A Kiss for Christmas: A Holiday Collection by Grace Melody
Author:Grace, Melody [Grace, Melody]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Melody Grace Books
Published: 2013-12-06T16:00:00+00:00
* * *
The cookies are only the beginning. After we bake a batch and decorate them with frosting and tiny silver balls, we leave a plate by the front desk for the other guests to enjoy. Austin tells me to dress warmly, and when the cab drops us off outside the skating rink at Rockefeller Plaza, I let out a shriek of delight.
“Ice skating?” I feel like a little kid again, birthdays and Christmas all rolled into one.
Austin smiles. “It was next on the list, wasn’t it?”
I look at him anew as we head to the kiosk to get our passes. When I told him about my Serendipity holiday daydreams, I never imagined that he would bring them to life for me. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy to pay attention like that, let alone go to all this effort.
There’s so much more to him than meets the eye.
“What do you think, festive enough for you?” Austin teases as we lace up our skates.
I laugh. “Just about.” The rink is beautiful, the glossy ice lit up, with colored lights strung around the edges, and the biggest tree I’ve ever seen towering over us all. Families skate together, couples glide hand in hand, bundled up in coats and scarves against the cold.
“I’ve never skated before,” I warn him as we strap on our skates. “I had Barbie roller-skates in third grade, but I’m guessing this is kind of different.”
“Don’t worry,” he tells me, helping me to my feet. “You can hold onto me.”
It’s not an invitation I’m going to turn down, not with Austin looking so good in his coat and scarf, smiling at me with wicked invitation in his eyes.
We whirl around the rink together, hand-in-hand. It takes me a little while to adjust to the skates, but even once I find my feet, I don’t let go. “How are you so good?” I ask, as Austin switches effortlessly to skating backwards, holding my hands in his.
He shrugs. “My mom worked weekends when I was a kid, so she’d leave me and my sister at the local rink to keep out of trouble.”
“I’m guessing you still found plenty.” I smile.
He laughs. “Guilty as charged. That was before I picked up a guitar,” he adds. “After that, you couldn’t have dragged me out of my bedroom for a million bucks. Music became my obsession.”
“And here you are,” I say happily. “It looks like it worked out for you.”
“I guess it did.” Austin’s eyes meet mine. For a moment, it looks like he’s about to say something. Then I catch sight of some girls over by the railings. They’re looking at him and whispering to each other. I smile.
“You’ve got some admirers,” I tease him. I don’t blame the girls for staring: he’s the most gorgeous man on the ice.
But instead of laughing it off, Austin looks uncomfortable. “Come on,” he says, tugging my hands. He skates faster, pulling me along so quickly the rink becomes a blur of color and motion.
Download
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.
Personalized inhaled bacteriophage therapy for treatment of multidrug-resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa in cystic fibrosis by unknow(181722)
CONSORT 2025 statement: updated guideline for reporting randomized trials by unknow(90148)
Critical evaluation of the ProfiLER-02 study design and outcomes by Vivek Subbiah & Razelle Kurzrock(89753)
Cardiac gene therapy makes a comeback by Oliver J. Müller & Susanne Hille & Anca Kliesow Remes(89514)
Whisky: Malt Whiskies of Scotland (Collins Little Books) by dominic roskrow(74454)
Unveiling the design rules for tunable emission in graphene quantum dots: A high-throughput TDDFT and machine learning perspective by Şener Özönder & Mustafa Coşkun Özdemir & Caner Ünlü(50907)
A yeast-based oral therapeutic delivers immune checkpoint inhibitors to reduce intestinal tumor burden by unknow(40278)
Covalent hitchhikers guide proteins to the nucleus by Alexander F. Russell & Madeline F. Currie & Champak Chatterjee(40220)
Meet the Authors: Christopher R. Mansfield and Emily R. Derbyshire by Christopher R. Mansfield & Emily R. Derbyshire(40104)
Alkaline-earth metals promote propane dehydrogenation with carbon dioxide through geometric effects: Altering the reaction pathway by unknow(32747)
Induced iron vacancies boosting FeOOH loaded on sustainable Fenton-like collagen fiber membrane for efficient removal of emerging contaminants by unknow(32524)
Efficient electric-field-assisted photochemical conversion of methane to n-propanol exclusively over penetrated TiO2Ti hollow fibers by Guanghui Feng(32462)
Bi2SiO5 nanosheets as piezo-photocatalyst for efficient degradation of 2,4-Dichlorophenol by Hangyu Shi & Yifu Li & Lishan Zhang & Guoguan Liu & Qian Zhang & Xuan Ru & Shan Zhong(32401)
A novel NDIPTA organic heterojunction photocatalyst with built-in electric field for efficient hydrogen production by Jiahui Yang & Baojun Ma & Yongfa Zhu(32372)
Enhanced conversion of methane to liquid-phase oxygenates via hollow ferrite nanotube@horseradish peroxidase based photoenzymatic catalysis by Jun Duan & Shiying Fan & Xinyong Li & Shaomin Liu(32340)
Ordered macroporous superstructure of defective carbon adorned with tiny cobalt sulfide for selective electrocatalytic hydrogenation of cinnamaldehyde by Xiao-Shi Yuan & Sheng-Hua Zhou & San-Mei Wang & Wenbo Wei & Xiaofang Li & Xin-Tao Wu & Qi-Long Zhu(32263)
What's Done in Darkness by Kayla Perrin(27157)
Topological analysis of non-conjugated ethylene oxide cored dendrimers decorated with tetraphenylethylene: Insights from degree-based descriptors using the polynomial approach by A Theertha Nair & D Antony Xavier & Annmaria Baby & S Akhila(26545)
Investigation of mechanical and self-healing properties of hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene functionalized with 2-ureido-4-pyrimidinone by Mohsen Kazazi & Mehran Hayaty & Ali Mousaviazar(26471)