15. Becca
15
BECCA
T he next afternoon, Becca stepped out of the copy shop and onto Red Oak Street, smiling at the fact that despite the cold, half the town seemed to be out walking, shopping, and chatting, or playing with children in the park across the street.
Visiting with the eye doctor and the young man who ran the print shop had been really wonderful. She was learning more about Sugarville Grove every day, and she would be able to do a better job helping the children with their reports, now that she was getting good information from their sources.
And she had other things to look forward to as well. Next week, she would be singing with the choir at the tree-lighting ceremony. Her eyes went to the big evergreen standing majestically over the picturesque scene before her. It was impressive even without lights and decorations. She could only imagine how it would look next weekend.
Determined not to think about her own confusing tree-decorating experience last night, Becca crossed the street to head into the park, wondering if she might bump into anyone she knew.
It seemed unlikely, since it was only her sixth day in Sugarville Grove. She had joined an activity and tried to meet her colleagues at the school, but the chances were slim that she would bump into any of them.
The thought had barely left her mind when she heard someone call out to her.
“ Miss Hawthorne,” a familiar little voice cried.
“ Miss Hawthorne, it’s us,” another one added.
She turned to see the Lawrence twins standing on the pavilion waving to her. Their father stood looking up at them from the grass below.
Zane turned to her, and his face seemed to light up for a moment, his eyes flashing to hers. Then just as quickly, his expression shut down, his jaw tensing.
He regrets what happened—what almost happened—yesterday, she thought to herself. I knew it.
And she also knew that it should be a good thing. She had been trying desperately not to think about how good it felt to be all but in his arms yesterday.
But somehow it still hurt a little to know he was bothered by the memory.
“Well, hello there,” she said, plastering on a smile and meeting the boys halfway as they both jumped down and ran toward her. “What are you up to?”
“Just playing,” Nick said with a funny expression.
“That’s nice,” she told him. “I’m headed over to check out the ice-skating rink.”
“We’re going ice skating too,” Nick told her happily. “Right, Dad?”
“Oh, you’re finally ready to skate now?” Zane asked.
She glanced up and saw he was smiling at the boys, clearly just teasing.
“Yes, Dad,” Cal said. “Can we?”
“Sure,” Zane told them.
The twins ran off for the rink, laughing and shoving each other a little in their excitement.
She swallowed, feeling horribly awkward as she realized she was walking alone with Zane.
“I…” he began after a moment, but seemed to think better of whatever he was about to say. “Thanks again for coming by yesterday.”
“Oh, it was my pleasure,” she told him, feeling relieved. “Your family was so kind to me. You’re really lucky to have everyone around.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Normally.”
“Normally?” she asked, smiling.
“I know you get it,” he said, smiling back, but still not meeting her eyes. “You come from a big family, too.”
“I do,” she said, nodding and letting her eyes trail the boys, as his were doing. “It’s the best. But no one knows our weak spots like our siblings. I thought getting out from under mine would be good for me. But I miss them so much.”
He nodded, finally glancing down at her. There was compassion in his eyes that made her stomach twist.
“ Dad, Dad, Dad, we’re getting skates ,” Nick yelled.
“Oh boy,” Zane said. “Excuse me a minute.”
He jogged ahead, and she smiled and followed at her own pace.
The town was really hopping today. From where they stood, she could see the line at the ice cream shop, and the children gathered outside the toy store on the corner of Maple and Bear Avenue, gazing through the plate glass window at the beautiful treasures inside.
“Put them on my tab please, Joe,” Zane was saying to the older man with the white mustache at the rink who was handing the boys their skates. “Hers too.”
“You don’t have to do that,” she said right away.
“It’s my pleasure,” he told her. “Go on, let him know your size.”
She hadn’t really planned on skating, only on watching and asking some questions. But there were already people behind them, and she didn’t want to make a scene, so she told the man her size and he handed her a pretty pair of pale blue skates.
She joined the boys on a bench to put them on.
“Yours look new, Miss Hawthorne,” Cal told her softly.
“Yeah,” Nick added, sounding a little scandalized. “Mine are really old.”
“Maybe Old Joe Inglenook thinks she’s pretty,” Zane said, then quickly began removing his shoes.
Becca and the boys froze for a second.
“Do you think she’s pretty, Dad?” Cal asked.
Becca felt her cheeks heat like they were on fire, and she pretended not to hear, focusing all her attention on getting her skates on.
“Of course he thinks she’s pretty,” Nick said quickly. “She is pretty.”
Thank you, Nick, she thought to herself, still busying herself with her skates.
“She’s got the prettiest skates of all of us,” Zane said. “That’s for sure.”
“The fastest, too,” she teased, popping up now that the awkward moment had passed.
“No way,” Nick said. “Mine are probably faster.”
“Why?” she asked him.
“Because I’m in them ,” he sang out, leaping to his feet and taking off into the rink.
“Wait up,” Cal yelled, following.
