43. Dylan

Chapter 43

Dylan

I stood on the ice in my skates and tried to pretend that hundreds of people weren’t watching me. Thousands, if you counted the cameras broadcasting it live online.

I tugged at the collar of my dress shirt and swallowed as I stared at the entrance to the rink. What if she’d never read the article? What if she decided I was just too much of a beast for her? I wouldn’t blame her.

I tore my gaze away to look for my team. Every single one of them had flown to Winterhaven for this. There was a chance some of them were hoping for public humiliation, but I deserved that. It was going to take time to earn back all of their friendship.

My parents were there, backlit just enough that it was hard to make them out. Lily had come, too, which had surprised me. Maybe there was a chance of us having a relationship again. I was going to work the slow and steady method with her. I’d lost her trust over a lot of years. It might take that many to earn it back.

Next to them were Shiloh’s parents. They had hopeful smiles, and I knew they were rooting for me. I waved at them, and they waved back. Mrs. Blaire made a heart with her fingers, which was exactly something Shiloh would do in jest. It brought tears to my eyes that I had to blink away quickly.

Hudson gave me a thumbs up and shouted, “You’ve got this.” All of our years of dares had prepared me for this moment.

I took a deep, steadying breath and forced myself not to check my watch. I’d skated out here at seven on the dot.

Every second past seven that ticked by the room got quieter. One minute passed. Then two. Then five. Until it was so quiet, you could hear a puck drop across the arena.

I turned in a circle and took everyone in. How different I felt in this moment than when I’d first stepped off the plane to Winterhaven. I couldn’t imagine never coming back here again after this. All of these people came here, to root for me, to cheer me on. It was like a hockey game, only better because they were here for me if I won or if I lost. They were here for me because they cared for me. Not that I didn’t still love hockey and the fans; that was an intrinsic part of me. I was just finally realizing that there was more to life than that.

Hudson frowned, and my heart sank. I had been waiting for ten minutes now. Long enough for it to feel like an eternity.

Suddenly, some noise erupted near one of the entrances, and then cheering began. It grew louder, like an audio version of The Wave, until the entire arena was cheering. I spun around on my skates to find Rosie entering the ice wearing a pair of rental skates.

I caught my breath at the sight of her.

She wore a sparkly dark blue dress that swished around her legs as she began to glide toward me. Her hair was down in its usual wavy style, but with part of it pulled back from her face by a blue clip. In a word, she was stunning.

She looked up to smile at me, but then her skates began to slip on the ice. I raced forward and got to her just in time for her to take me out at the legs. We both went toppling onto the ice, a tangle of bodies, but I’d managed to mostly break her fall.

“Hi,” I said to her. She lay half on-top of me, her face inches from mine.

“Hi,” she said.

“I worried you didn’t see the article.”

Her lips quirked to the side. “I’m pretty sure every single person in Winterhaven sent me the link.”

I hopped to my feet and helped her stand up. She wobbled but remained steady on her skates with my arm around her waist—a development I didn’t mind one bit. “And what did you think of it?”

“It was okay.” She shrugged, but I could see her spark of a smile hiding behind her nonchalant expression.

“Just okay?”

“I mean, to call out the girl’s bad taste in furniture was just cruel.”

I laughed, and finally her smile broke free.

“I can’t believe you did all this. For me.”

“I want to give you a lifetime of movie moments,” I promised her.

“I just want a lifetime of real moments with you.”

I brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and watched as the bright lights above us danced in her eyes. “I love you.”

“What are they saying?” Rosie asked, and I realized at some point, the crowd had started chanting. “Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!”

She leaned close to me and whispered, “I think this is where we kiss.”

“We don’t have to kiss for them,” I said.

“Oh. I want to. This is the moment we’ve been practicing for.” And with that, she pushed herself up to meet my mouth. I tugged her close to me, letting all the love I felt pour into our kiss.

The cameras disappeared, the cheering disappeared, and once again, it was just me and Rosie, and that magic sparkling dust dancing around us.

Or maybe it was pieces of ice tufting up from the rink.

Either way, it was spectacular.

When she pulled away, I tucked my hand behind her head. “Now that kiss was a ten.”

She tilted her head to the side and gave me a cheeky smile. “Eh. I’d give it a five.”

I grinned widely and pulled her even closer to me. “Well, then I guess we’d better keep practicing.”

And as the crowd cheered wildly around us, we did.