“Holly,” I breathe, unable to glance away from the twin dimples in his golden stubble-dotted cheeks. We glide around, the music a slow beat thumping through my body, my hands lightly placed on his shoulders, almost afraid to touch him. I continue to gaze up at him, waiting for his name, a grin finding its way to my face. “Ummm... hello, normally people say their name after the other person says theirs.”

  “Hmmm…” he murmurs, staring down at me.

  A laugh bubbles up and out, taking a lot of my nervousness with it. “Your name? You have one, don’t you? Or should I make one up?” I shake my head, my fingers digging into his shoulders, feeling the muscles twitch under my hands. “Trust me, you don’t want me naming you. Growing up I called my cat Mr. Cat, my favorite stuffed animal, Mr. Stuffy, our dog, Mr. Dog. You get the idea.”

  “What would that make me? Mr. Skates?”

  “You catch on fast, Mr. Skates. You’re new here?”

  The slow song ends, the rapid-fire beat of Walk like an Egyptian taking over. I glance around. The other couples are breaking apart and a wave of skaters converge onto the floor. Still, his hands remain around my waist, guiding me along with him. “The song’s over.”

  A deep sigh gusts out of him. “So it is. Are you okay, skating with me?”

  “Totally!”

  His hands slip from around my waist. He does a small spin around me, his fingers brushing against mine while we skate side by side. Giddiness threatens to overtake me. This doesn’t normally happen to me. A gorgeous guy wanting to skate and chat. This is exactly what I need tonight.

  Mary and Claire skate by, throwing me double thumbs up and grinning wildly.

  “I guess you could say I’m new here. My uncle owns the place,” he says.

  His pinkie hooks with mine and I swallow hard. “That’s cool. I love skating.”

  “There’s going to be an opening for a skate guard.” He’s so casual about it.

  “No thanks. I mean good for you. I like this for fun, not for a job. Not that’s there’s anything wrong with this. I so didn’t mean it like that. My current job is okay, maybe not the greatest… I should just shut up now.”

  “Please don’t. I like…” He swallows hard, his Adam’s apple jerking in the column of his strong neck. “I like your voice.”

  This guy is smooth. Out of the corners of my eyes, I go over his features, looking for a tell that he’s being anything but sincere. I’m so tired of being played. Incredibly nothing about Mr. Skates tells me he’s being anything other than serious. Could it truly be this simple to bump into a good guy and feel a connection?

  Licking my lips, I stare straight ahead. “I like your voice, too. And I really would like to know your name.”

  “Oh! Shawn. My name is Shawn.”

  He’s so adorably uncool. “Nice to meet you, Shawn.”

  “Since skating is for fun, what else do you do for fun?”

  “The mall, hanging out with my friends, bowling, movies, just about anything. You?”

  “This. This is fun. Skating with you.”

  It’s hard to tell with the flashing lights, however, it almost looks like Shawn is blushing.

  “It’s limbo time!” the DJ gleefully announces.

  Shawn comes to a soft stop. “I have to go help with this. Next couple’s skate, will you skate with me again?”

  As if I would say no! “Absolutely!” I enthuse, my head bobbing madly like some deranged Jack in the Box. “Bye!” I call over my shoulder, zooming off toward the nearest exit and hopefully the calm and collect wisdom of my friends.

  CHAPTER THREE

  SHAWN

  Groaning under my breath, I skate away from Holly toward the center of the rink where Jamison waits with the limbo pole, his green mohawk standing out like a beacon. Mentally, I castrate myself over my lack of finesse. I’m thirty-two years old and can’t even talk in complete sentences with a lovely girl. I could blame it on my work habits, which don’t leave a lot of time for socializing, and that would be a lie. I have never been great around the opposite sex. Going from a shy and awkward nerdy teenager to a slightly less awkward man hasn’t improved my social graces. Just approaching Holly has been a major step for me.

  And then I got tongue-tied, staring at her like some lovesick adolescent. It wouldn’t surprise me if she left or avoided me when the next couple's skate happens. Not that I could blame her. She’s stunning. The first time she flew around me, my heart jumped up into my throat, my chest feeling strangely tight. My eyes were glued to her taut, little backside and whipping dirty blonde hair until she rounded the curve, disappearing into a dense pack of other skaters.

