Page 52 of Wilder

Kayleigh sighed again. “Sometimes…”

“She’s not hunting me down, so you must have said something to reassure her.”

“Yep. I told her that you were there at my request to speak with Alexandra.” She paused, then added, “And I told her that I thought you had a bit of a crush on Alexandra.”

“Kayleigh! What?”

“Hey. It’s all the truth!”

“You think I have…” He glanced at the rink, then lowered his voice. “You think I have a crush on Alexandra?”

“Well, you seem to be spending a lot of time with her.”

That was true, but it hadn’t been prompted by him having acrushon her. “I don’t have a crush on her.”

Kayleigh hummed in response. “Regardless. The woman seemed happy enough with that explanation, so be glad I got her off your back.”

“Thank you,” he said, meaning it, though he was still annoyed with her.

“Anyway, I’ve got to get back to work. Try to stay out of trouble.”

Before Wilder could give her a snappy comeback, she hung up on him. Wilder set his phone on the table and picked up his coffee to take a sip. He hoped that this wasn’t going to be the start of rumors among his siblings, but he figured that was too high of an expectation of them. His sisters, especially.

Finally, the kids came off the ice, turned in their skates, then left with their mom. Wilder got up as Alexandra also skated to the break in the boards and bent to slip the guards on her skates.

“Hey,” he said as she straightened.

She gave him a brief smile. “What brings you by?”

“I wanted to run something by you. A possible option to the Christmas program.”

“Sure. Just let me return these to the skate rental,” Alexandra said, patting the skating aids.

“I can do that for you,” Wilder said. “Why don’t you go sit down? Do you want a coffee or something?”

“I’d like a cup of tea, please. If you tell Luke it’s for me, he’ll know what I want.”

Puzzling over why he wished thatheknew what she wanted to drink, Wilder went to the skate rental place and returned theskating aids. When he stepped up to the counter at the café, Luke said, “Back for a refill?”

“Sure, why not? But also, Alexandra wants tea.”

“I’ll get those for you right away.” Luke moved to where the coffee machine sat and quickly filled a cup with coffee, then another one with hot water and a tea bag. When he returned with the two cups, he said, “Want a cookie or a cinnamon bun? They were made fresh today.”

Wilder considered it for a moment, then nodded. “I’ll take two cookies, please.”

He doubted that Alexandra would eat one, but he didn’t mind eating both if that ended up being the case. “Thanks.”

Cups and cookies in hand, Wilder headed back to where Alexandra waited at the table he’d been seated at earlier. She had her legs stretched out, her skates balancing on the back of the blade.

“Here you go,” Wilder said as he set her cup of tea down in front of her, then sat down across from her. “Did you want a cookie? Luke said they were freshly made.”

Alexandra stared at the cookie he held out to her, then slowly, she reached out and took it. That surprised Wilder, but he kept his thoughts to himself. If she wanted to enjoy the treat, who was he to draw attention to it?

“How did the lesson go?” Wilder asked after he’d taken a sip of his coffee.

“It went well, though it was a bit weird at the end.”

“Why’s that?”

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