Icing on the Lake

by Catherine Clark

  “You know, at the science museum last year—or was it the year before? Anyway, it was really big on TV, too. The Antarctic survival thing.”

  “Didn’t see it,” Sean said. “Never heard of it.”

  “You’ve never heard of Shackleton?” I asked. “Are you serious? Do you live under a rock?”

  “He does,” Conor said. “It crushed his brain.”

  “Shut up.” Sean pushed him, and after wrestling for a few seconds, Conor went down headfirst into the snow. We left him there and kept hiking up the hill.

  “I’ve read Endurance. It’s an amazing story,” Conor went on as he caught up to us, seemingly unfazed by being dumped into a snowbank by his brother.

  The three of us stood at the top of a long hill. There were grooves in the snow from other people sledding here before us, and some large mounds that had been built up to make the sledding more exciting.

  “Okay, so I just have one question before we get started,” Sean said with a grin. He dropped the plastic saucer he was carrying, while Conor set down the wooden sled.

  “What’s that?” I asked. I figured he’d ask which way I wanted to slide—by sled or saucer.

  “Do you have enough clothes on?” Sean said.

  “What?” I laughed.

  “I don’t want you getting all frozen after we go down the hill a few times.”

  “Give me a break.” Conor sighed loudly, disgusted by the two of us, I guess.

  “You know, you can go home anytime,” Sean told him.

  “So can you,” Conor replied.

  “Shut up.”

  “You shut up.”

  Since they looked like they might start duking it out at any moment, I decided to intervene. While they were busy arguing, I molded a couple of snowballs and tossed one at each of them. Then, once they were distracted, I hopped onto the saucer and started sliding and swirling down the hill. By the time I reached the bottom of the hill, laughing and yelling, I was turned all the way around and facing backward. I looked back up just in time to see Sean grab the sled from Conor and come hurtling toward me.

  I jumped out of the way just as Sean tried to veer on the sled. He ended up flipping onto his side and coming to an abrupt stop.

  “Nice driving,” I teased him.

  “Oh, yeah? You try,” he replied, brushing snow off his jeans. He jogged over to me and promptly tried to stuff a handful of snow down my back.

  “Nooooo!” I cried as the snow moved from my jacket collar right under my sweater and onto my skin.

  “Benson! What are you doing to that poor girl?” a voice called out.

  Sean turned to a group of figures heading our way in the dark. “Hey! What’s up?”

  “Hey, guys,” Conor said as the group trudged closer.

  Four guys stopped in front of us and I exchanged an awkward smile with a couple of them.

  “You going to introduce us or what?” one of them asked.

  “This is Kirsten. She’s visiting for a month or so,” Sean explained.

  “Hey,” the group said, almost in unison, like they’d done this before and had a routine.

  “Hi,” I said with a little wave.

  “How’s it going?” one of them asked.

  “Cold,” I said. I smiled as I saw that one of the guys was pulling a long wooden toboggan.

  At the top of the hill, we all piled onto the toboggan. At Sean’s urging, I got on after he did, and as we shifted to get comfortable, I put my arms around Sean’s waist and draped my legs over his. This was very comfortable, as far as I was concerned. A little on the outer-flirt-edge of things for me, but I could handle it.

  “Room for one more,” one of the guys announced.

  Then Conor got on behind me.

  Suddenly I was in the middle of a Benson Boys sandwich.

  This couldn’t be good, I thought. Then again, it wasn’t all bad. Conor kept a respectable distance, just looping his arms around my waist very loosely, and acting like he hated every minute of it. At least I knew him, so it wasn’t like having one of the other guys that close to me.

  We got a big push from one of the guys, and six of us went hurtling down the hill. The guy in front steered us straight over the biggest bump—and we capsized, all of us flying off into the snow.

  I came down with a thud, right on top of Sean. We were lying face to face.

  I smiled at Sean, who was grinning at me. Then I leaned forward and brushed his lips with a kiss.

