Ink and Ice by Erin McRae (novel books to read txt) 📕

last round of edits before it got sent for publication. Zack skimmed through it, mostly checking to make sure his previous edits had found their way into the piece and nothing particularly egregious had happened in editorial. When he got to the end of it, though, he couldn’t help feeling like something was missing. This article was about skating, but at its core it was about Aaron and the story of his year. As Zack had learned in the last forty-eight hours, that story wasn’t complete without a sense of this place, the island from which Aaron came and would always, Zack was sure, return.

He dashed off a last addition to the piece, just a brief paragraph describing the island, its isolation, its peace, its mysteries. Though he knew better than to mention the seals as Aaron had told the story about them last night, he couldn’t help but mention their possibility. Not something strange and supernatural like what Aaron had described, but the idea of a lost colony come inland. There were cases of it dotting the far northern hemisphere on multiple continents.

He had to find things elsewhere in the piece to cut to make the word count fit, but that turned out to be easy. He trimmed what little remained of the content he had about Cayden. In the end, he was pleased. It brought the piece together in a way that showcased Aaron as he truly was—the Aaron that he knew—to the world.

For the hell of it, before he sent it back, he grabbed the memory card out of his camera and paged through his recent photos from the island. Without checking first, he wouldn’t dare send one that included Aaron for both legal reasons and a general sense of human decency. But he had some good shots of the landscape and the horizon that showed just how desolate it was here and how far from everything.

He attached two to the email with his final edits on the story. In case you need them, he wrote.

He hoped Sammy decided they did.

AS THE REST OF THE day went on, Zack could feel it in the air as Aaron got more and more wound. Or maybe that was just the effect of shifting atmospheric pressure, as the storm continued to roar around them. Zack tried to breathe through it, but it was hard to relax. He could hardly imagine how Aaron must feel, with his entire season riding on being able to get off the island on time.

As they were getting ready for dinner, the world outside already gone dark, Aaron’s phone barked with an incoming call.

“It’s Stephanie,” he said as he picked it up. “The pilot,” he added, as if Zack could have forgotten the hero who had landed them safely on the slightly larger landmass to the south.

He took the call into the next room; Zack exchanged worried looks with Aaron’s parents. The likelihood that Stephanie was calling to tell Aaron she wasn’t going to be able to fly out on schedule seemed high.

Aaron, however, burst back into the kitchen with a delighted whoop. “It’s going to clear!” he called. He grabbed Zack around the neck for a hug, while his parents exclaimed with relief.

“Oh, I’m so glad,” Aaron said, pressing his forehead into Zack’s chest.

Zack rubbed his back. “Me too.”

Aaron looked up at him. “So I meant to ask,” he said, “before I got distracted by the weather scare. All that stuff about the seals...Is that okay? I didn’t scare you off, did I?”

“Freak me out, yes. Scare me off, no.” Zack hugged him tighter, though he was aware of Aaron’s parents surely watching them.

“Oh. Okay. Well, good then.” Aaron seemed to ponder something for a moment. “Another question for you.”

“Yeah?”

“Want to come to Nationals? To watch?”

“Oh!” Zack was surprised, delightfully so.

He hadn’t imagined being included that way when everything between them was still so tenuous and under discussed. It was a given that Aaron’s season came first, but to be a part of it felt huge.

He didn’t even know where Nationals were. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to get on another plane. Even so, there was only one answer he could give.

“Yes,” he said. “Definitely.”

Chapter 29

U.S. NATIONAL FIGURE Skating Championships

Boston, MA

WALKING INTO THE DRAW was always a little bit like walking into a high school cafeteria—at least as far as Aaron could tell. His schooling hadn’t exactly been typical. But it seemed like the sort of tension and drama high school cafeterias had on TV. Who sat where and what that meant was a big deal.

“Hey Sheftall, welcome to the big kids table!” Cayden shouted.

At least Aaron’s read on the situation wasn’t wrong. He narrowed his eyes at him. “This is my sixth senior nationals.”

“But you’re having a year!”

“I am, aren’t I?” he said with a smile he didn’t feel. He was either going to have to sit with Cayden and his hangers-on or he was going to have to pointedly reject his not remotely sincere friendliness, which would create a whole new drama.

He scanned the seats looking for a better, more plausible option, but Katie and Brendan didn’t have any other U.S. senior men and were currently with their pairs skaters who had practice ice.

To his relief, Rasmus Tamm caught his eye and who waved at him. “Aaron!” he said warmly, patting the empty chair next to him. “I haven’t seen you all season. How are you?”

The rescue was obvious. And immensely welcome. That it probably annoyed Cayden on both those counts was only a bonus.

Aaron stepped across the aisle and into the seat Rasmus had indicated. He’d skated for Estonia years ago before moving to the States, and now was one of the oldest skaters in the U.S. field. Everyone called him ‘Uncle Ras’—fondly and not to his face. If someone needed a ride at a competition, or a rescue from unwanted advances or social awkwardness...Uncle Ras was there.

What the fuck Rasmus was doing with his life, Aaron did not