“Careful, boys,” Zane called after them, then turned to Becca. “I should get out there with them.”
“Go ahead,” she told him.
She was ready, but she didn’t want him feeling like they had to skate together or anything. She waited until he was already following the boys before getting out onto the rink herself.
It had been a while since the last time she skated, but it came back to her quickly. The air was fresh and cold, and everyone seemed to be laughing. It felt amazing to glide across the ice.
“Hey,” Zane had skated up beside her. He had a questioning look in his eyes, like he wasn’t sure if she wanted him skating with her.
“Hi,” she said, unable to keep herself from smiling happily. “This is really nice.”
“Sure is,” he said.
She looked around the rink at all the townsfolk with their pink cheeks and smiles. But when her eyes returned to him, he was only looking at her.
For the second time in ten minutes, she felt herself blush. She tried keeping her eyes on the ice ahead of her, and hoped he wouldn’t notice. Though it was probably hopeless.
“ Miss Hawthorne, ” Nick cried on his way past. “ Look at meeeee.”
He was skating on one leg, the other held up at an awkward angle.
Cal whizzed past, trying to keep up, his other leg held up, a delighted expression on his face.
“Careful, guys,” Zane called to them. “Pay attention to the other skaters.”
“They’re so funny,” Becca said, forgetting her embarrassment.
“I’m never bored,” Zane told her, with a half-smile.
Just ahead of them, a man was skating with a tiny little girl, who couldn’t have been more than three or four years old.
“Aw,” Becca said. “She’ll be an expert by the time she’s the boys’ age.”
“They were out here when they were about that size,” Zane said thoughtfully.
“How about you?” she asked him.
“Probably about the same,” he told her. “And my dad might have been even younger. Back then, they used to skate on the lake.”
“They don’t anymore?” she asked.
“Little Bear Lake doesn’t reliably freeze solid anymore,” he said, shaking his head.
“I guess I need to learn more about the lake and the natural features of this place,” she realized out loud.
“You’re really trying to learn it all, huh?” he asked. But he was smiling.
“I love it here,” she told him honestly. “I want to know everything about Sugarville Grove.”
The boys flew past them again, laughing. But just as they whooshed by, the little girl up ahead moved away from her dad to skate on her own.
Becca held her breath and prayed that the boys wouldn’t hit her.
Time seemed to slow down as the two seven-year-olds bore down on the toddler, then noticed her at the same moment.
Nick flung himself toward the center of the rink, managing to stay on his feet.
Cal turned to the wall, crashing into it so that he was half slung over it, his feet hanging in the air for a moment before he lowered himself to the ice.
Though thankfully the boys hadn’t touched the little girl, they had both come close enough to frighten her. She fell down hard on her bottom, and began to wail.
“Boys,” Zane sighed, as the world slid back into real time for Becca.
Nick and Cal had huddled back together, with guilty looks on their faces.
“Is she okay?” Zane was asking the other dad, as he comforted his daughter. “I’m so sorry about my boys.”
“We didn’t hit her,” Nick said defensively. But Becca could tell from his expression that he felt bad.
“She was really scared,” Cal murmured as Zane skated back to join them, a stern look on his face. “We were going too fast.”
“Everyone makes mistakes,” Becca told the boys firmly. “It’s what we do afterward that matters.”
Cal’s eyes met Nick’s, and before their father could say a word of reprimand, the two were skating off slowly toward the man and his little girl.
“We’re sorry,” Nick told the dad. “We were skating too fast.”
“We didn’t mean to scare you,” Cal said softly, crouching to talk to the tiny girl.
“You’re a big kid now,” Nick said, joining his brother by the girl. “You can skate with us if you want.”
“ Slow ,” the girl scolded them.
“We can be slow,” Nick said, nodding.
“Will you show us how to skate slowly?” Cal asked her, offering his mittened hand.
She looked up at him suspiciously for a moment, before giving him her hand with a regal look on her face.
“What about me?” Nick asked, offering her his hand too. “I want to learn how to go slowly too.”
She took it, and a moment later, the three of them were skating slowly away.
Becca smiled, so proud of the boys for trying their best to make things right for the little girl.
The little girl’s dad turned and gave Zane an impressed look, and Zane nodded to him. His pride in those boys was plain on his face, and it tugged at Becca’s heart to see it.
“Wow,” Zane said softly after a moment. “Thank you for what you said to them.”
“They’re wonderful,” she told him. “They always want to do the right thing. They just need a helping hand sometimes. We all do.”
Watching the boys skating with their new little friend, with the beauty of Sugarville Grove all around them and Zane by her side, filled Becca with quiet joy.
She suddenly felt like she had gained an important part of herself, a part that she hadn’t even known was missing.
“Becca?” a familiar voice called out.
She looked over to see Emily Bouchard, the fourth-grade teacher, on one of the benches near the skating rink. She was eyeing Becca with a funny expression.