Page 7 of Love and Other Penalties
“And you think you’ll be here by five o’clock tomorrow morning?”
He grins at me. “Nope. I only practice on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays.” He grins at me as he skates toward the side of the rink. “And tomorrow is Friday.”
“You were here yesterday,” I call after him just because I can. “Where should I meet you?”
He comes right back to me. “Meet me?” He shakes his head, suddenly serious to go with his delectable woodsy scent. “I’ll come pick you up.” He glances over my shoulder. “Is your phone in your bag?”
I frown at him, not sure where he’s going with this. “Yes.”
“Great. I’ll put my number in it before I go, and you’ll text me your address. I’ll be there at…what? Eight-fifteen?”
“You think I can get home and get ready for dinner in fifteen minutes?”
He grins. “Now who’s pushing dinner to an even later time?” He shakes his head likeI’mthe impossible one and skates off again. “Text me your address and what time I should be there.” He spins to skate backward, and I’m going to have to give him a new nickname. Showoff Skater or something.
“Now, stop distracting me,” he calls. “I have a starting position to defend.”
I scoff as I watch him stroke away. “More like Tabby Trouble,” I mutter, sticking with the feline theme for the nicknames.
three
. . .
I squeezethe piping bag tighter, trying to work out my confusion on a batch of innocent red velvet cupcakes. The mixer behind me whirs with another batch of batter that I’ve added too much red food coloring to. They’ll be more like black velvet, and I’ll have to tell my father something.
What, I don’t know. Just like I don’t know how I can possibly carry on a conversation with a professional hockey player for as long as it takes to eat dinner.
I still haven’t texted Finn my address or what time he should pick me up. Maybe if I don’t, he’ll just forget this morning ever happened.
It’s all I can think about, as I’ve replayed the moment Finn touched my arm about fifteen billion times, but men and women are different, aren’t they?
“You’re squeezing that frosting like it owes you money.” Mae comes to my side, her weathered face holding all the knowing in the world. She’s wearing a leopard print sweater with rhinestone cats, and her silver hair is piled high in a style that defies both gravity and good sense.
“It’s fine,” I say, stepping back from the perfect pirouettes I’ve piped on the red velvet cupcakes. “They’re perfect, actually.”
“Mm-hm.” Mae sips her coffee and studies me with eyes that have seen seventy-two years of human nature. “And I suppose this has nothing to do with Tall, Dark, and Puckish standing out at the counter asking to meet the baker?”
I drop the piping bag, and I swear gravity has a new vendetta against me today as it lands with a horrible plop and frosting oozes out the tip.
“He’s here?” I look over my shoulder as if I’ll be able to see Finn from back here in the kitchen. You know, the windowless kitchen that only has a solid black plastic door leading out to the main cakery.
I wipe my hands on my apron and feel the sticky, gross texture of it. I immediately start to take it off, and that makes Mae chuckle. It’s really more of a mix between a donkey braying and a wheeze, and I glare at her. “What?”
“I didn’t believe Janet when she said she saw you two on the ice this morning, but I see now it’s true.”
“We have to share the time,” I say. “It’s nothing.”
“Yeah, it sure looks like it.” She nods to the cupcakes I’d been working on. “You’re frosting cupcakes like you’ve never done it before.”
“Those areperfect,” I say, shooting her another glare. “Very triple lutz.” With extra power.
I shoot another look to the black door. “This is ridiculous,” I say, shaking out my hands. “I don’t have time for distractions.”
“Who says he’s a distraction? Maybe he’s inspiration.”
Before I can formulate a response to that terrifying possibility, my father pokes his head into the kitchen. “Ivy? There’s someone here for you.”
“Yes, I know.” I feel like snapping something in half as I stride toward him. He ducks out of the way mere momentsbefore I barrel into the main part of the cupcakery, and there he is.
