Chapter 24
Opinion: The skating rink is the only acceptable place to go around in circles.
—Delilah Dune, opinion writer
L yla watched as Travis struggled to get his skates on as the strobe lights danced across his complexion. “Want me to help you lace those up?” she called over the booming music that seemed to bounce off the walls along the rink.
“I haven’t worn a pair of these bad boys in decades. Literal decades.” He pressed back against the wall where they were sitting on wooden benches and looked at her. “Yes, I would love some help.”
She squatted at his feet and proceeded to lace up his skates, pulling them snug on his foot and tying. “There,” she finally said, looking up at him.
There was something indescribable in Travis’s eyes. He looked like he was about to be tossed into a ring with bulls. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” She patted his knee and stood. “Are you going to be able to handle yourself out there or do you need me to hold your hand?”
He tilted his head to one side. “The problem with holding my hand is that if I wipe out, you go down with me.”
“That’s always been the case between us. I go, you go. You go, I go.” She waited for him to get up, but he wasn’t budging from the bench.
“That’s not true, actually. You went when we were eighteen, and I went in the opposite direction.”
She reached for his hand, wriggling her fingers. “Come on. Not this time. Step one, we go out there and get your skating legs working.” Lyla skated backward, putting a couple feet of space between them so that Travis could push forward. He lost his balance a little and she braced him at the elbow. Then she began to skate backward as he skated forward, leading the way to the rink.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Travis said, desperately trying to maintain his balance as other skaters whizzed by.
“Relax. I got you.” Skating came easy to Lyla. It always had, in the same way that jumping into a lake and swimming came easy to Travis, whereas she sank like a rock.
“Do you still come here every weekend or something?” Travis asked. “How is it that you can skate backward just as gracefully as you could when we were teens?”
“I haven’t been skating since the last time I came here with you. It’s not that hard.”
“Says you.” He stumbled again, and Lyla tightened her hold on him. After a few rounds in the rink, Travis stopped looking at his feet and glanced around. “Uh-oh.”
“What?” Lyla looked around too.
“Ryan Light is here,” Travis said under his breath.
Ryan had been one of the popular kids in school. Contradicting his last name, he had thick black hair that hung in his deep-set dark eyes. He’d been tall and lanky, and he’d always had a guitar strapped to his shoulder.
Lyla glanced around the rink, but there was no one in the room that matched the mental image she had of Ryan in her mind. “Where?” she asked.
“Right there. Against the wall.”
Lyla continued to search and then spotted a skate guard leaning against the rink’s railing. He was tall, but much more filled out than the boy she remembered. And he was bald. Gone was the black hair hanging in his eyes. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen Ryan’s face when they were younger, so he was hard to recognize.
“I think you’re right. That’s him,” she whispered to Travis. “A thirty-year old Ryan, but Ryan nonetheless. I can’t believe one of the most likely to succeed at our school is working as a skate guard.”
“Success is subjective, Ly.” Travis sounded like one of her opinions in her column. “Who knows. Maybe skating is his passion. Maybe he won the lottery, and this is just something he does as a hobby. Never judge a book by its cover.”
Lyla narrowed her eyes at Travis. “I hate it when you’re right,” she teased. “You’re wiser than I remember.”
“And you’re prettier than I remember. Though I always thought you were the prettiest girl in the room.”
Lyla gave him a playful shove and then panicked when it sent Travis’s feet rolling out from under him. She reached her arm forward to catch him by the shirt, but Travis was too heavy when gravity was against him. Instead, Travis clutched onto her like a drowning person, taking her down with him. Lyla fell forward, landing with a thud on top of him.
“Ow,” Travis finally muttered as skaters dodged rolling over them.
Lyla lifted her head to look up at Travis, who wore a tight grimace. “Are you all right?”
“No,” he bit out.
Panic shot through Lyla. “What’s wrong? Where does it hurt? Show me.”
“Can’t do that. Not here at least. I think I broke my behind. Again,” Travis muttered.
