Beautifully Knight (Jordan Knight Fanfic, Liadan #5)

Sunrises and Saturdays

Saturday

-GRACE-

I stifled a yawn and wrapped my fingers tightly around my cup of French vanilla coffee as I stared at the vintage clock on the dashboard in front of me and watched it flip to 5 AM. The moon and sun hadn't quite traded places in the sky yet, but I eagerly awaited the upcoming minutes that would result in a change from the coolness of Boston mornings to the warmth of midday.

As much as I loved riding in Jace's old blue Chevy and pretending we were a cute couple from yesteryear, I didn't love shivering to death as we both anxiously waited for the tollbooth attendant to accept our fee and let us go on our way. I missed the modern conveniences of my fully-upgraded jeep with its full blast heater, warmed seats, and powered windows.

"Hey, don't I know you? You're uh," the snapping of fingers made me turn to look at the man counting coins and see that he was staring directly at me while he pointed. "You're that skater, right? Grace Something-Something?"

I nodded and blushed, "That's me. It's Grace Delgado now. This is my husband, Jason."

A smile of recognition filled the man's bearded face and he turned to Jace, "Well aren't you lucky to be married to Boston's Ice Princess?"

"Very," Jace nodded and rested his brown eyes on me as I shyly tucked my hair behind my ears.

"I'm the lucky one, actually." I felt my cheeks burn redder and I lowered my eyes to read the man's tag and realize his name was Chet.

"My daughters absolutely love you! They've got your Sports Illustrated magazine on their bedroom wall and we came to see you in Mary Poppins a couple of weeks ago."

"Thank you. I hope you enjoyed the show."

Chet nodded enthusiastically, "Oh, you were amazing. The whole family loved it. Even me. I'm usually more of a hockey guy myself, but it was really well done. Seeing it up close, I realized it takes a lot of talent to do all those spins and jumps and stuff."

"Thank you," I smiled and gestured to the phone he now held in his hand. "Would you like to film a clip of me saying hello to your girls?"

"Would you mind?" he asked.

"No," I shook my head. "Not at all. What are their names?"

"Ava and Olivia. They're twins."

"Aww, my sisters are twins," I smiled as he handed Jason the phone and I filmed a quick video to say hello and thank them for their support.

"This is gonna make their day," Chet smiled as he replayed the video. "Thanks so much."

"You're welcome. It was nice to meet you," I said before a honk sounded behind us and he made a face.

"I guess I'd better get the line moving," he looked back over to see our ticket had printed and he handed it to Jace. "Have a great day, guys."

"You too," I waved and Jason smiled before driving through the raised boom barrier and merging back into highway traffic.

A new rush of cold breezed through the window and I shivered while he rolled his manual window back up as quickly as he could.

"Why on earth does it feel like winter in July?" I whined and rubbed my hands together.

Jace moved his eyes from the road momentarily and looked at me with an amused smile, "Is my Ice Princess freezing?"

"How are you not? I never knew it was this cold in the mornings during summer."

"It's 50-something degrees," he teased. "How on earth do you survive in an ice rink all day?"

"Lots of skating," I sipped my coffee and closed my eyes as I felt the heat run through my body. "I'm fine when I'm moving. The problem is when I'm still; then I need layers. Lots and lots of layers. I look like an overstuffed couch when I have to coach from the sidelines."