Page 43 of Going for Two
“Everyone should be waiting for us over by the stadium.”
“The stadium?” I asked.
Nolan opened the front door and gestured for us to go first. “There’s a great sledding hill right between Gateway Stadium and Lake Michigan.”
Olivia bounded out to Nolan’s black Range Rover that was parked on the curb next to all the other cars that were covered in inches of snow. “I call the backseat!”
“Nobody calls the backseat, Olivia.”
“They do if they want a front row seat to her sister and the guy that’s clearly smitten with her,” Olivia stage-whispered loud enough I was afraid Nolan would have heard her yet again.
“Get in the car,” I sighed.
The roads and nearly every parking lot we passed were completely empty the entire way to the sledding hill next to the stadium. The view was like something out of a movie with everything around Gateway covered in a blanket of snow. Lake Michigan was grey and angry as the wind from the snowstorm raged on. A group of kids were packing snow together to make snowballs and throwing them at each other while squealing with joy. A group of adults stood off to the side watching them, and once we were close enough, I realized it was Adam and his wife, Hawthorn and his wife, Maggie and Tommy, Jamil and Derek.
I knew that Nolan probably invited everyone with the intention of making this as comfortable for me as possible. I had to admit it was nice having all the people I considered my friends—andwas beginning to think of as family—so willing to do something like this with me.
Nolan parked his car and went to pull three sleds out of the back.
“Here, let me help,” I told him as I took one.
“Finally!” Nolan and I turned to see Derek looking at us as if he’d been waiting for hours instead of minutes. “I’ve been waiting for you three to get here so I can be the first one down the hill.”
“Not if I have anything to say about that,” Olivia called out to him as she grabbed the other sled from Nolan and took off running toward the top of the hill.
“Wait a minute!” Derek shouted as he held his sled over his head and took off after her. “How are you so fast?”
“Be careful! If anyone gets hurt, the coaches are bound to be upset and so will I.” I tried to suppress a smile as I watched my little sister let out a joyous laugh at the top of her lungs as she enjoyed doing something that we’d never got to experience in our lives.
“Ready?” Nolan asked me as he motioned up the hill where Olivia was sticking her tongue out at Derek after she reached the top first.
Nolan’s shy smile made him look like a little kid again flirting with the girl he liked. This was the Nolan Hill that I’d come to like—the one that showed up with donuts for his teammates, gave up his favorite seat on the airplane to make me comfortable, watched the sunrise with me to thank me for my help, and took the time to seeme. He wasn’t perfect, but neither was I.
So, I found myself extending my hand to his as my own peace offering. Nolan studied it for a few seconds before he reached out to take my gloved hand in his. As the two of us climbed up tothe top of the hill together, Derek and Olivia went speeding past us—both shouting at the top of their lungs about who was in the lead.
Adam Steel was at the top once we finally made it, helping his kids get onto their sleds and giving them a big push.
“It’s nice to see you again, Lottie,” he told me.
I smiled at him. “Congratulations on the World Series win. It must be nice retiring on something like that.”
“It was. Now it’s Nolan’s turn.” Adam slapped Nolan on the shoulder with affection before he pushed his youngest down the hill with enough force to make his wife yell at him to be careful. “Now I get to make different memories with the people I love.”
“Happy for you, Adam,” Nolan told him. “Truly.”
“You’re next,” Adam told us. “Do you guys want a push?”
I followed Adam’s gaze down to the sled in Nolan’s hands. “Oh, we weren’t going to go down together.”
“Oh, come on. Nolan will get you more momentum going down. It’ll be fun, I promise.” I noticed the twinkle in Adam’s eye and concluded that he was either the most oblivious person ever to the lingering tension between me and Nolan or he was the world’s best mastermind.
Adam took the sled out of Nolan’s hands and positioned it on the ground before motioning for me to take a seat first. My heart began to race inside of my chest at the thought of being close enough again to Nolan to feel him. I heard snow crunch under Nolan’s boots as he positioned himself behind me. Slowly, I felt his weight come down on the sled as his chest pressed into my back.
“Is this alright?” His breath tickled my ear as he leaned close enough so only I could hear him. He threaded his arms around my waist so he could be the one to hold the reins of the sled.
It took me a few moments to get my breathing under control before I squeaked out, “Yes, that’s alright.”
That same feeling of peace filled every inch of me once his arms tightened around me. It was the same feeling I had a hard time identifying in Nolan’s penthouse because I’d never truly experienced it before.