  He didn’t move at first, not that he could. I pulled back for a second and looked at him. He looked a little surprised, like he wasn’t sure about all this. So I leaned down to kiss him again, and he was just starting to kiss me back—

  And my cell phone rang.

  Cursed!

  Chapter 9

  I glanced at the caller ID though and saw that it was Jones. What was she doing calling me now?

  “Sorry, I kind of, kind of have to take this.” I smiled awkwardly at Sean, not that things could get more awkward when you were sitting on top of a boy and you’d just kissed him when you weren’t sure whether that was cool or not. Although he seemed pretty cool about it, since he’d been getting into it when the phone rang.

  “Where are you?” she cried when I answered.

  “I’m—out,” I said. Landing on boys and kissing them!

  “Well, duh, we know you’re out, silly—Emma and I are at your house looking for you! Gretchen’s house, whatever.”

  “You are?” I moved aside to let Sean get up and sort of sat in the snow. He stood up and started brushing snow off of himself, then he smiled at me and started to walk back up the hill. The rest of the guys were already halfway up.

  “How can you not be home? Gretchen said something about sledding. Who goes sledding anymore, I said. Get your butt over here!” Jones demanded.

  “Right now?” I asked.

  “Hello, we just drove two and a half hours to see you!”

  I laughed. “Okay, Jones. I’ll be right there.” Although your timing stinks, I thought as I flipped my phone closed.

  “So. Jones. Is he your boyfriend at home?” Conor asked, trudging toward me in the snow.

  “What?” I asked.

  “Did he drive down to see you tonight?” Conor asked.

  “What are you doing, eavesdropping?” I asked.

  “I lost a glove in the snow. I came back to look around for it,” he said. “I heard you talking—sorry.”

  “Well. Not that you need to know, but Jones isn’t a guy. She’s Bridget, my best friend from home. She was at the rink with me that first day we met.”

  “We met at the lake? When?” he asked.

  “You know when,” I said. “You’re just making me say it so that I get embarrassed all over again.”

  He just kept looking at me.

  “I knocked you down, playing Crack the Whip. You caught me? Then you gave me back my hat?”

  “Oh, yeah. Right.” He grinned.

  “See, you remembered all along. Anyway, Jones is a girl. Her name is Bridget, so we call her Jones. It’s a book. And a movie. Bridget Jones’s Diary?”

  “Yes!” He pulled a dark-colored glove out of the snow. “Found it.”

  I couldn’t stop glaring at him. “Look, you don’t really think I’d be out here with Sean like this if I was seeing someone back home, do you?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. How should I know?”

  “That is so insulting I can’t even tell you. I don’t have a boyfriend. I’ve never had a boyfriend, okay?” And this conversation is getting in the way of me having one now, or ever! I thought as I walked up the hill toward Sean.

  “Well, how should I know?” Conor complained behind me. “I hear Jones, it sounds like a guy. Sue me.”

  “Maybe I will,” I muttered as I walked toward Sean. Couldn’t Jones and Emma wait another half hour until I got home? And couldn’t they give me a little advance warning that they were coming? I get one fun sledding night, and they have to
show up now?

  Sean was pulling the toboggan back to the top of the hill, and I walked up beside him. He kicked a clod of snow at me, and I kicked some back.

  “A friend from home just called and I have to get going—she’s at the house waiting for me,” I told him.

  “Oh, really? That’s too bad,” Sean said. He didn’t suggest leaving with me, and I guess I couldn’t really blame him.

  “You can stay,” I said as I glanced at the group of his friends watching us together. “It’s no problem.”

  “You sure?” Sean asked.

  I nodded. And suddenly I couldn’t wait to get out of there. The way those guys were all looking at me, like they were judging me. Had everyone seen me kiss Sean? And what did they think about it, if they had?

  “Yeah—I’ll be fine. See you guys!” I gave a little wave and then wrapped my scarf more tightly around my neck as I turned to walk home.

  When I walked off, I heard screaming and I glanced over my shoulder to see them hurtling down the hill on the toboggan, laughing and shouting. I watched them take another huge bump and go flying into the air.

