Fighting for the Edge (12 page)

“You’re already a mom.” He tapped the tip of my nose. “And a great one.”

“Liza’s easy. A baby is a whole different story.”

He touched his lips to my hair again and held me quietly. When he finally spoke, he said, “I missed so much with Liza that I guess I’m just excited I can see it all this time. I want to be there for everything… from the first ultrasound to the delivery and everything after that. Changing diapers and reading bedtime stories…”

“You’re going to be an amazing dad.” I looked up at him. “And I’m not just saying that because I’m ridiculously in love with you.”

He smiled and kissed me, and I cozied deeper into his arms. So much was going to change soon – new career, new home, new goals. For seventeen years I’d been a skater, and it was going to take more than a few weeks to adjust to losing that role. I’d had no chance to prepare for being a mom to Liza, and I wanted it to be different with our child. Sergei might disagree, but for me, more time was never a bad thing.

****

Aubrey’s eyes fluttered open, and she heard the shower downstairs running. She turned over in bed and the sight of a big stuffed snowman next to her startled her. A sticky note stuck to the snowman’s hand read –
Squeeze me.

She gave the furry hand a squeeze, and “Have a Holly Jolly Christmas” burst forth. She laughed to herself and listened to the song play. It had been a long time since she’d awoken happy on Christmas.

She climbed out of bed and combed her fingers through her hair. With the snowman under her arm, she descended the stairs and turned into the living room, running smack into Chris’s bare chest.

“Oh!” they both exclaimed.

She instinctively reached out, and her hand landed on his waist. She realized then he was only wearing a towel. His skin was still wet and warm from the shower.

Oh, how she wanted to lean into him.

No, no, no.

She snatched her hand away and took a step backward.

“I didn’t know you’d be up this early.” Chris gave her a sheepish look and clutched the knot in his towel. “I didn’t wake you?”

“No, no.” She shook her head more energetically than necessary. She needed to do something to distract her from the drops of moisture glistening on Chris’s chest. One had dripped downward and was snaking between his perfect six pack. It was about to disappear into the towel, which hugged his hips incredibly low. Good thing he was holding onto it. Or not so good…

“You met Frosty?” he asked.

“What?” She saw he was looking at the snowman. “Oh! Yeah, he was a great surprise to wake up to. I’m not usually a stuffed animal kinda girl, but he’s extremely cute.”

He smiled and rubbed his hand through his damp hair. “So, I’m getting you to like all kinds of new things – Christmas, stuffed animals… what’s next?”

The
silly guy who dated my best friend for four years?

She looked down and played with the snowman’s red scarf. “Don’t get too full of yourself.”

“I’m sure you’ll keep me in line,” he said.

A slight pause hung in the air, and she didn’t dare look up. Chris cleared his throat. “I’m gonna get dressed. The movie’s about to start again if you wanna kick off the marathon.”

“Do I smell coffee?”

“Yep, it’s ready to pour.”

He circled around her to take the stairs, and she hugged the snowman to her chest as she walked to the kitchen. This attraction to Chris would fade soon, right? She’d never stayed interested in any one guy too long, so it was only logical. This surely was nothing more than just another meaningless fascination.

Except there was that moment last night when you poured your heart out to him. You connected with him.

She fixed a cup of coffee and hurried to the living room. Ralphie and his quest for a BB gun would get her mind off annoying and persistent thoughts.

Chris came down shortly after she got settled under a blanket on the couch. Over the next few hours, they quoted the movie together and counted the number of times someone told Ralphie he was going to shoot his eye out. Uncle Joe’s leftover pesto pasta served as lunch, and they didn’t turn off the TV until late afternoon when they departed for Frog Pond.

They didn’t have to walk far to reach the outdoor rink at Boston Common. A number of people filled the ice, and Aubrey knew she’d have to dodge many of them if she wanted to skate at even half-speed. She and Chris laced up their boots and joined the crowd, starting off with casual strokes around the ice.

“Think I could get some of these people to clear out so I can run through my original dance?” She laughed.

“Can I run it with you? I know some of the samba section from watching you practice it every day. I can shake my moneymaker.” Chris shook his shoulders and his hips.