  Thank goodness skating is like riding a bicycle and all muscle memory. After first spotting her, all my brain power became devoted to searching and locking on her in the crowd, engraving every small detail about her into my mind. In a trance, I headed toward her the moment the couples’ skate was announced. When she neared the exit, everything in me protested and I did something very uncharacteristic of me. I made the first move.

  I’m shy, I’m not dead. I’ve dated and had two long-term relationships that ended mutually, one back in college and the other three years ago. Eighty-five percent of the time, the woman approached me first. Something about Holly made me want to break out of my comfort zone; also the fear of seeing her skating with another man.

  “Shawn!” Jamison hisses, stunning me out of my swirling thoughts.

  Dully I stare at him.

  “The pole, man, just hold it.” He blows out a short breath, shaking his head and giving me a glare.

  I grab my end of the pole and will myself to stay focused on the task at hand. Otherwise, I’m just as worthless as my brother. My resolve holds firm until Holly zooms under the wooden limbo pole, her hazel eyes firmly pinned on me.

  “Limbo, lower man!” the DJ yells.

  My throat dries up when Holly’s t-shirt pulls up, exposing a tiny strip of soft pale skin when she leans back to skate under the pole. My traitorous dick gives a twinge, stiffening further when my eyes fix on her small breasts, thrusting upwards and almost brushing against the stick. Reflexively, I jerk it up away from her body.

  A grunt comes out of Jamison, who wrestles the pole back to the correct level.

  Thankfully, I only have to endure two more passes of Holly before her feet slip out from under her and she lands on her back, laughing up at us. She waves away Jamison’s hand, nimbly getting to her feet again. My concentration returns and I don’t have to suffer through any more disgusted looks from my fellow skate guard.

  He thrusts the pole at me and skates off. I take it over to the wall and deposit it with the other game props, laying it atop a pair of gigantic red dice.

  I take a moment to skate off the rink and grab a coke. My uncle’s girlfriend Tracey is manning the snack bar and raises her pencil-thin eyebrows at me. “Shawn, how did you get roped into being here tonight?”

  Pushing the straw into the cup, I take a quick sip before answering. “How do you think?”

  “Ruth,” she says, grabbing a hot dog and handing it over to me. “One day your mom needs to learn Mason needs to stand on his own two feet or else he’s never going to leave the nest.”

  I didn’t ask for the dog, but since I forgot to eat before leaving the house, I’m not going to turn it down. “You, me, and probably everyone else knows that. Mom just doesn’t want him to have to struggle like she did.”

  Tracey snorts, motioning me to move to the side so she can serve the next person behind me. She continues our conversation while helping customers. “And by handing him everything, she is essentially guaranteeing that he’ll be unprepared for the real world.”

  Swallowing my food, I nod. “I wish I knew the answer.”

  She levels me with a look, her shimmery blue eye makeup sparkling and giving her wide blue eyes an otherworldly cast. “Next time, don’t answer your phone on a Friday night.”

  I laugh, quickly covering my mouth with a fist to avoid spraying partially chewed food everywhere. “I don’t think that’s going to be an issue. From the sounds of it, Uncle Floyd is giving Mason the boot.”

  “Your uncle talks a big talk. Let’s see if he follows through or not.” Tracey’s gaze jumps from me to the next person in line. “What will it be, hun?”

  “Nachos and a large coke, please.”

  That voice! My eyes bounce over to Holly’s wide grin. In the more natural light of the snack bar, her hazel eyes are a tawnier brown, practically aglow with warmth. I could so easily lose myself in them.

  “Hi, Shawn,” she says, her lips parting in a smile.

  “Four fifty,” Tracey interrupts.

  Holly digs in her pocket. “I’ll cover it,” I say, pulling out my sleek black leather wallet and passing a crisp five over.

  Tracey gives me my change along with a speculative look before handing over the plate of nachos and huge coke to Holly.

  “Thanks,” Holly says, her gaze encompassing us both. Slowly skating away from the counter, she tosses over her shoulder, “Did you want to join me?”

