Page 21 of Ice Me Baby

He nods, reaching out a hand for me to grab. “Yeah, of course.”

He lifts me easily, and I wobble a bit on my tired legs, so he scoops me back up into his arms bridal style. I let out a squeak of protest. “You don’t have to carry me, Oli.”

He shakes his head. “You did something to your ankle. Let’s not make it worse.”

I can’t stop the blush that heats my cheeks as the song ends and switches to Can I Have This Dance by Joshua Bassett and Sofia Wylie. Trying to cover my embarrassment, I huff out a sigh. “You’re probably right. I shouldn’t have skated like that; I’ll need some ice.”

He nods before yelling, “Lewi! Get some ice!”

My head jerks up, and I look around. There he is. Standing at the edge of the rink, staring wide-eyed and mouth agape. I groan and cover my face with my hand. “Please tell me he wasn’t watching too.”

“If I did, I would be lying, Liz.”

A shiver races down my spine at hearing his deep voice say my name. It’s odd, but I like it when they call me by name. The nickname makes me feel like I am part of the team, but himusing my name makes it feel like we are friends. When he said my name, it sent a flutter of delight through me.

“Thank you, Mac,” I whisper.

His cheeks pinken, and he gives me a nod. “No problem.”

He sets me down on the bench and begins to unlace my skates. I should have worn a brace on my bad ankle, but then there would have been no freedom of movement in my skates. I was too constricted in my brace for skating. Oli’s eyes meet mine as he holds onto my left skate. “May I?” he asks softly.

I nod.

He gently removes the skate and sets it aside before removing my sock, so he can get a better look at my ankle. He presses softly on the now-puffy skin, looking up at me to gauge my reaction. With a soft smile, I say, “It doesn’t hurt too badly.”

He hums. “It’s a little swollen but shouldn’t be too bad. You should probably put some ice on it just in case.” He moves onto my other ankle and gingerly pulls off that skate too.

When he removes it, I can’t help but hiss out a curse.Shit.This isn’t going to be good.He’s gentle as he removes my sock, and I watch his face when he takes in my foot first. I definitely overdid it. My foot is already swollen and bruised. With his thumb, he softly caresses the swelling as he turns my ankle to the left. His eyes widen when he turns it to the right, taking in everything. He slowly rolls the edge of my leggings to mid-calf before meeting my gaze again.

His dark eyes meet mine with an unspoken question. “Liz?”

As I’m about to answer him, Lewi races up with a bag of ice. He holds it out to Oli, but then his eyes widen as he takes my ankle. “Fucking hell, Roe! What happened to your ankle?”

I huff out a sigh; I suppose they will eventually find out anyway. The scars aren't extremely noticeable, but I usually wear pants, so they are always covered. The scars healed well, considering how badly I’d broken my ankle. The amount of workthey had to do to fix it… yeah, I was lucky. I’m lucky to be out on the ice at all now. But to a new pair of eyes, the scars look a bit extreme. On either side of my ankle, there’s a scar that runs from the bottom of my ankle bone up to mid-calf.

“So, this is the old ankle injury I was talking about.”

“You said it was nothing crazy,” Oli points out, clearly disagreeing with my definition of crazy.

True. I did say that. Damnit. “I... I was in an accident when I was a teenager.”

Lewi squats down next to Oli and gently runs a finger over one of the scars. “What type of accident?” he asks quietly.

My eyes shift to the ice before meeting Oli’s soft gaze. “I used to be a figure skater.”

Lewi snorts. “Used to be? You looked fucking amazing out there.”

I smile softly. “I’ll never be able to skate professionally, though.”

“Why not?” Lewi asks.

Oli interrupts before I can answer. “She no longer has the flexibility to do so. She no doubt looked amazing out there, but she’s not using the foot she’s meant to land on.”

I smirk. “Impressive; you could tell all that?”

He lays the bag of ice on my ankle as he says, “You are right-leg dominant. I can tell you often overcompensate when you walk and regularly lean to your left side.” He looks out at the ice before looking back up at me. “You had to re-learn how to skate. You had to ignore what felt natural.”

I nod. “I’ve been working at it the last few years. It hurt too much to be on the ice after it happened.”

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