Page 46 of Sweet Surprises

Somehow, the ridiculousness of the whole situation hit him, and he found himself chuckling. Charlotte scowled at him, and her serious look made him break into real laughter as he pictured her stubbornly rushing off into the crowded rink and almost causing the biggest skating pile-up in Sugarville Grove pop-up rink history.

“I’m sorry,” he gasped, wiping tears from the corners of his eyes.

Tara Winters, the flatlander who owned the new café, skated past, her brows lifting slightly. He figured she was probably as surprised as anyone to see Tag Lawrence laughing until he almost cried. It might have sent him into another spiral of helpless laughter if Charlotte hadn’t suddenly smiled at him.

“Was it reallythatfunny that I almost fell down?” she asked him, the smile still on her face like she wasn’t mad anymore.

“No,” he told her. “It was just that you got so mad about it. I didn’t even know you could get mad.”

“I get mad,” she said thoughtfully. “I just don’t let it own me. Except this time, I guess.”

Her eyes twinkled, and he felt his heart melt like chocolate.

“I think you just brought out my grouchy side,” she finished, shrugging.

“What did I do?” he asked.

But suddenly she was looking down at her hands. Something about that tickled his brain, but he couldn’t imagine what.

“I guess I should try to learn your way,” she said, looking up at him again. “I’ll listen to you this time. I promise.”

“We just have to take it slowly and think it through,” he told her. “You’ll get it in no time.”

“I’m a doer, not a thinker,” she muttered.

“That’s becoming clearer to me,” he said. “Take a deep breath.”

The look on her face reminded him of Chance when he had to wait for something he was excited about. It was all Tag could do not to smile again.

“First of all,” he began. “If you start feeling like you’re going to fall again, don’t reach for me or even for the wall like you did before. Reach for your own knees.”

“My knees?” she asked.

“When you do that,” he said, bending to demonstrate, “you’re bringing in your center of gravity, and you’re naturally balancing yourself, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, nodding.

“When we get back out there, you’re just going to move like you’re walking,” he told her. “We’ll do that until you feel confident.”

“Then what?” she asked, ever the optimist.

“Then you’re going to bend your knees and push back with one foot,” he told her. “After that, you’ll bring that foot up with the other one, so they’re together again. Then you’ll do the same with the other foot, bend your knees, push off, bring your feet together again.”

He demonstrated and she nodded, looking like she was about to start taking notes.

“Ready?” he asked her, holding out his hand.

Her eyes went to his outstretched hand and then flashed back to his face.

Tag had never exactly been good at understanding women. But he instantly knew to his bones what had been bothering her before. Somehow, she had sensed that he didn’t want to hold her hand. That was why she had snatched hers away, and that was why she had been so desperate to get away from him that she had almost caused a bad crash.

A million thoughts went through his head. Like the fact that he was ten years older than she was, and that tongues would wag if they spent any more time together holding hands. And then there was his deep-seated instinct to shy away because he always put his kids first, not to mention the heat it was bound to cause with his sister…

But as he saw the question in Charlotte’s luminous, hazel eyes, he knew he wasn’t going to resist her. He’d never even had a chance.

“Come on,” he said. “Let ‘em talk.”

She smiled then, so brilliantly that he thought she could light up the rink better than a million twinkle lights. And she slipped her hand back into his, where it belonged.

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