  I grab my coke and the rest of my hot dog, trailing behind her like some lovesick boy. She sits down at a small table littered with three other drinks. Holly shoves the paper cups to the side, a grimace flashing across her face. “My friends are slobs,” she says.

  My food and drink go down first before I ease into the seat, holding onto the table when I do. The wild dayglow carpet is deceptively slippery, and I don’t need to face plant in front of her.

  We stare at each other for several long seconds, and I’d give almost anything to be witty and charming instead of painfully boring. Holly’s much younger than I thought and desperately I wrack my brain for subjects that might appeal to her.

  She breaks the ice first. “Do you like being a skate guard?” she asks, her fingers playing with her red and blue stripped straw.

  “Not really.”

  Her nose crinkles, her teeth baring in an off smile while she observes me. “Well, points for honesty.” She shrugs, her gaze leaving mine to wander around the densely packed snack area, no doubt looking for her friends and regretting inviting me to join her.

  “This isn’t my job,” I say quickly. “I’m filling in for my brother.”

  “Oh?” she pauses with a nacho halfway to her mouth. “You’re a nice brother to do that.”

  “Too nice.” I scrub my hand along my jaw, suddenly wishing I took the time to shave again. “Listen, Holly, I wish I were an interesting guy and that my job was exciting,” I confess in a rush and the words keep pouring out. “It’s not. Well, it is for me, I’m a software designer. I know it’s not something others get excited over.”

  Holly’s face contorts, her eyes popping wide before her head falls backward, a riot of giggles erupting from her.

  The hot dog feels like a ten-pound weight in my gut. I know I’m not hip, even so there’s no need for her to laugh at me. It feels like high school all over. With a scowl, I push up from the seat, getting my skates under me so I don’t make even more of a fool of myself.

  Her laughter abruptly stops. “Where are you going?” she asks, peering up at me with shock on her lovely face.

  Swiping up my trash, I glare down at her, “I’m not going to sit here and be laughed at.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  HOLLY

  When Shawn gets to his feet, my laughter dries up, worry slamming into me hard. What happened? I can’t help wondering.

  “I’m not going to sit here and be laughed at,” he says in a rough, husky voice, his blue eyes cold and glittering with hurt.

  That he thinks I’m laughing at him dumbfounds me. Staring down at the scarred and scratched red tabletop, I go over our conversation looking for where things got off track. I jump from subject to subject. That’s just how my mind works, and I expect people to think the same. People don’t. My friends are used to my quirks. Shawn isn’t. We just met and here I’m scaring him off. And that’s the last thing I want to do.

  “Shawn, I wasn’t laughing at you,” I murmur, forcing myself to meet his icy stare. “I thought it funny that you must think I have an interesting job if you’re wishing yours were fascinating. I’m in sales at JCPenney.” I play with my straw, the squeal of plastic on plastic gratingly loud. “Trust me, it is dull. Other than at Christmas, then it’s too stressful to be dull. The other eleven months of the year it’s painfully boring.”

  He doesn’t sit back down and those incredible eyes of his narrow in concentration. The DJ’s voice booms something over the music that catches Shawn’s attention. His broad shoulders tense up, though his eyes have regained a little of their former warmth when he looks at me again. “Sorry, guess I overreacted. I need to get back out there. I…” He stops, and without finishing that last thought, skates away.

  I watch him go. I do that a lot in life. Let things happen or wait for them to change. Nothing changed or got better with Jacob and now I’m seeing the first man I’ve been genuinely attracted to and interested in, in a long time, roll away from me.

  Jacob approached me first. He said all the right things, and then proved to me again and again through his actions that he wasn’t a good guy. Shawn, well, Shawn seems like he could be a good guy. He’s not trying to say or do the right things to fool me, he’s being real. And I can appreciate real.

  I finish my nachos and sit nursing my coke for a while, watching the skaters whizzing around. My friends are out there laughing and enjoying themselves and I can’t help smiling. Life is good. Something I need to remind myself of.

  My gaze catches on Shawn’s tall form, want pumping through me. I find him very attractive, but it’s more the desire to know this man. To figure out what makes him tick and what makes him smile. I yearn to be close to him.

