“Are we sure this is cool?” Dieter asked, his new Flyers jersey looking more than a bit odd on him. The black hockey skates dangling off his broad shoulder looked fitting.

“It’s my rink. If we want to sneak in at midnight, we can.”

“Yeah, okay. Can I take this off now?” He plucked at the vibrant orange jersey, lifting the shoulder a bit then letting it drop. You could just see the flash of the brown sweater he’d worn to dinner around the loose collar of the jersey. “I mean, I appreciate your grandmother buying it for me for my birthday and all, but…it feels weird.”

“Sure, you can take it off.” I snickered while unlocking the front door of Rainbow Skate. We hurried inside and I locked the door behind us.

He yanked the sweater – I’d learned that was what hockey players called jerseys – over his head, leaving his hair twisted and standing up. I reached up to flatten it down.

“I wish we had more time together,” I sighed as the thick mass just stood back up.

“I told you that once we were into the season things would be tight, babe.”

“I know, I know.” I pushed my hand through his hair, not to tidy it, just to feel it slipping over my fingertips. “I’d consider moving my coaching business to Harrisburg, but my kids couldn’t make the move.”

“It’ll work out. It’s only two hours one way. Like today, right? I just get up early tomorrow and I’m back at the barn in time for morning skate.”

“Of course, I know. It’s just…the nights alone are hard.”

“That’s the life of a hockey wife,” he teased, then danced out of reach of my swat to his ass.

“I’d make a divine hockey spouse.”

“Yeah, you would. Come on, let’s do some ice time.”

He latched onto my wrist, pulling me to the ice area. We sat down and began lacing up skates. His were twice the size of mine. I pointed that out and got a neck-nibble for stroking his ego a bit.

“So, I see your mom looks happier. Are you and Clay talking yet?”

I frowned down at my laces.

“We’re not talking, actually.” I exhaled and sat back, leaving my laces dangling. “It’s more like…” I wasn’t sure how to explain it. I thumbed a blue strand of hair from my face. “Well, it’s more like we’re not actually talking, but we’re not actually not.”

“That made no sense at all,” he stated flatly.

“I know. It’s still a massive problem for me. I keep trying to work it out, you know, in counseling and talking about it with Mom and Lola, but I can’t seem to get past the betrayal. Please don’t ever cheat on me or lie to me. I can take quite a lot, but…”

“Hey, look at me.” He took my chin and turned my head. I loved his eyes. “First off, who the hell else would want me? Ex-addicts aren’t high on most people’s turn-on list.”

I shot him a look of disgust, but he was teasing me.

“Joking aside, there is no other man who could ever take your place. Have you looked in the mirror lately?”

“I am rather stunning, aren’t I?” I teased back, and the weight of my relationship with Clay – such as it was – lifted a bit. “I’m not sure I can skate. I ate too much birthday dinner,” I moaned, and rubbed my protruding belly after lacing up.

Dieter placed his hand over mine. “You’re as flat as a board. Sexy, too.” He let his hand slither down toward my crotch. I swatted his wandering fingers away.

“Nope, no petting until we skate. This is my present to you. Well,” I stood up, popped out a hip and gave him a smoky look, “it’s one of my presents. The other involves lube and a butt plug I bought for you. Oops. Guess that cat is out of its bag!”

“Shit, I have a half chub just thinking about that.” He chuckled, pushed to his feet, and followed me over the thick matting to the sound system.

“I had the CD I burned on top,” I sighed as I began pawing through soundtracks for Frozen, Beauty and the Beast, and Mary Poppins. “The kids do love their Disney.”

“How’s Scotty doing? She okay with school and all?” He stepped behind me, his breath moist and warm on the back of my neck.

“She’s doing well. Such a brave thing. Ah! Here it is.”

I waved the CD over my head, then slid it into the old stereo. Now that I’d gotten the first of my checks from the TV show as well as my payment from the Railers, I had plans to upgrade things around here. I’d already paid off the mortgage on my mother’s house. The taxes had been paid as well, on both properties. The check to the bank was in the mail for Rainbow Skate. I could breathe again.

“Good. She’s a nice kid.”

“Yes, she is. They’re all wonderful students.”

We took off our skate guards and stepped onto the ice, his fingers laced with mine.

“You look happy,” he said, then took off, pulling me behind him as we slowly made a lap around the ice.

“I am. Deliriously so.” I turned to face him, skating in reverse so I could watch the play of emotions run over his expressive face. “You have so much to do with my happiness level. I thought I’d lost all my happy. Then you skated into my world.”

“And turned it right into a shitfest.” His brows tangled a bit as we did a few easy crossovers.

“No, you did not.” He spun me around, then pulled me back, pressing me against his chest as “Wonderwall” by Oasis began to fill the rink. “It was already a shitfest. You gave me a reason to battle out of the mess. We were fated. Like Romeo and Juliet, only minus the poison and cursing in Italian.”

His head dropped, his brow resting on mine, our skates gliding over the fresh ice, his arms around me.

“You saved me. You know that, right?”

A livelier song began, “Electric Love”, one that I’d toyed with skating to at one time. But that had been a lifetime ago. Now the medals and the flowers falling to the ice didn’t seem as important as seeing Scotty smile after nailing a single salchow. And the accolades and fan adoration paled to being with this man on the nights we could wrangle couple time.

“You saved you,” I reminded him, leaning back to allow him to swing me out. His grip was so strong, sure, steady. When I was upright, Dieter lifted me over his head. I rolled down to his shoulder a moment later, my arms looping around his neck, my skates barely touching the ice.

“Okay, but I had lots of support.” He pressed a kiss to my chin as I slithered down the front of him.

“You’d make a very solid skating partner,” I told him, my fingers playing with the soft hairs on the nape of his neck.

“Is that the only kind of solid partner you think I could be?” His lips trailed up from my chin to my lips, where he nibbled and licked for the length of an entire song. I let him lead us around the rink, his stride powerful and sure, mine light and steady.

“Goose,” I purred between soft, sweet kisses. “I know you’ll make a wonderful bowling partner.”

Dieter snorted, our feet moving in perfect tandem with nary a trip or stumble. “You’re not going to just say it, are you?”

“Doubtful. I like to play the minx,” I confessed, darting away from him to build up enough speed that I could drop down to sail across the ice on my side, one leg tucked behind me and the other straight. It was quite the dramatic move, and one that had won me more than a few medals and championships.

Dieter skated over to where I was lying on the ice, my eyes closed, and my form perfect.

“The Canadian/German judge gives that move a perfect ten.”

I cracked an eye open. “The Canadian/German judge is biased, but the American/Pilipino skater is okay with that.”

He offered me his hand. I slipped mine into his and was pulled to my skates and into his embrace. I traced his strong jaw with my cold fingers. His green-and-amber eyes began to smolder. We hadn’t been on the ice long.

“You’ll be an amazing life partner. That is if you want to spend the rest of your life with me?” I peeked through my eyelashes. “I’m known to be a little bratty and just a bit flamboyant.”

“Just a bit, huh?” He thumbed my lower lip, smearing the pink gloss that he adored so much.

I nodded, then batted my darkened lashes.

“I love bratty, flamboyant men.”

“Then we’re a solid pair, aren’t we?”

“We are now.”

The End