24. Zane

24

ZANE

It is absolute carnage. Everywhere I look, sheer carnage.

Kids are skidding across the ice on everything except their skates—knees, butts, the occasional face. People should sign waivers before they step out here. This rink is an insurance nightmare.

"I'm doing it!" Aiden calls, clumsily stomping in his skates across the ice. "I'm skating!"

That's a generous way of putting it, for sure. But he isn't face-planting on the ice like the girl in the sparkly unicorn helmet behind him, or clinging to the boards and screaming for help like the twins in matching velour jumpsuits, so I give it to him.

"You're doing amazing, bud!"

The dad of the twins tosses a longing look towards Aiden before he goes back to convincing his little gremlins to let go of the wall.

Aiden grins. "Can Mira see me? Is she watching?"

I can tell he wants to look into the stands to check, but he learned very quickly that, where his head goes, the rest of his body follows. If he turns his head, he'll end up on his ass.

I look for him. Mira is sitting in the middle of the stands, a white bobble hat pulled down over her ears, her dark hair in long braids. She smiles when she catches me looking, and the gooey warmth that fills my chest is lowkey embarrassing.

"Yeah, she can see you. She says you're doing great, too."

Aiden lowers his head and tries to skate faster. I can tell it's taking every bit of his concentration because his tongue is sticking out the side of his mouth and his face is all squished up.

It's not too far from the way Mira looked when she first got on the ice. To be fair, she warned me in the car ride over that she wasn't going to be any good on ice skates, but she does everything else so gracefully that I didn't believe her.

I should have.

It was like trying to teach a millipede to skate. There were limbs flailing everywhere. I was so busy trying to keep her from cracking her skull open on the ice that I couldn't even help Aiden.

"If you don't put me out of my misery and let me take these skates off," she gasped, almost eating shit when a ten-year-old skater whizzed past her and upset her very delicate equilibrium, "the universe is going to put me out of my misery for you. I'm going to die out here."

I helped her to the edge of the rink and she's been safely in the stands ever since.

Aiden has been a lot easier to train.

After a half-hour of slow laps around the ice while holding my hands, he's able to skate mostly unassisted now. On his third lap without any help at all, he waves me away. "I can do it by myself."

"Are you sure? I can follow along behind you if?—"

"I'll do it by myself," he insists.

I skate away, hands raised. "I'm sure you can. I'll go talk to Mira while you take a solo lap."

I skate for the exit and Mira walks down the bleachers to meet me on the bottom row. "He looks good out there. A little more practice and he'll be a pro."

"He's already talking about being on a hockey team. He wants to be a forward. Naturally."

"Like father, like son," she agrees. "Do they have teams for four-year-olds?"

"There's actually a peewee league that runs through the Angels. Some of the trainers and rookies help coach. I might sign him up." I shrug. "Maybe I could even coach."

Mira smiles. "Aiden would love that. And it would give me a good excuse to paint my face and make glitter signs."

I can see it perfectly: Aiden tumbling out of the car with all of his gear, Mira decked out in team colors. She and Taylor would make a perfectly obnoxious cheering section. And even though PDA is very much not her jam, Mira would kiss me over the boards before every game.

I tug on the end of her braid. "You'll be our good luck charm."

She winces. "I'm not so sure about that."

My hackles rise. Something has been off with her since she got back from kickboxing this afternoon, but I don't know what. Admittedly, there wasn't a lot of time to figure it out.

She got home an hour later than planned, saying something about a "situation" she had to handle at the gym. Before I could ask about it or make good on my promise to clean her up in my shower, Aiden blew in with Evan thirty seconds later. He was talking a mile a minute about how he desperately needed to learn to skate so he could keep up with Jalen, who just started lessons all of one week ago. Ten minutes later, we were headed out the door for the rink.

"I never got to ask about what happened at the gym." Our legs brush as I turn to her. "About why you were late."

Mira goes rigid. Her green eyes flare wide. "What? When? Nothing."

I arch a brow. "You want to try that again? Maybe your second take will be more convincing."

Her braids bounce against her shoulders as she shakes her head. "Really, it was nothing. Nothing happened. I just—" She looks at me, and goddammit, there's something there. Something she isn't telling me. She blinks away before I can figure it out. "I stayed late to work out some frustration. I think talking to Hollis freaked me out a bit. That's all."

"I should've been there," I grit out.

She was worried about a possible head injury and begged me to stay, but I could've paid a flight attendant to check on me through the flight. I should've flown home to be with her, regardless of what she wanted.

"No, you shouldn't have. You probably shouldn't even be here." She sweeps her fingers over the side of my head. "You need to rest. How do you feel?"

I snag her wrist. "I'm fine. You're the one I'm worried about."

"You don't need to worry about me anymore." She gives me a smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes. "I've sworn off ice skating. It's only solid, unfrozen ground for me from here on out."

"I'm serious, Mira. You don't have to do anything you aren't ready to do. We can go to Hollis and handle this whenever you think the time is right."

"Or whenever Dante shows up," she mutters. "Whichever comes first."

She doesn't mention her brother directly very often. It feels a bit like Voldemort or Beetlejuice. If we say his name, we might summon him.

Mira's cheeks flush despite the chill of the arena. She tips her chin towards the ice. "Aiden looks steady out there. Way better than kids out there twice his age. He really must take after you."

I want to push, to promise Mira that Dante isn't going to get anywhere close to her. But I decide to let it go.

For now.

Aiden finishes his first lap and waves up at me as he starts in on the second. "God help our future kids," I mutter.

She snaps narrowed eyes to me. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"You know what I mean. Half of their DNA is going to be yours and balance is not a guarantee."

"This is not a good way to convince me to have your babies, Zane Whitaker!" She swats at me between every other word.

I can perfectly imagine Mira pregnant with my babies. Our family. That gooey warmth is back and filling up my chest. "You know it's true."

"Yeah, but only I can say it," she argues. "You're supposed to lie and tell me I looked like a swan out there."

"You did," I agree. Then I add, "A dying swan. With one wing. And no feet."

She puts those flailing limbs to good use, but I fend her off, eventually capturing her gloved hands and cradling them against my chest. "If I tell you you looked graceful, will you be convinced?"

"Convinced of what?" Her eyes rove across my face, and I can tell when she finds the answer to her question. Her smile slips. "I thought you wanted me to take my time to think about it."

"I do, but that doesn't mean I won't try to persuade you in the meantime."

Her full mouth tilts into a smirk. "Telling me I looked graceful is a start."

"Mira, you looked extraordinarily graceful out there." I dip my chin, holding her gaze. "Especially when you tripped over your own skates and almost crushed that little girl and her mom."

She shoves away from me, laughing despite herself. "You're terrible at this."

"I guess so. I've never been good with words. I prefer to use my mouth for other things."

She casts a sidelong glance my way, but it's not until her teeth sink into her lower lip that I know I've got her. "Like what?"

"I'll show you tonight." I lean in, my lips brushing against her cheek. "I'll convince you again and again… and again… "