“Have you loved other girls?” I asked.

“I can tell you this much,” Manning said, lacing up his skates on a bench. “I’ve never gone ice skating with another girl.”

We’d circled around the city to Rockefeller Center. It’d taken a little bit of convincing on my part to get Manning to do this, but not as much as I had thought. “Why’d you agree?” I asked, standing over him. I’d had my skates on in a third of the time it was taking him.

He glanced up at me, which wasn’t saying much. His head came up to my breasts while seated. “When you smile like that, it’s hard to say no to you.”

“And how come you never skated with any other girls?”

He tightened the lace on one boot and stood up to his full height, causing my head to fall back. With the blades, he must’ve been over six foot six. “You know why.”

“Because you’ve never been asked?”

“I’ve been asked.”

“Because you don’t know how?”

“I’ve played hockey before. I know how.” He took my hand, intertwining our fingers. “It’s because I wasn’t in love with any of them, Birdy.”

“But you’ve been in love before.”

“I’ve loved, and been loved, but I wouldn’t say, after knowing you, that I’d ever been in love.” His brows sank. “I know that isn’t enough. Not by a long shot. But it’s something.”

We made it about three laps around the rink before I fell. While holding Manning’s hand, I’d been watching him, not where I was going, and nearly collided with a child. When I overcorrected, his grip was strong enough to keep me from flying, but I still landed on my butt.

Manning bent over me, lifting me by my armpits. “Are you hurt?”

I beamed up at him. “No.”

“I’d better inspect you anyway.” He led me over to the rink’s low wall and lifted me onto it by my waist. I shivered as I remembered him putting me on a brick wall on a hot, sunny California day years ago. “This hurt?” he asked, feeling around my outer thighs.

“No.”

He extended my arm, checking the red spot where I’d hit my elbow. He lowered his head to tenderly kiss the skin. “How about this?”

I giggled. “Of course not.” I hooked my skates around the backs of his thighs and pulled him between my legs. “But you should inspect more places.”

“Which places?”

“I think I hit my lips on the way down.”

He narrowed his eyes at my mouth, then pecked me. “Seems all right to me.”

“And also my . . .”

He was completely mine, on the hook, hanging on my words as if we were the only two people in the rink. And his eyes heated as if I were the only female on Earth. “Yes, Birdy?”

“Never mind.”

“If you won’t tell me where you hurt yourself, I’ll have to go ahead and inspect everywhere. But best if we wait until later, when we’re alone.”

I wrinkled my nose, smiling. “I like that plan. Will you get on the wall with me?”

“How come?”

“So I can pretend we’re back at the beginning. Like it’s the first day I met you.”

He didn’t look at me, but upon me, his face full of adoration. “Why would I want to go back there? It was pure torture. I remember it clearly enough.”

“Me too. You were as important as the sun.”

“The sun blinds you.”

“Yes you did.” I nodded. “I’ve seen nothing but you ever since.”

“Selfishly, I’m glad for it.” He wrapped his arms around me, surprising me with a slow, uninhibited kiss. “If it’s all right with you,” he whispered into my mouth, “you stay on the wall, and I’ll just stay here.”

“It is easier to kiss like this.”

“It’s easier to do a lot of things like this. If we weren’t in public right now, I’d open a few pesky buttons and zippers and be inside you.”

I held onto him as the image of us together hit me hard. Sex was possibly the best thing I’d ever experienced, and we’d barely done it that much. “Can we go somewhere?” I asked.

“Where would you like to go, my love?”

“Anywhere. I have business with a few pesky buttons and zippers.”

“Mmm.” He kissed my neck, nipped my earlobe. “Yeah. Let’s go somewhere.”

“Your hotel?” I asked.

“Ah.” He pulled back a little. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“Because it’s . . .” Hesitating, he rubbed the underside of his jaw. “I’m expensing the stay, obviously, but I put the room on my credit card, and I’ll get reimbursed.”

“Oh.” It took me a few seconds to put it together. “Your credit card, which doesn’t only belong to you.”

“I can bring my things to your place,” he said. “I felt bad last night about scratching you up with my stubble.”

His five o’clock shadow was the least of what bothered me. I took my arms from around him. “Go then. Get your stuff and we can meet later.”

“Hey.” He pinched my chin to keep me from turning away. “Do you want to make love in a hotel I paid for with an account I share with your sister? What’s the alternative?”

I wiggled to get off the wall and he let me. When my blades hit the ice, they began to slide out from under me, but he caught me by my waist like I was some kind of doll, setting me upright again.

A woman around my mom’s age approached us, slowing to a stop with her pre-teen daughter in tow. “We were just saying you two are the most adorable couple we’ve ever seen,” she gushed in a southern accent.

“Mom,” the girl said, rolling her eyes before she sped off.

Manning tensed and moved to stand a few inches in front of me. He reached back and took my hand. It felt protective rather than loving, as if something had him worried. For whatever reason, his uneasiness melted my anger.

“Thank you,” I said.

“It’s awfully sweet,” she said. “I’m trying to figure out if you’re the high school sweetheart type of couple or if you’re in that honeymoon phase. Which is it?”

“We met in college,” he said. “So I guess it’s the first one.”

“Well, you’re precious.”

“Yes,” he said, squeezing my hand. “She is.”

“Oh my. He’s a keeper.” She winked at me, teasing. “Are you married, and if not, when’s the wedding?”

Wedding? There was no wedding, and maybe there would never be. At least not anytime soon. And if there was, it would be a pretty lonely affair without my family in attendance.

He’s already married.

I almost said it to see her reaction. Someone had to stop us, and maybe it was this woman. Things couldn’t keep going as well as they had.

“In the summer. That’s her favorite time of year.” Manning moved his arm around my shoulder. “It’ll be intimate, just close friends.”

“And family,” the woman added.

“No, no family.”

I couldn’t have my own family at my wedding, but neither could Manning. Realizing that actually made me feel closer to him. I cozied into his side. “Are you sure that’s my favorite time of year?” I asked. “I never told you that.”

“You’re a summer baby.” He looked down at me. “Born in June, grew up in the ocean and under the sun. Or has that changed?” He grinned. “Are you an ice queen now?”

I couldn’t pick a favorite season. I loved them all for different reasons—although winter was certainly pulling ahead based on today. “Any time of year is fine with me,” I said.

“She’s an easy bride,” he told the woman. “Doesn’t need much, and neither do I. Just her.”

“Let’s see the ring,” the lady said.

Manning smiled. “I haven’t asked yet.”

She gasped, slapping a hand over her mouth. “And I ruined it. Did I ruin it? You’re too sweet.” She winked at me. “Marry him. Surely you’re already beating the women off with a stick. No reason to delay.”

Manning’s mood visibly lightened. “You hear that? Why delay the inevitable?”

Feeding off their playfulness, I relaxed. “Okay. I guess so.”

She clapped her hands. “Oh, you’ve made my afternoon. My entire trip. I’m going to go home and tell all my girlfriends I witnessed a proposal.” She pushed off. “Best of luck to you both!”

“Why’d you lie to her?” I asked as Manning watched her skate away.

“Not a lie so much as a fantasy. Didn’t any of that sound good to you?”

“You said we met in college, though.”

“I was teasing.” He skated back from me, our hands locked between us. “Come on. I’ve seen enough of your New York for one day. Now I want to go back to heaven.”

“And that would be . . .?”

“My precious girl,” he said, mocking the woman’s accent, “in her precious bed.”

I pulled on his hand, but he was so solid that all I did was glide toward him. When I collided with his side, I leaned on him for a kiss. No matter how much of my weight I gave him, Manning never budged, not even in skates.