Page 33 of The Dating Contract

Event Two: Unicorns hockey practice

Location: Briarwood, JCC, Briarwood New York

Purpose: Soft launch for the relationship in front of Leah’s family/professional inspiration and networking for Samuel

Leah was excited.

Her niece, Ramona, had wanted one thing for her fourth birthday: hockey lessons. And considering that one of ‘Auntie Leah’s’ clients was a founder of one of the most famous U-4 girls’ hockey programs, Auntie Leah was able to deliver.

Which was why she stood in the parking lot, waiting for her sister-in-law.

Once they arrived, Ramona, her newly minted four-year-old niece raced over, her arms outstretched. “I get to play hockey.”

“You do,” Leah said squeezing her niece. “And it’s okay to have fun and…”

“I’m going to play forever,” the determined little girl insisted as they headed into the building.

“Thanks for this,” Shayna said, hefting the bag that held Ramona’s hockey things. “She hasn’t been able to talk about anything else.”

“It’s the least I could do,” Leah said. “I hope she likes being on the ice.”

Shayna laughed. “Nate and Shim have been taking her skating to break the skates in for the past few weeks, and they haven’t been able to get heroffthe ice. I suspect she’s going to be in heaven.”

“I am,” Ramona said, a broad smile on her face. “Auntie Leah, I’m going to score agoaland wear a tutu.”

Leah grinned at her niece. “You’re going to score a goal in a tutu, huh?”

Ramona nodded, a serious expression on her face. “I’m going to wear a tiara and a tutu and score a goal.”

Leah smiled. “You can do anything,” she said.

Ramona beamed as she headed toward a group of girls chattering in the hall.

“Gotta go in there,” Shayna said. “But I have to ask. What’s up with Samuel?”

Leah sighed, but remembered what Naomi said. She owed Shayna. “We’re exploring,” she said. “We’re exploring how dating feels after all these years.”

Shayna raised an eyebrow. “Look,” she said. “You will forgive me if I don’t believe you. What I do believe, and won’t push about, is that you seem happy. Whatever the hell is going on with the two of you, just promise me that you won’t let the pressure get to you.”

“Pressure?”

What the hell was Shayna talking about, pressure?

In response, Shayna adjusted the bag on her shoulder. “Judith has been sniffing out information like it’s her job, and Naomi seems to be cagey. Which means she knows something. Everybody wants to know what’s going on, not to mention you and Samuel are known to have a difficult history.”

Difficult was putting it mildly, and it seemed Leah owed Shayna her firstborn. “I mean…”

“But anyway,” Shayna interrupted. “All of that? What I just talked about?Thatis pressure—the stuff outside. But the stuff outside isn’t what matters. What does is what sits between you two.”

Which was true if she was talking about a normal couple and their normal relationship. But she and Samuel were complicated and, at the end of the day, Leah wondered if what sat between her and Samuel were a bunch of tangled threads and a contract. But she didn’t want to tell her sister-in-law that. What she said was: “Okay?”

“Good.” And then both she and Shayna heard Ramona’s excited wail. “I think I’ve got to go.”

As Leah watched her sister-in-law head into the dressing room with her niece and the huge bag of equipment, she heard the alarm on her watch go off.

Samuel was going to arrive soon.

And she wasn’t sure what to make of it.

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