. She's not bad. I'll have to sneak her into our rink one night to skate. If she wants, she might think that's weird and too much like a date.

I come up behind her and start skating around in circles; she joins me, laughing.

"Pretty good." I nod at her, and she puts her hands on her hips

"Told you I could skate."

"I thought you meant you could skate a level above the little penguins." Poking her side as I skate off, and she gives chase around the rink.

"I'll have you know I graduated mini skaters, thank you," she huffs as we pass Adam, watching Cami do a complex spin as they wait to start our hockey scrimmage.

"B, you know I love you, but you failed the first year," Cami calls over as she comes to a stop, and Adam attempts to spin like she did, but wobbles and falls before getting up and trying again.

"Adam," I call, giving him a what the fuck look.

"You try it! I'm lucky I didn't break my leg," he pouts as he holds on to Cami's arm as she helps him up. She's bent over laughing, so she's not much help.

"Yeah, Grant, try it." Brooke pokes me in the side where I poked her, and I bat her hand away

"I risk breaking bones on the ice enough; I don't need to be taken down trying to be a figure skater." I shake my head as Cami shows Adam the spin again, and he moves to try it.

I skate over and grab him by the back of the jersey and pull him back.

"Graaaaant," he whines.

"No," I firmly say, putting my foot down, or I guess my skate, dragging him back towards the end of the ice we will be on.

"Brookie, tell him," he whines at Brooke as she shakes her head and wiggles her fingers at him.

"Sorry, your captain's spoken." She smirks, grabbing Cami's hand, and they giggle, skating off together.

I can see them being little terrors on the ice when they were kids. A mini-Brooke would be cute; I'm curious what our kids would look like.

Cute. Definitely cute

"Why are you smiling all goofy?" Adam pushes a hockey stick into my hand since we didn't bring our own.

"Nothing," I mumble quickly, tearing my eyes away from Brooke.