  That yearning draws me back out onto the floor, my skates rolling easily over the surface, bringing me closer to my goal. Shawn’s broad back is hard to miss and my eyes dip lower to take in his tight behind and long legs before moving back up. With an extra burst of speed, I come up alongside him. “Hey there.”

  “Holly.” There’s so much emotion put into my name, almost a sense of wonder, and beneath everything, a touch of vulnerability.

  I get it. It’s hard putting yourself out there. He’s a tall, handsome man, one I never thought would have an ounce of insecurity. Obviously, he does, though, and I love it.

  “Still good for that couple’s skate?”

  The smile that breaks out on his face makes the nervousness and the willpower it took to approach him totally worth it.

  “Absolutely.”

  We skate together for a few rotations, my friends making crazy faces at us and me staunchly ignoring them. The silence between us is easy, our bodies swaying with the music, gliding along. My thighs burn. It’s been a while since I skated, and this is more exercise than I’m used to. Guess I should take that aerobics class with Claire. She’s zigging and zagging all over, her gorgeous brown curls firmly in place.

  Finally, the DJ announces another couple’s skate. I positively tingle, aching for the firm feel of Shawn’s hands on my waist. When it comes, I melt into it, my own hands looping around his neck, keeping us closer this time. I’m near enough to catch the smell of something tangy and crisp.

  Eagerly, I suck up the mouthwatering scent of Shawn, committing it to memory. Whenever I remember this evening, this fragrance will be attached to it. And I see myself revisiting the memory often.

  “Tell me about yourself, Shawn,” I implore, my eyes tracing over his features, lingering longest on his full lips that look like they’ve been perfectly crafted for kissing.

  “Not much to share. I work a lot. It occupies most of my week and lately I go in on the weekends to get caught up on things that got neglected during the workweek.”

  My laced fingers are behind his neck, my thumbs pressing on either side. Gently, I work tiny circles there against his skin, loving the way his breath catches and his reddish blond eyelashes flutter as he sinks into the comfort I offer. “Sounds like you work too much. Why aren’t you at work tonight?”

  His chest rises sharply with his deep inhale. “Because my mother called in a favor for my brother.”

  I dig in a little deeper, the tension draining from his stiff muscles. “You guys must be close.”

  “I suppose. My dad died years ago, so my mom was on her own to raise us. This rink is my dad’s brother’s.”

  Nodding, I let my fingers drift lower, working the knots from his shoulders. “Yup, you’re close. Your uncle’s business, you and your brother working here-”

  “I don’t work here, my brother works here,” Shawn interrupts and then gives a short, hoarse laugh. “Or rather, he worked here. Uncle Floyd is fed up, so Mason’s getting fired.”

  “Ahhh… that’s why there’s an opening for a skate guard. Makes sense. I need the exercise, however nope, this isn’t for me.”

  “You said you were in sales, and it’s dull? What is for you, Holly?”

  His gaze anchors me to him, preventing me from looking away. “I’m not sure,” I admit, my tongue swiping out quickly to moisten my lips. Shawn’s blue eyes follow the movement, a spark of heat flaring in their depths. “What about you? Do you like your job? I thought you said it’s boring.”

  Shawn’s fingers dig into my sides briefly, his intense eyes slipping from mine. “I never said it was boring. At least it’s not boring for me. For others? I’m sure they would liken it to torture. It’s not fun or crazy. And neither am I. I’m a pretty boring guy.”

  I laugh. “Good thing you’re not in sales. You’re doing a horrible job of selling yourself here.”

  His chin lowers, his breath puffing at the locked-in, going-nowhere bangs Mary ratted up for me. “Were you interested in buying?”

  Social cues aren’t my thing, yet it’s hard to mistake the blatant flirting for anything else. “I’m very interested,” I whisper. Forgetting for a moment I’m on skates, I attempt to go up on tiptoes so I can reach his mouth. The front of the skates drag against the glossy wooden rink, my fingers clenching down in panic on Shawn’s shoulders when I stumble. My upper body moves forward thanks to his hands on my waist, while my feet get left behind.

 

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