Lyla burst into laughter. Then she startled as the skate guard blew the whistle, drawing everyone in the rink’s attention to Lyla and Travis.
Ryan Light skated over, blowing the whistle around his neck loudly three times. “You two okay?” he finally barked, looking down at them.
“Yes, we’re fine.” Lyla could see the moment he recognized them. It wasn’t instant. Ten years changed a person in more ways than one.
“Only my pride is hurt,” Travis moaned, rolling stiffly to one side and nearly taking out a passing skater.
Ryan reached out a hand to Lyla and pulled her up first. After Lyla, he pulled Travis to his feet, holding onto him to keep his skates from slipping out from under him again. “Don’t be embarrassed. I’m impressed that you two are even out here. Most people our age stick to walking and running. Or lying on their couches.”
“We’re not that ancient,” Lyla said, taking mild offense.
“No, but we’re not teenagers anymore either.” Ryan looked between them. “Wow. So you two are finally together, huh?”
Lyla pulled her lower lip between her teeth and looked at Travis. Were they? What would he say?
Travis seemed to intentionally avoid looking at Lyla. “I picked Lyla up and brought her here. So, yeah, I guess you’d call that a date.”
A noncommittal answer. She wouldn’t expect anything more. “I convinced Travis to give skating another try tonight,” she added. “It’s not really his thing.”
“And he agreed?” Ryan chuckled. “He must like you a lot. A man only risks his pride when he’s in love.”
Travis made a choking noise beside Lyla.
She patted his back, being gentle and careful not to knock him over this time.
“I haven’t forgotten that doughnut pillow thing you wore in the twelfth grade. We still laugh about it from time to time,” Ryan said.
“We?” Travis echoed. Then he shook his head. “I don’t want to know.”
“Well, my advice is to stick closer to the guardrails,” Ryan told Travis. “To catch yourself before you hit the floor next time. Your butt will thank you. Your pride too.”
Travis palmed his face for a moment, but Lyla knew he was only joking. And she thought maybe he was having a good time.
“Thank you for being here,” she said as Ryan skated off to blow the whistle at someone else. “I know you’d rather be at your RV.”
“With you,” he agreed. “I’d rather be there with you. Does this effectively check off the skating item on our bucket list?” he asked.
“I think so. But I’m not ready to leave just yet. We’re just warming up.” She turned to start skating backward in front of him, reaching her hands to help him roll forward. “We can go back to your RV later.”
“Something to look forward to. I’d bust my butt a hundred times out here tonight just to be able to take you home later. And not because I’m eager to get you in bed. I just like being with you, Ly. I’ve missed it. I’ve missed us.”
“Me too,” she confessed.
“I’ve missed you .”
She had to read his lips over the music, which meant she was only halfway attending to her movements. She was about to respond when she stumbled on her own skates, clutching Travis’s hand.
“I’ve got you this time,” he said.
It took a moment for her to find her balance, but she still felt like she was falling hard for the guy in front of her.
They skated quietly, finding their rhythm.
When Travis appeared more confident, Lyla cleared her throat. “Bailey said that you wrote me an email. That summer after graduation.”
The tension between them seemed to pulse as they rounded the rink.
“Yeah, you already knew that. I wrote you a bunch of emails that you never responded to. Which one are you referring to?”
“There was a specific one that she found on your computer screen. One that you never sent. Bailey said she teased you mercilessly about it. She said she almost made you cry.”
Travis ran his free hand over his face now. “Geez. Sisters are so brutal. Be glad you don’t have one.”
“I always wanted a sister.” Being an only child was lonely. Having Travis’s friendship was the only thing that kept her grounded growing up. It was necessary, but it also scared her once it was time to leave home. At the time, it had felt like she needed to cut the cord if she ever wanted to fly.
Opinion: Young people think they’re wise, but they’re really just inexperienced and a little stupid, especially when it comes to love and other lies of the heart.
They grew quiet again, skating slowly as others passed them by. Lyla could skate much faster, but she didn’t want to leave Travis behind. She’d done that once before, and in hindsight, it was one of her biggest mistakes.
