Chapter 24
Chapter Twenty-Four
NOAH
Rolling out of bed on a dark morning before sunrise was never my favourite thing to do – especially when it had been so tempting to take things further with Evie – but I couldn’t afford to miss a training opportunity, let alone a prestigious one.
I made myself a coffee and picked up my phone to catch up on what had been going on back in the UK. There was a text from the football club in Orangeburg.
‘Training cancelled. Issue with the pitch. Reschedule tomorrow.’
I huffed out a disappointed sigh. I was up now.
I might as well head out for a run. There was always the chance that I might see Ice Skating Girl.
I’d been on the lookout for her, every day.
Two days ago, I caught another brief glimpse of her but again when I reached the rink, she’d gone.
Although I’d kind of forgotten why she’d intrigued me so much. My head was now full of Evie Green.
‘Morning, Mr Sanderson.’
‘Morning, Danny. Cold enough for you?’ I asked as I stepped into the brisk morning chill.
He smiled and tucked his hands in the pocket of his heavy overcoat and then produced a pair of handwarmers. ‘Swear by these. Warm hands, warm feet – that’s all you need.’
I nodded at him and headed towards the park, jogging slowly to warm my muscles up.
As always, the park was quiet, the way I liked it. I don’t bother with music when I’m training, I like to focus on my own internal rhythms and listen to my own body. I could hear the thud of my feet on the paths, the bird song and the quite background hum of the city, the traffic, sirens and horns.
I was sweating by the time I reached Gapstow Bridge and I stopped for a breather hunched over my knees before standing up to take in the view of The Plaza.
I smiled. What would Evie be doing right now?
Would she still be sleeping? An image of those cascading curls spread across a pillow leaped into my head.
Shaking my head to push the thought out of my head, I forced myself into a fast sprint, pushing as hard and fast as I could. I stopped once I was back on the bridge, chest heaving. At least it had done the trick.
I turned to face south at the ice rink, still hauling in oxygen.
And there she was. The ice skater. Today her hair in a high ponytail, bouncing along behind her as she streaked across the ice, weaving in and out of a series of fluorescent orange cones.
I straightened, intrigued again because there was something about her that looked …
familiar. No, I was imagining it. It couldn’t be. I had Evie on the brain.
I set off to the rink side, still trying to work out if I’d conjured up some sort of mirage and determined to find out if my brain was playing tricks on me.
She was still skating on the far side of the rink when I arrived and took up my position by the exit. I unhooked the sweatshirt from around my waist and pulled it on while I waited for her to come closer.
And now suddenly she was skating at twelve o’clock, dead ahead and coming straight towards me, her hair flying behind her. The curls dancing in the … I stared, unable to believe that I’d missed it before.
‘Noah?’ Evie said, coming to a graceful halt. ‘What are you doing here?’ She glanced over my shoulder and then around with a definite look of guilt. I looked behind me.
‘What are you doing here?’ I asked.
It was cute the way she suddenly put her hands behind her back, as if she had something to hide and her face turned all cheerful and bright-eyed.
‘Skating,’ she said. ‘Did you see me?’ Her eyes were wary, and I wanted to reassure her, tell her how amazing and glorious she was.
‘Yes, I saw you. You’re incredible … just…’ I waved my hand, a little overcome by how brilliant she was. ‘You look so happy, so full of life, so free.’ I paused, but I had to say it, ‘So incredibly lovely.’
‘Oh,’ she said, so wide-eyed, I leaned forward and kissed her. She blushed. ‘It was going to be a surprise. I was going to bang it out at the Rockefeller Center. A sort of, “why, Miss Jones, you can skate” moment.’
I laughed because she looked so crestfallen.
‘Would you like me to forget what I’ve seen?’ I asked with a quick grin because she was so ridiculously funny and sweet.
She wrinkled her nose. ‘Just don’t tell anyone.’ She walked as elegantly as anyone could in skates over to one of the benches, where she sat down to remove them from her feet.
‘Who am I going to tell? You’re really good. How long have you been skating for?’
‘Six years. I started about six months before my mum died. I wanted to surprise her. We each had the things we wanted to do if we ever got to New York. Her thing, like I told you. was to visit the top of the Empire State Building. Mine was to skate at the Rockefeller Center.’
‘Did you take lessons?’
‘Hell yes. A ton of them. When Mum died, I spent all my time at the rink. I started taking lessons then. It was an escape. No one there knew me or anything about me.’
‘You must have put a lot of hours in,’ I said, still not quite able to believe that this was Evie.
It was like I’d picked something up expecting it to be feather-light and it had turned into a twenty-kilogram kettlebell.
It overturned so much of the way I thought about her.
She had staying power, determination and ambition. It put her in a whole new light.
‘Some,’ she said.
I raised an eyebrow.
A smile tugged at her mouth. ‘I’ve been going to the rink three times a week for the last two years. Before that, it was every day after work, I’d go and work at the rink in the evenings to pay for my ice time and lessons.’
It took me a minute to absorb this. ‘It’s so obvious how much you love it.’
‘No one can take it away from me,’ she said in response with a shrug. ‘I don’t tell people about it because it’s something I do just for me.’ She smiled. ‘Even Danny at the hotel thinks I just come out for a walk most mornings.’
‘Most mornings? I’ve been … I haven’t seen you.’ Damn, I’d given myself away.
Evie gave me a sharp look.
I held my hands up, keen to show I’m not a crazy stalker. ‘One morning, I saw you from the other side of the field over there, and there was something about you. I wanted to see you again. I had no idea who you were.’
Her eyes lit up and she smirked. ‘Do you know what that is?’
‘No,’ I shook my head.
‘Serendipity,’ she said with a quick grin.