Page 96 of Switching Skates
People pat my back and clap for what just happened as I quickly make my way back down the ice, feeling on top of the world.
The guys greet me with smiles and smacks on the ass.
You know, the usual.
“What do you say, boys? Let’s kick some fucking ass!” I shout, and the energy electrifies.
We reset on the ice for the remaining few minutes of warm-ups before it’s game time, and I’ve never felt more ready.
During the next sixty minutes, I play the best I ever have. We don’t just win; I get a shutout and seal Daphne’s love permanently when I flip my net down on the ice and the team piles on me in celebration.
God, her cute movies couldn’t have written it better than this.
“Where are you taking me?” Daphne giggles as I turn right onto a gravel road, her hand in mine.
Lifting her fingers to my lips, I kiss her knuckles. “It’s a surprise.”
On the off chance that this night went exactly how I wanted, I had the bed of my pickup prepped and ready to go, sealed away beneath the top I secured on it.
The weather is perfect too. A little crisp, but not too cold and not too warm. Just right.
I scouted this place a couple of weeks ago when this date idea popped into my mind, and I’m glad that we can finally do it.
Pulling off to the side of this dead-end road, I put the truck in park. I pull the CD that has all of her favorite nostalgic songs into the reader and turn it up, loud enough that we’ll be able to hear it outside, before opening my door.
“Can you roll your window down completely?” I ask her as I finish mine.
Hers creaks ever so slightly as she rolls it down. “She’s a bit of an old girl, huh?”
I shrug, shutting my lights off. “A little.”
“You don’t want anything newer?”
I grab the eye mask from behind my seat that I stole from her room earlier. “Why would I when this one holds all those memories of you?”
Her jaw unhinges, and her lips part.
I hand her the eye mask with a smile. “Here, put this on and stand outside. No peeking!”
She slides out of the truck and slips it over her eyes, holding on to the door for support. You’d think she wasn’t a talented figure skater with impeccable balance by the way she’s clinging on to the door for dear life.
“Now what?”
I hop out and shut my door behind me. “Now you wait until I tell you to remove it. Turn around though. I don’t trust your nosy ass to not sneak a peek.”
She giggles and does as I asked, putting her back to me as I walk to the tailgate. I lower it and roll up the cover, revealing everything underneath.
I hop up and kneel on the makeshift bed that I made with a mattress pad and, like, fifteen blankets. Grabbing the tote of stuff I packed, I lift the lid off and set it next to me.
After unpacking the ten candles, I take a moment to light each one and line them up on the roof of my cab before stowing the lighter away.
I set my laptop out, fully charged and ready to play whatever movie she wants. I work through my mental checklist as quickly as I can, dying to show her.
Grabbing the charcuterie board I made in advance from the little cooler, I set them on the makeshift table—the tote lid.
Last but not least, I grab the rose petals and scatter them about—on the blankets, the pillows, down off the truck, and in a line in the grass to where she waits.
She sings my name out impatiently. “Maaaasonnnn.”
