Page 11 of Skin Deep

“Kiss,” Newman said, bobbing his head.

“No.” I shook my head.

“Please.”It sounded likepah-lease. “How did you not notice?”

I shrugged. “I wasn’t paying attention.” To the waitress, anyway.

“How come you don’t date?” She stopped. “Wait. Where are we going?”

I took it as a good sign that she was having such a good time that she didn’t realize we were close to Rockefeller Center.

“I was following you,” I said. “You tell me.”

“So weird. I didn’t even notice we were headed this way. I like to come here sometimes and watch people skate around. Seems like fun.”

“Want to go?”

She shook her head. “Not in the cards this month.”

“We can still watch,” I said.

“Yeah,” she breathed out, becoming quiet. “We can always watch.”

The line had thinned some since I’d been earlier. We got close to the rink, and when Shine noticed me, he nodded.

“Excuse me,” he said. “Are you two in line?”

“No,” Mari said. “Just watching.”

“I have two passes for you.” He handed them to her, and she went to hand them back, but he put his hands up and shook his head. “Listen. Someone came in earlier and wanted to pay it forward by paying for two tickets. I forgot to offer them to two random people. We’re about to close. My supervisor will be pissed if she doesn’t see me give them to you.” He nodded behind him. A woman who worked with him was watching us. “I might even lose my job for not giving them out after they were paid for.”

Mari bit her lip, then looked at me. Her hazel eyes reflected all the lights strung up around the area.

“Sounds legit,” I said. “We’d be doing him a favor.”

“You want to go?” she asked me.

“Yeah. Why not?”

“Okay,” she said, still hesitant.

“Excellent!” He told her to give the tickets to the man working the line when we got close enough. “You saved my job, lady! I owe you.”

Three words made her relax.I owe you.Which meant she didn’t owe him, and in her world, that was all that seemed to matter.

“I can’t believe this,” she said under her breath. “I’ve always wanted to do this. I hope I don’t break my ass!”

“Ass,” Newman said, ruffling his feathers.

“I can’t believe this!” she said again, wobbling, as she held on to the side of the rink and attempted to skate around. “This is amazing! Woo hoo!”

People were skating around her like a pro, and she was excited just to be inside of the rink. She laughed the entire time, even as she held on.

“Whoa!” She reached out and held onto my jacket. “I think I tried to go too fast too soon.”

“Hold on,” I said, guiding her around, loving the feel of her hands on me. “I’m a pretty good skater.”

A second later, we both went down, and we were still laughing about it as we stopped in front of my apartment building.

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