Page 55 of Lonesome Moon

“Easy does it,” Grant said. “Nice and slow.”

His feet shot out. He went down and I followed, landing half on top of him, my elbow near his shoulder and my face inches from his.

The laughter faded between us.

His hat had gone crooked, and his cheeks were the color of a pink apple. One of his hands rested at my waist, completely justifiable under the circumstances. That was the beauty of the loophole. If Jack happened to look over, he’d see his clumsy little sister being kept from cracking her head open by his equally clumsy friend.

He wouldn’t know that Grant’s thumb had slipped beneath the edge of my sweater. Or that my heart was thudding for reasons that had nothing to do with falling.

“You okay?” Grant asked softly.

“No.”

His eyes searched mine. “Are you hurt?”

“Not really. But your thumb there is giving me thoughts.”

A smile tugged at his mouth. “I, too, am having thoughts.” His gaze dropped to my lips. “Do you need mouth to mouth?”

“There’s nothing wrong with my lungs.”

“Or any other part of you,” Grant said, voice low in my ear.

For one reckless second, I thought he might kiss me right there.

A shout came from across the pond.

“Grant, are you trying to break my sister?

Grant closed his eyes.

I dropped my forehead to his chest, smothering a laugh.

“She’s breaking me,” Grant called back.

Jack and Ivy skated over to us, not exactly gracefully but at least upright.

“You two are a disaster,” Ivy said.

“I’m too big to skate,” Grant said.

“You’re built like a hockey player,” Jack said.

“Well, I’m not one,” Grant said. “Clearly.”

“Don’t break any limbs,” Ivy said. “We’ve already got Knox banged up.”

“This was a horrible idea,” I said under my breath.

Ivy tugged on Jack’s sleeve. “Come on, let them be. They’ll figure it out.”

My brother and Ivy started off again, but Jack turned back to look at Grant and me sitting together on the ice and smiled. I glanced at Grant, hoping he hadn’t noticed. He didn’t appear to. I wasn’t sure if that was good or bad.

Getting up the second time took considerably longer. We finally managed it by crawling to the edge and using the same low branch, although Grant nearly pulled it off the tree. Once we were standing, I turned to face the pond.

“All right,” I said. “We need a strategy.”

“Or a plan to get the heck off this ice.”