Seasons Change

26.

Chapter 26.
It was official: Ben might just be my new favorite person. Okay, not really, but since he had agreed to take Avery out on a third date so that I could have some private time with Luke, the guy deserved serious props.

This date with Luke was long overdue--not just because I enjoyed spending time with him, but also because it would give me a chance to finally talk to Luke one on one about what was going on with our relationship. I didn't like the gray area we were operating in, where it kind of seemed like we might be heading towards dating, but neither of us had come out and expressed a real interest in a romantic relationship.

When I arrived at Luke's house, his mother greeted me with a warm smile and a hug, which was nice, but felt a little strange.

"Lilly, darling, it's so nice to see you again," she said, ushering me through the door. Luke's mom had always liked me while we were dating, and it was nice to see that she still approved of me, even though I had broken up with her son.

"Luke, Lilly's here," Mrs. Carters called.

I grinned, feeling like we were both in high school again, even though he was now a junior in college and I was a freshman.

Luke appeared a few minutes later dressed in a pair of dark wash jeans and a University of Ohio sweatshirt. "Hey, Lilly," he said, offering me a half smile. "Sorry, I lost track of time."

"No problem," I said, my lips twitching into a smile. "So, what did you want to do this afternoon?"

Luke shrugged. "Well, I figured I would give you two options, and you could pick one. Option A, we can go ice skating and then go out for hot chocolate, or Option B, we can go to the arcade and then get pizza."

I tapped my chin thoughtfully. "Well, both of those sound fun," I said, "although I'll probably be terrible at both. Do you have a preference?"

Luke smiled. "Whichever one you want to do," he said again.

"Ice skating," I decided. "Arcade games are fun, but I haven't been ice skating in years."

We headed to the ice rink, and when we got there, it wasn't all that busy. Only a handful of people were on the ice, and loud music blared from the speakers. I shivered from the cold realizing that I probably should have worn a jacket, because, duh, ice rinks are cold.

"Here," Luke said, taking his sweater off and slipping it over my head. "I can't have you freezing to death."

"Thanks," I said gratefully, wrapping my arms across my chest to warm up. "But what about you?"

Luke shrugged. "I'll be fine once we start skating," he assured me.

It only took a few minutes to get our hands stamped for skating, and to get rental skates. I chose figure skates, and Luke chose hockey skates. Privately, I wondered if there was really that big of a difference between the two, but I was afraid to ask, because I didn't want to sound stupid.

Luke led me over to sit down while we put on our skates. When I stood up, I wobbled and almost fell immediately. Luke reached out and caught me, steadying me before I could fall on my butt.

"Careful, Lilly," he said, smirking at me. "If you're already almost falling and we aren't even on the ice yet, maybe we should have gone with the arcade games. That probably would have been safer."

"Oh, shut up," I said, sticking my tongue out at him. "I just need a few minutes to get used to it."

Spoiler alert: I needed more than a few minutes to get used to it. I clung to the wall, bracing against it as I crawled around the outside of the rink like a granny. A girl who couldn't have been more than six or so skated past me, doing a fancy spin maneuver in the middle. I shook my head, wondering how she managed to make it look so easy.