She laughed harder. “I don’t know. Nick’s set a high standard to live up to. He’s one-quarter Latin, so he really thinks he’s Ricky Martin in our program.”

“Well, I’ll put my white-bread dancing up to his one-quarter Latin any day.”

“Let’s go then!”

They found a pocket of space, and she refreshed Chris on some of the samba moves. When he took her hand and they skated together in dance hold, she found herself grinning wildly again like when they’d danced at the club. Their bodies weren’t pressed together as they’d been in Tokyo, but she still felt that undeniable connection, something that made it seem so natural to be that close to him.

While singing the words to Ricky Martin’s “Por Arriba, Por Abajo,” she and Chris broke apart to dance side-by-side, and the people skating around them stopped to watch. They cheered them on with applause and catcalls as they shimmied their way through the choreography. A loud ovation broke out when they finished, and Chris grabbed Aubrey’s hand to lead her into a bow.

He took off his black beanie and unzipped his jacket. “I have too many layers on for all this booty shaking.”

His thick hair looked adorably rumpled. Aubrey shoved her hands in her coat pockets, refraining from reaching up and running her fingers through the dark locks.

“I think I’ve done enough practicing.” She pulled out her hands to make air quotes around the last word.

“This is your day, so whatever you wanna do is fine with me,” Chris said.

They left the ice to change back into their non-skating boots, and Aubrey was zipping her skate bag when a snowball hit her back. She turned to see Chris a few feet behind her wearing a mischievous grin.

“Sneak attack, huh?” She popped up from the bench and slung her bag over her shoulder. “You’d better run.”

She scooped up two handfuls of snow, and Chris raced behind a tree. He came out firing with two snowballs of his own, which missed her as she ducked and ran. She sprinted toward a much wider tree and molded one big ball of ice. Chris’s approaching footsteps on the crunchy snow told her he was closing in on her, so she jumped out from behind the trunk and hurled the snowball at him. It whacked him in the face, and she let out a strangled gasp.

“Holy…” His hand flew to his left eye, and he bent over at the waist.

“Oh crap! I am
so
sorry!”

He dropped his hand and slowly stood up straight while rapidly blinking. “I think I can still see.”

“You’re bleeding.” She touched the small cut on his cheek.

“I don’t care about blood. I’m just glad I’m not blind. You coulda took my eye out!”

After watching six hours of Ralphie being warned about shooting his eye out, Aubrey couldn’t stop her laughter from bursting forth. “Did you hear what you just said?”

Chris quickly went from being appalled to howling along with her, the two of them practically in tears they were in such hysterics. When they finally regained normal breathing, they started walking home along Beacon Street. The redness on Chris’s cheek and around his eye seemed to be getting darker.

“I really am sorry,” she said. “I guess I should’ve looked where I was aiming.”

“You should think about softball as your next Olympic career. That’s quite an arm you’ve got.”

When they reached the apartment, Aubrey went into the bathroom for the first aid kid she’d seen in the closet. She rummaged through it and carried the antiseptic, ointment, and a Band-Aid into the living room.

“Are you gonna tend to my wound?” Chris asked. “You did put it there.”

He pointed to his cheek with a pout, and she laughed. “Go wash your face and then I’ll fix you up.”

He returned a few minutes later, and she directed him to sit in one of the chairs in the small eating area next to the kitchen. As she wiped the tiny freckles on his cheek with the antiseptic, her pulse began to speed up. He was so close and staring at her so intently.
Say something… anything. It’s too quiet.

“Em would’ve killed me if you had to wear an eye patch,” she said. “It doesn’t exactly go with your programs.”

“I could totally rock an eye patch.”

She giggled as she envisioned Chris wearing one and trying to do his and Em’s serious classical choreography. “You could’ve changed your program to
Pirates of the Caribbean
. It would’ve been amazing.”

“That’s so twisted.” He laughed. “But I love it.”

His gaze lingered on her again, turning more serious the longer their eyes stayed connected. Was she imagining it or was he giving her the I-want-to-kiss-you look?

She fumbled with the ointment and Band-Aid, nervously applying them to the cut, and she felt like kicking herself. What was her problem? She broke guys’ hearts on a regular basis, and now she was a fluttery mess from touching some guy’s face?