“How do you know I never sent that one?”
Some part of Lyla thought the past was best left behind. She had questions though. “Because Bailey told me you didn’t. Why didn’t you send it?”
“I wasn’t sure what you’d think if I sent the email. I wasn’t sure it would make any difference anyway. It would have just complicated things. I didn’t want to lose you, Ly.” He shrugged, something so helpless in the gesture as he looked at her. “And somehow, I still did.”
“I always felt like handwritten letters were more romantic. I wrote you one.”
The brown color of his eyes brightened. “Yeah? What did it say?”
She shook her head, feeling foolish and flustered. The details of that letter were intimate, and she wasn’t sure she could trust Travis not to laugh. Wow. Catching Joe cheating has really left an emotional scar—like the memory was branded on my brain.
The morning she’d realized what was going on behind her back, she’d been standing over the stove, making scrambled eggs for breakfast. Joe’s cell phone had been right beside Lyla on the counter, which was odd because he never put that thing down—ever. She remembered hearing his alert as a text message came through. Without thinking, she stepped over and glanced at the screen.
Unknown: One day I’ll get to wake up with you beside me.
There was a winking face emoji that came through after that. Then an emoji blowing kisses.
Lyla had blinked and read the message again, trying to figure out the context. She’d reread the messages. There was only one context.
A moment later, Joe walked into the kitchen, humming as if nothing in the world was wrong. “Morning, darling,” he said, with a loud, obnoxious yawn. He stepped over and wrapped an arm around her.
Lyla whirled out of his reach. “You jerk!” She picked up an egg and pitched it right at his chest. He was wearing his favorite suit that day. Egg yolk ran all down the front of his pale blue dress shirt.
Joe’s arms flew out to his sides as he looked down and back up at her. “What the hell are you doing?”
“Jerk!” She grabbed another egg and threw it. This time, he ducked. He dodged the rest of the eggs in the carton, but the initial egg remained on the front of his shirt. She hoped it had ruined it. “I know,” she finally said.
He shook his head, his face flaring a hot red color. “What is it you think you know?”
“I know-w-w-w. ”
That’s when his eyes had widened. He didn’t even try to lie or cover up the truth. Lyla guessed he realized it was useless. Or maybe he had wanted to be found out. Maybe that’s why he’d left his phone there for her to see.
Travis squeezed her hand now, pulling her from her memories and anchoring her back in the skating rink. “Hey, you okay?”
A teenage skater zoomed past, nearly knocking her down.
She reached for the skating wall and centered herself. “I’m—I’m fine. Just lost in thought.” She looked over and blinked Travis into focus. There was something about his face that calmed the noise inside her. “What about you? Feeling better on the skates?”
“I think I’m getting the hang of this. I still disagree that skating is like riding a bike.” He squeezed her hand. The disco ball in the room came on and colorful lights danced around them. It felt magical and romantic. “In my email,” Travis said, “I told you that you were my best friend, and that I wasn’t sure I’d ever find someone quite like you again. I was right. I never have, Ly.”
He was her biggest contradiction. She had been too scared to keep him and too scared to lose him as well. “I never did either.”
Travis’s gaze hung heavy on her. “Let’s not lose each other again, okay? No matter what.”
She wanted to promise, but the fear was still so strong inside her. “I changed my mind,” she finally said.
Travis’s brows lifted. “About what?”
“I don’t want to go back to your RV.”
His demeanor seemed to drop. His shoulders. His head. His eyes. “That’s okay.” His tone was soft and sincere. He really didn’t mind putting her wants and needs before his. He was a real man. Some might say his parents had raised him right, but Lyla knew all the credit went to Travis himself.
“I don’t want to return to your RV, because I want to go back to my house instead. With you.” She inhaled deeply, expanding her lungs and holding her breath as she waited for Travis’s response.
His answer was visible in his expression before he said a word. There was a sparkle in his eyes that said yes. “Your place it is.”