  A few minutes later, I thought I sensed someone following me. It was making me really nervous. I looked back and saw a figure in the shadows. “What are you doing?”

  “I just want to make sure you’re safe,” Conor replied, walking about ten paces behind me.

  “Of course I’m safe,” I said. “I’d feel a lot safer if someone weren’t following me and scaring me to death.”

  “Sorry. But you’re going the wrong way.”

  “I am? Shoot.”

  “It’s this direction.” He pointed to the right.

  “Oh.”

  “Here. I’ll show you,” he offered. The two of us walked vaguely side by side for a while. “I have to get home to study anyway. I’m taking this lit class at the U, you know? We have an exam at the end of the week.”

  “Really? That’s cool.”

  “Not really,” he said.

  I laughed. “The class, not the exam.”

  “Right.” Conor coughed. “So. Are you and Sean like…an item?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe,” I said.

  “Can I give you a little advice?” Conor asked.

  “On finding gloves in the dark? Or what?” I asked.

  “Be careful,” he said. “See…Sean has this way of drawing lots of people to him. And sometimes he hurts people when he doesn’t mean to, because he doesn’t realize.”

  “Realize what. He’s popular? I think he knows that,” I said.

  “Look. It’s not just about being popular. It’s—whether he really cares about anyone, besides himself. He’s incredibly selfish.”

  “And you’re not,” I said.

  “Come on, Kirsten. Trust me,” he said.

  “Why should I trust you? Over him?”

  “Because I have no reason to lie. I’m not involved.”

  “But he is your brother,” I said. “And you are walking me home so that you can tell me to stay away from him. Which is over-involved, if you ask me.”

  “Never mind. Forget I said anything.”

  I could hardly look at him, I was so mad. First he thought I was rushing off to see my “hometown honey,” and now what? Was he following me home to make sure I wasn’t? And what was with the criticizing Sean? Brotherly love, it wasn’t.

  I was relieved to see Emma’s car parked on the street outside Gretchen’s when we got there. “That’s Emma’s.” I pointed to the Explorer. “She’s here, too.” Maybe I should have had my friends come out, so I could show him that Jones was in fact a girl. But I didn’t need to prove anything to him. “Emma and Jones. Best friends.”

  “Sounds like a musical group. Where do they live?”

  “Outside Duluth, like me,” I said.

  “You guys have plans for the weekend?” Conor asked.

  “Uh, I don’t know,” I said. “Why?”

  “Well, we have a club hockey game tomorrow morning. Outside, down at the lake,” Conor said. “It’s kind of a tradition. Playing outdoors like in the old days. Sean’s on one of the clubs and I’m on the other,” he explained.

  “Why am I not surprised?” I mumbled.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.” Why wouldn’t he come closer? He insisted on talking to me across the lawn. Was he afraid I’d tackle him again, the way I did when he came here to shovel? “I would say thanks for walking me home,” I said, “but I think it’s more like thanks for following me home.”

  “I wasn’t following you,” he said. “I was just being careful.”

  “Okay, well, whatever. Thanks,” I said.

  “Yeah. Have fun with your friends. Jones, Smith, Bridget Jones, whoever.” Conor turned to walk home, while I laughed, opened the door and slipped inside.

  “Who was that guy?” Jones asked. She completely startled me. She’d been standing by the door, watching the two of us say goodnight.

  “Oh, him. He’s…he’s…well…see, sometimes he’s kind of a jerk—”

  “Then why are you smiling?”

  Before I could answer her, Emma came clomping down the stairs in her clogs, arms outstretched for a big hug. “It’s so good to see you!” she cried. “Where have you been?”

  Would they even believe me if I told them I was sledding with this guy I like, and I made a move on him?

  What if I told them, but it didn’t work out with Sean, and then I’d be embarrassed? There was a certain humiliation factor that I had to avoid, but these were my best friends and I desperately wanted to share. “Well, see, we were sledding and…”

  “Sledding. No wonder you’re covered in snow.” Emma brushed at the back of my jeans. “You’re not going to believe what happened today.”