“Thanks.” Chris smiled. “You’re the best nurse I’ve ever had.”

She turned to clean up the table, and the answer to her question became very clear.

Chris wasn’t just some guy.

He was so much more.

Chapter Ten

Aubrey shook the bag of microwave popcorn and carried it into the living room. Only the glow of the television and the colored bulbs on the Christmas tree lit her way. Even though a couple of days had passed since the holiday, Chris still insisted on lighting the tree every night.

He sat on one end of the couch with the remote control pointed at the TV. Aubrey poured the popcorn into the two bowls on the coffee table and then huddled under a blanket on the other end of the sofa. Chris liked to watch TV in the dark, which would be fine if she wasn’t battling the constant urge to snuggle with him. He looked so cuddly in his faded red Olympics T-shirt and gray sweatpants.

She picked up one of the bowls and wrapped the blanket tighter around her body. The fleece would have to be a sufficient cuddle substitute.

“So, what are our movie choices?” she asked.

Chris flipped through the On Demand menu. “How about
The Notebook
?”

“Are you serious?”

“It’s a good story,” he said defensively. “And Rachel McAdams is hot.”

“So is Ryan Gosling, but it’s not enough to make me sit through that schmaltz.”

“Then you haven’t seen it yet?”

She tossed a piece of popcorn into her mouth. “Em tried to talk me into going to see it when it was in the theater, but I refused.”

“You’ve gotta see it.” He set the other bowl in his lap. “It’s quality schmaltz.”

“You may have gotten me to like Christmas and stuffed snowmen, but sappy movies are an entirely different story.”

He grinned. “Now I really want you to like it.”

His gorgeous grin got her every time, but she wouldn’t let him know the effect he had on her. She let out an exaggerated sigh. “I guess I can give it a try. But if the sap becomes unbearable, I’m totally stealing the remote.”

“I’ll take that deal.” He placed the remote between them on the couch. “You have to give it thirty minutes, though.”

“Can I set a timer?” She laughed.

“Ye of little faith.”

He selected the movie and put a handful of popcorn into his mouth. The opening credits and accompanying romantic score began to play, and Aubrey turned to Chris.

“Even the music is sappy,” she said.

Chris threw a piece of popcorn at her, and she laughed as it landed on her blanket. The action started on the screen, so she put her attention on the movie. As the love story unfolded, she found herself drawn into it and enjoying the passion between Allie and Noah. They were so intensely crazy about each other. While they were locked in a smoldering kiss, she snuck a peek at Chris and caught him looking back at her. He quickly averted his eyes toward the TV, and she did the same.

She waited for him to make a joke about her not taking the remote yet, but it didn’t happen. When she stole another look at him, his focus was firmly on the TV.

Her heart pitter-pattered way too quickly for just movie-watching. There’d been an intensity in Chris’s eyes… similar to how he’d looked at her when she’d patched up his face. She couldn’t have imagined it twice, could she?

She returned to munching on her popcorn and immersed herself in the drama on the screen, keeping her eyes glued to the movie. Allie and Noah lost touch, and Allie got engaged to another man, a great guy named Lon, but as soon as Allie saw Noah again, they gave in to their old feelings. Aubrey didn’t dare look at Chris as Allie and Noah shared a passionate love scene, tearing their clothes off and tumbling onto the bed. She’d watched plenty of love scenes with guy friends before and hadn’t felt any awkwardness, but a tense energy hung in the space between Chris and her. She felt like she was holding her breath the entire time.

When the action finally transitioned to the morning after, she shifted under her blanket. She’d been frozen the past ten minutes. Chris came to life, too, and set his empty bowl on the coffee table. As Aubrey watched Allie and Noah lie in bliss together, a realization came to her.

“Allie cheated on Lon,” she said.

Chris sat back and nodded slowly. “Yeah, she sure did.”

“I can’t be in her corner anymore.”

Chris scratched his jaw. “She should’ve gone home and talked to Lon and broken it off with him before she hooked up with Noah.”

Aubrey glanced at the TV and then at Chris, studying him in the dim light. “Do you think you would’ve been able to stop yourself if you were in that situation?”