My Hockey Alpha novel Chapter 254

Nina

“Let me teach you how to skate.”

I widened my eyes at Enzo’s words. I had just skated circles around the rink with him after only ever skating once before, and I hadn’t fallen once. But I had never thought about skating seriously. In fact, I had never even considered hockey or figure skating as particularly interesting sports until I started to get to know Enzo. After skating with him a couple of times, however, I was beginning to realize that I did enjoy the sport. It was fun, and it was good exercise. Even after just skating around in circles for a few minutes, I was already out of breath and little beads of sweat were beginning to form on my skin, causing my bangs to stick to my forehead.

“Um… I’ll think about it,” I said, somewhat sheepishly. “I have another class to go to right now, though.”

Enzo nodded, still beaming widely with his eyes shining more brightly than ever before. “Of course,” he said. “Tomorrow morning, maybe?”

I shrugged and repeated that I would think about it and let him know later, which seemed to be enough for Enzo for the time being. He continued to practice while I changed back into my shoes and put the rental skates away, and after that I headed to class.

Just before I left, I took one last look at Enzo as he skated back and forth the rink. He had returned to doing his drills from before, and was once again tirelessly zooming around the rink while expertly maneuvering the puck with his stick. Seeing him move so freely, and doing something that he clearly loved and missed so much, made me smile. And, in an odd way, it made me a little envious. Maybe if I put the work in, I could have just as much fun skating as Enzo did.

Throughout class, and throughout the rest of the day, I found myself not being able to stop thinking about how good it felt to skate with Enzo. Once I got past the feeling of being a baby deer with little to no control over my legs, I had actually had a lot of fun playing with Enzo when I didn’t think that I would have had much fun at all. It made the time fly, and it made me feel closer to Enzo, too. Not only that, but it took my mind off of all of the stress that I had been under.

All of those things were why, later that night as I got ready for bed with Enzo, I finally decided to skate with him in the morning after all.

“You know what?” I said as I walked out of Enzo’s apartment bathroom, drying my hair after a shower. “I think I will skate with you in the morning.”

Enzo’s eyes lit up. He had returned to his somber demeanor, clearly stressing over everything with the Luna and the Crescents, earlier that afternoon. But hearing that I planned on skating with him again immediately perked him up.

“Really?” he asked with a smile tugging at the corners of his lips. “You want to try some drills?”

I nodded. “I don’t know if I would play hockey or anything like that, but it could be fun to learn to skate,” I replied. “I don’t know… Figure skating could be fun to try, I think.”

Enzo’s face lit up even more as I said this. He jumped up and ran over to me, picking me up in his arms and spinning me around as he kissed me all over my face. I couldn’t help but laugh and think that maybe his happiness alone was a good enough reason to try ice skating.

…

The next morning, Enzo and I woke up early and got ready to head to the arena. I didn’t have any classes until the afternoon, which would give us plenty of time to skate for a while before having breakfast and getting cleaned up.

By the time the campus started to come alive with activity, Enzo and I were already on the ice. He set up some cones for me, spacing them evenly apart, and stood at one end while I stood at the other.