Page 88 of Faking it with the Billionaire
Jasper grabs my hand, helping keep me steady as I’m clutching every nearby orifice to hold on to. I don’t want to fall on my ass and make an idiot of myself.
“You’ve got this,” Jasper says.
“Do I?” I laugh, not the least bit confident in what we’re doing. I should be watching and protecting Bristol, not giving myself a concussion when I fall on the ice, which is inevitable.
“Yes,” Bristol says with the widest grin I’ve ever seen. “Just follow what I do.” She glides onto the ice with ease and twirls around before skating backward.
The fuck I can’t follow that. It takes concentration to glide with one foot and then the other on the ice.
“Man, if I knew you couldn’t skate,” Jasper says, “I’d have offered you lessons a lot sooner. We could have surprised my brother with a routine on the ice and really made him jealous.” There’s a teasing tone in his voice, and while I imagine that he likes to rile up his brother, I don’t get the impression that they fight over girls.
“He doesn’t know how bad I am on the ice. But he did ask me once if I could skate,” I say.
“And you told him the truth?” Jasper asks. He pulls me farther into the center of the rink and works with me to keep my balance and focus on my movements.
“I wasn’t about to lie to him.”
“Small fibs aren’t necessarily lies,” Jasper says. “And I’m honestly shocked that he agreed to date you. He swore he’d never lay eyes on a woman who couldn’t ice skate and didn’t love hockey.”
I chuckle. “I know nothing about hockey, and I suck at ice skating. A match made in heaven,” I joke.
“Both of those things are fixable.” He lets go of my hand but skates alongside me, making sure that I’m steady.
I’m slow, but I haven’t fallen on the ice… yet.
Bristol skates up to us and glances me over. “You’re slow,” she says.
“Thanks, kid,” I mutter as she skates away and does more twirls, spinning rapidly. “Has Kyler ever thought about putting her in competitive ice skating?” I ask.
“She hates playing competitive sports. The pressure gets to her, and she goes off and does her own thing. Bristol is a bit of a free spirit.”
I watch her on the ice, not seeming to care that we’re on the opposite side of the rink. “I’ve noticed.”
There’s more commotion and noise as several other teammates head onto the ice with their hockey sticks and a puck, working on practicing for their next game. Jasper should be doing that instead of babysitting me and Bristol on the ice, but I appreciate his patience.
“We should give the boys their space,” I say. My ankles hurt, and I don’t want to interfere in practice. I wave at Bristol, attempting to gesture for her to come over to me, but she just waves back and dances to the beat in her head.
It’s cute and also a bit unnerving when I’m trying to get her attention, and I’m not good enough on ice skates to go chase her down.
“It’s all right. We can share the rink for a couple of hours. It’ll be good to teach the boys some discipline about not fighting with every player who trips them up and gets in their way.”
I narrow my gaze. “It’s really no problem. Bristol and I can wait on the bench.”
Jasper shakes his head. “You can, but you won’t. My niece is happy, and I don’t want what’s happened today to affect her,” he says. “She’s bound to overhear the guys talk, or Kyler when he gets done with the league’s interview.”
We spend another hour on the ice, and my ankles by now are very sore, but I don’t want to complain. The guys have slammed each other into the glass at least a dozen times. They’re wearing their full gear, but even so, it has to hurt more than my little ankle discomfort.
“Ryan! Jasper!” Kyler shouts for us, and I frown, unsure why he’s using my last name. I get the dreaded sense that he’s putting distance between us, and we haven’t even talked about what happened with the league.
“Looks like your fiancé is done,” Jasper says.
“Daddy!” Bristol squeals and skates over to the bench. He opens the door, letting her exit the ice arena.
It takes me a few more minutes to get there, and Jasper is beside me, making sure that at least if I fall, there’s someone to help me back onto my feet.
“Learning to ice skate?” Kyler asks as I step off the ice.
“Something like that.”
