Page 30 of Wedlocked

His head tipped toward the sky, his laugh mixing with the snow. “Only the best for my girl.”

I spun, the bite of my blades in the ice a distinct sound. He gave me a warning look, and I smiled, skating backward, and reached for his hand. We didn’t say anything for a while, just held hands and floated over the ice. I didn’t glance over my shoulder to make sure I was heading in the right direction. I trusted him. Ryan would never lead me wrong.

The thought filled me with warmth, making my chest feel swollen. “I love you,” I said.

He smiled, lips parting to answer, but his voice was cut off by a scream.

Jerking upright, I changed directions, glancing around.

Another scream, the kind that inspired terror and fear.

At the edge of the lake, there was movement and then panicked yelling. “My son!” A woman in a long brown coat waved her arms and stumbled onto the ice. Her feet went out from under her almost instantly, and she landed in a heap.

Another terrified wail pierced the peaceful landscape, and I whipped around to find a small boy. He was standing frozen, his eyes so wide they looked white.

“Is he hurt?” I asked, then gasped, noticing he was beyond the roped-off section.

“Mom,” he yelled, rocking on his feet before pushing off on one to skate forward.

Crack.The sound was loud, almost like a gunshot. Even before understanding what it was, adrenaline spiked in my limbs and my heart rate shot up. The boy screamed and jolted, body going still as he looked down.

And then I realized.

He was on thin ice. Ice that was threatening to crack beneath him.

Even though my heart was thudding loudly, the blood seemed to roar through my head. Everything else went quiet as if, for a long moment in time, everyone froze in disbelief. As if their very breath would be the thing that shattered the fine ice keeping the small boy from falling into the frigid lake.

And then just like that, the shock bubble burst and people started yelling from the shore. The mother started screaming, and the boy cried for help.

The distance between the child and parent seemed so far, the woman unsteady on her skates.

Crack.

“Noooo!”the woman yelled. “Help!”

I realized then that we were the farthest out on the ice. The closest to where the boy was stuck.

I glanced at Ryan.

He started shaking his head.

I started to skate back, and the grip he had on my fingers turned painful. I pulled them from his and pushed off, power skating toward the boy.

“Rory!” Ryan roared behind me.

The boy looked in my direction, his cheeks stained with tears. Seeing how close I was, his terrified eyes clung to me. “Help.”

“Don’t move,” I told him.

Chaos was erupting behind me. I heard skates over ice. Shouting and Ryan swearing. I kept going, ducking right under the ropes and into the no-skating zone.

The sound my skates made turned into a higher pitch, something I dully noted meant the ice was definitely thin. But I couldn’t go back. Not without helping the boy.

I heard him sniffling and slowed my skates.

“Rory, stop!” Ryan demanded from behind.

The ice cracked again. I froze, holding out my arms as if I could somehow hold the ice together with will.

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