Page 55 of Fate on the Ice

I don’t know why he missed me. It’s only been a few hours, but I missed him, too. Every inch of him. I missed all of him. He clears his throat and takes a few steps backward. Then, before I can say anything else, I hear singing.

It’s a song I recognize. It’s a song that everyone recognizes. It’s “Happy Birthday.” Otto stands to the side, and then I see someone making their way out of the back carrying a cake adorned with lit candles.

They are heading straight for… me.

The birthday song continues, and at the end, they say my name. My eyes well with tears. This is for me. The girls at the salon cleared their schedule for me. I can’t even speak. My mouth goes dry as the cake is set down on a table, the candles burning.

“Make a wish,” Brooklynn cries out.

Turning my head, I look over to Otto. He’s smiling at me, huge. He leans forward, his cheek still red and angry, although the stitches are gone. “Make a wish, honey.”

“I have everything I have ever wished for.”

“Dare to dream, Grace.”

Dare to dream.

That’s beautiful.

I don’t think I have ever dared to dream in my entire life. Otto makes me want to do just that. Leaning over the candles, tears rolling down my cheeks, I press my lips together, and I blow out the candles, daring to dream with my wish.

He wraps his arm around my waist, pulling me onto his thigh. The group is lively, everyone talking around us. I’m not involved in any of it, neither is he. Happy to just be close to one another.

Turning his head slightly, he touches his lips to the side of my neck from behind. Goose bumps break out over my skin as I shift my attention to him almost instantly. My eyes find Otto’s, and I give him a smile before I lean backward slightly and brush my lips across his own.

“What are you thinking about?” I ask.

“How happy I am,” he says. “Is your birthday okay?”

Shifting around a little more, I wrap my arms around his shoulders and look directly into his eyes. “Okay? It’s perfect. I’ve never celebrated my birthday, and this is the best day ever.”

He blinks, his gaze searching mine. “Never?” he asks.

“Never,” I confess.

“We’ll be celebrating it every single year from now on.”

Tears fall down my cheeks again. I don’t try to wipe them or blink them away. I don’t care anymore if I cry. Because I’ve never felt this happy, this loved, this celebrated. Brooklynn announces that she’ll be cutting the cake and then thrusts the first piece at me.

It’s lemon with blueberry and lemon icing. The frosting is buttercream with purple and yellow swirls of frosting. Happy Birthday, Grace is written in hot pink on the top. It’s the prettiest cake I’ve ever seen in my entire life.

Then I taste it.

And it’s the best cake I’ve ever eaten in my life. It’s light and fluffy. A perfect combination of tart and sweet. I love everything about it, mostly because of the thought behind it. Someone thought about me. Someone picked it out. Someone put time and effort into it. Even if it was five minutes.

It’s more than anyone else has ever done for me.

It’s perfection, just like this tavern, just like these people around me, just like this man beneath me. This is my dream. I don’t know if I could dare to dream anything more than this exact moment.

Focusing on the cake, I eat it in about a second flat. I’m not sure how it happened, how I could eat it so fast, but I do and quickly wish that I could have more, but I know that these men are going to finish it off, and they do, almost in a single bite each.

Otto’s arms squeeze me, and I turn to him. He is smiling as I lift my eyes to meet his. “What?” I ask.

He chuckles as his gaze searches mine. “What?” I ask again when he doesn’t answer me.

He lifts his hand to cup my cheek. “I love you, honey.”

Leaning forward, I touch my forehead to his and close my eyes. “I love you, too, Otto. This is the most perfect birthday ever.”

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