  “No kidding! First of all,” Jones said under her breath, “we’ve been here for half an hour already making small talk with Gretchen. She tried to serve us those nasty health crackers.”

  I got my secret stash of chips from the kitchen and we grabbed some cans of pop and headed upstairs to my room. Emma immediately launched into a story about how she and Cameron had a huge screaming fight in the middle of school, and how the weekend was off now, except that now Kyle wanted to take her, but she didn’t really like Kyle that way except that he had given her lots of nice presents….

  As usual, we started inundating her with questions, and advice. Neither one asked any more about my situation.

  In a way, that was okay, because I thought maybe I would ruin it by talking about it. Sometimes something so good happens that you’re afraid to jinx it by saying it out loud.

  “Ten to one they get back together tomorrow,” Jones said as she snuggled into her sleeping bag on the floor at about two o’clock in the morning. I’d given Emma my bed, and I was sacked out on an airbed beside Jones.

  “Ten to one? More like one to ten,” I said, and Jones laughed.

  “I am so beat. I bet I fall asleep in five minutes,” Jones said.

  “Me too,” I agreed, pulling the blanket up around my neck and adjusting the pillow.

  I closed my eyes and thought about the night I’d had. I loved going sledding with Sean; even more, I loved the fact that I’d kissed him, and that he’d seemed interested.

  But I couldn’t get over the fact that Sean had also looked sort of stunned, as if what I did was too forward. Like we were just friends.

  It wasn’t as if Sean didn’t enjoy spending time with me, because we’d done a lot together, and there was definitely an attraction between us. Wasn’t there?

  So why had he looked so surprised when I first kissed him? Was it just because all his friends were around?

  I wished I could fall asleep thinking about what a great kiss it had been—because it had been—instead of worrying about what he thought about the kiss.

  I knew what I thought about it. I wanted to kiss him again. Soon.

  Chapter 10

  “Didn’t we meet him the last time we were he
re?” Jones asked as Sean skated past us at the lake, wearing full hockey regalia, passing the puck to another player.

  “Didn’t he kick us off the ice?”

  “Not exactly,” Emma said. “I think we left on our own.”

  I laughed. “Maybe we did, but it was strongly suggested that we take off.”

  We’d arrived while the hockey game was in progress, because it took us forever to get going in the morning. We sat around talking and watching stupid things on TV for too long, so we couldn’t get anywhere at a decent hour. There was a fairly large crowd standing around the rink watching the game with us. A chalkboard perched on a chair had the score at 1-1.

  “But is that the guy who helped you up when you crashed?” Emma asked.

  I nodded. “That’s Sean.”

  “Holy cow is he good,” Jones said as he skated past again. “So, is that the guy who was talking to you last night?”

  I shook my head. “No, that’s his brother.”

  “I’m confused.” Emma sipped her cup of coffee. “Which one is which?”

  It was hard to identify any of the players because they had so much hockey gear on, including helmets and goalie masks. “Sean’s brother’s name is Conor. He’s playing goalie in that end. He’s on the opposite club from Sean.”

  “That’s weird,” Emma said.

  “They’re competitive. They have what you’d call a strained relationship,” I explained.

  “Sounds like a lot of brothers I know,” Jones commented. “So. Are they both hot?” she asked.

  I laughed. “Conor is obnoxious. Conceited. Rude,” I said.

  “And?”

  “Hot,” I admitted.

  She nodded and a smile spread across her face. “Uh huh. Apple doesn’t fall far from the…tree. Or the other apples. Whatever.”

  Emma and I cracked up.

  “So, Kirst, which one are you bringing to the cabin?” Emma asked.

  I laughed. “Neither, yet! God, you guys. I barely just got here.”

  “Yes, true, but you’ve made excellent progress,” Jones said. “So invite Sean already.”

  “I can’t,” I said.

  “Why can’t you?” Emma asked. “What if someone else asks him first?”