Page 54 of Forced Arrangement

“When you did this in the past,” I say to her, glancing over my shoulder to make sure I don’t see anything suspicious going on, “did you go with your mother and your father?”

She nods. “Yeah. My dad was more involved when I was little. I’m not sure what changed.”

Angelo pulls his phone of out his pocket and I can see that Franco has texted him before he tilts the phone away.

“Everything okay?” I ask. My voice sounds tense, even to my ears.

He shakes his head and pockets his phone. “No, sorry. Just answering some business texts.”

I roll my eyes. “You don’t even take any time off, do you?”

He looks at me askance as we approach the skating rink. “That makes you mad, doesn’t it?”

I admire the twinkling lights and the festive air in this area of the park. It’s just as magical as I remember it being.

“Not mad,” I say slowly. “It just brings up bad memories. Before we…left…my mom and my dad were always busy with the business, the family, the emergencies. I didn’t get to see them very much. That’s why our nights in the park, or the rare times that we traveled for fun were so special to me.”

“I’m sorry that your childhood was so…eventful,” he says to me.

I laugh loudly. “That’s one way to describe it,” I say with a shake of my head. “Come on, let’s get our skates.”

I drag him toward the counter where he pays for our skate rental and a locker for our shoes. We get our skates on and I happily glide out onto the ice, the muscle memory from years past helping me to make slow, looping circles with ease.

“Come on!” I call as I twirl around a bit awkwardly.

“I’m working on it,” he says to me. He steps up to the edge of the skating rink and hesitates. I turn sideways to stop myself and smile at him. He looks…uncertain, and it warms my heart.

“Come on, scaredy cat,” I tease. “Get out here.”

“If I break my neck, you are to blame,” he says to me, wagging a finger in my direction.

I roll my eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Hurry up!”

I watch as he gingerly steps onto the ice, losing his balance a little bit, and sliding over to the wall.

“Here,” I say. “Do it like this.”

I start coaching him about how to slide across the ice, and he starts to get more confident and finds his balance. My cheeks are pink from the cold and the grin on my face practically hurts it’s so wide. I didn’t realize how much I had missed having fun like this. I feel lighter, happier, than I have felt in years.

“See? It’s fun!” I exclaim, doing a little swirl and then skating away from him for a moment.

“Come out here and dance with me!” I call to him as I skate backward and forward in the middle of the rink.

“Ummm,” he says hesitantly. He barely dodges some other skaters, apologizing as he stumbles his way out to me. “Easier said than done,” he grumbles as he draws close to me.

“Sure,” I say, taking his gloved hands and spinning us slowly around as I take the lead. “But worth it.”

We skate in lazy circles, his balance growing more certain as he allows me to take the lead. I love this about him, that he lets me be in charge when it’s only fair that I should be. I appreciate that he doesn’t try to tell me what to do, or who to be. It’s special, to be seen and treated like a complete human being. So few people in our lifestyle allow their wives or daughters to have any say in what happens to them.

“This was a good idea,” he says to me, his voice low and intimate.

I look up at him, and find that he’s gazing down at me with lust-hazed eyes. I lean a little closer and stretch up to kiss hislips. I already feel the hunger tugging at me, pulling in my belly despite the cold.

“Thank you for indulging me,” I say back as I draw away. I can tell we aren’t going to spend much more time skating. He clearly has other things on his mind and I’m not interested in arguing. Besides, we really shouldn’t stay out without a guard for long. I know it’s not safe, and I don’t want something bad to happen to us just because I wanted to feel free for a moment.

“You know what would make this little ‘honeymoon’ complete?” I inquire, my head tilted to the side.

A little smile tucks into the corner of his full mouth. “Nope, but you’re going to tell me, aren’t you?”

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