Love, Emma

Chapter Twenty-One:

Maria squishes me in a hug, and I get another from her husband who mutters something in Italian.

The parents' drift to the kitchen, their voices echoing down the hallway, and Mia pulls on my arm, nodding towards the door.

"Come on, we always go skating before lunch." With Antonio and Enzo taking the lead, we head back out into the cold, bundled up to the maximum. The boys lead us around the back of the house, down a low sloping hill to a pond, iced over and cleared of snow with hockey nets on either end. Two wood benches have been put in place beside it, and a few feet behind them is a toolshed, the direction we seem to be going in.

Everyone heads inside, picking different pairs of skates off the shelves. The boys reach for hockey sticks in a barrel, excitedly moving outside to lace up and hit the ice.

"Here, you can borrow my figure skates, I'm gong to play with the guys anyways." Mia guides me to the bench where we trade out our shoes for skates, lacing them up tight.

I can feel the joy building in me as I start lacing up my next skate, admiring the ice rink with a smile. I watch Enzo and Matteo race onto the ice, shoving and pushing as they glide along, their strides in perfect synchronization.

Mia is quick to follow, Antonio hot on her heels as they circle the first hockey net, racing down the sideline for the second.

Peyton steps on, hip checking Matteo with a burst of speeds that sends him sprawling on his but, and I look away to contain a laugh, smiling wide with anticipation.

Nathan catches my eye, sitting on the opposite end of the bench with his skates already laced up, hands jammed in his coat pockets.

"Are you coming?" I ask, standing to my feet, arms out to steady me on the thin blades.

"I-I was wa-wa-waiting for y-you." He smiles, and I smile back, feeling a warmth spread through my cheeks.

He guides the way, turning backwards on the ice to face me as I step on.

Although I love skating, I've never particularly excelled at it, meaning I basically don't go enough to be good at it, and I still occasionally fall...a lot.

My first steps nearly send me on my butt, leaving me with my arms flapping around to steady myself, but I can feel it failing, can feel the ice fly out from under me.

In a matter of milliseconds, a pair of arms have wrapped around my midsection, hugging me close to a chest, their legs against mine to keep me steady.

"Y-you o-okay?" His voice is a whisper by my ear, hesitant and concerned as he hugs me a little closer.

I laugh at my own clumsiness, letting him pull me up against him, his arms hesitantly letting me go. I turn against his chest, smiling in thanks.

"I'll live, but thank you." I grab his hand, pulling him with me gently as I find my rhythm, gliding down the sideline, staying out of the way of their ongoing hockey game.

The blade of my skate gets caught in a crack, acting the same as a toe-pick, and I nearly face plant, launching forward, my knee just brushing the ice when I'm lifted from danger, the same pair of strong arms encircling my waist.

Nathan lifts me free of the crack, leaning me back against his chest as he bends to examine my knee.

"A-are you ok-ok-okay?" Nathan hugs me tighter, righting himself to his fool height.

"I'm sorry, I'm not usually this bad- "He interrupts me, turning me around to face him.

"I don't m-m-mind, b-but are y-yo-you okay?" His hands clutch my shoulders while his eyes trail all over my face, looking for any injuries or signs of pain.