Eva blushed. It wasn’t snobbery that contributed to her narrow perspective. It was her family, constantly sheltering her. She’d wanted to go new places, but her father had always found reasons to keep her at home. “I’ve been to Brooklyn before,” she mumbled.
Twice. Both times with Antonio to watch over her.
She didn’t say that, though. “Just not here. You know the Fiorini Group only deals with Manhattan properties.”
He stared at her, incredulous. “So, what? You’ve never left the city? Seriously?”
“No. I have. All those times I visited Antonio at school in Boston. And I went to boarding schools in Connecticut for twelve years.” She frowned. “I guess my family was too busy to do much exploring outside our sphere. Dad always had his nose to the grindstone. You know how he was.”
Or maybe it was something else. Maybe that was one of his ways of protecting her.
But from what? Or who?
“There’s a big world out there, Eva. You should see some of it.” They reached the entrance to Prospect Park. Jack presented it to her and said, “It’s not much of an escape, I confess. But it might be good for a couple hours.”
She smiled. Some fresh air, a couple of hot dogs with extra mustard—that might be just what she needed. “It sounds great.”
“Have you ever been roller-skating?”
She froze. “Roller-skating?”
He laughed. “Yes. You can’t go to Prospect and not go skating.”
“Oh.” The blush on her face deepened. Her parents had arranged for her to have a host of expensive lessons over the course of her childhood. She’d had eight years of ballet, four years of horsemanship at the Ethel Walker School when she was a preteen, and she could probably hop back on the bench and play a mean Chopin piano etude, even though she hadn’t tickled the ivories in over a decade. But skating?
“I’ve never even been on skates,” she confessed.
He pressed his lips together. “If you’d rather, we can go for a walk instead.”
“No, it’s fine. First time for everything, right? I’m up for it. Totally.” She clapped her hands together in effort to sound more psyched than she felt. Was she really going to embarrass herself by getting on skates for the first time in front of Jack?
“That’s the spirit.” He smiled and they headed over to the roller skate rentals. As Jack chatted with the attendant, Eva watched children, families, and couples skating by on the enormous rink.
They all looked like pros, but she tamped down any doubts inside her. The fact was, nothing could be more dangerous than the reality that was waiting for her back in Manhattan.
They sat on a bench and laced on their roller skates. It didn’t feel real, being here like this with Jack. It was such an ordinary thing to do, but special, like she was being allowed access to a Jack she’d never met before.
She clutched the side of the rink as he stepped out and did a fast circle, hands behind his back like a pro. Of course. It’s Jack. Since when does he do anything badly?
He came to an easy stop right in front of her. “You didn’t tell me you were good,” she said, hitting his chest playfully.
“Yeah, well. I thought that went without saying.” He grinned his irresistible grin. “You think I’d want you to see me falling on my ass?”
“Oh. So instead you get to see me fall on mine? Great,” she mumbled, still clutching the railing for dear life. Her feet felt like they were encased in cinderblocks. Every time she breathed, they seemed to roll out from under her. “So, how did you become such a master?”
He executed an effortless figure eight, which made her mouth hang open. He always kept his hair combed back, but now it tumbled over his forehead in a rakish way that forced the breath from her lungs.
And she’d thought Jack couldn’t look any hotter.
“In Southie, there was a skate park right across from my grandmother’s house,” he said. “When my dad died, Mom had to sell off pretty much everything to keep me at the Hill. But she let me keep my skates. She figured it would be cheaper in the long run than taking the bus twelve miles, every day. When skates are your only mode of transportation, you get pretty good pretty fast. I would be even better if Antonio hadn’t let me crash in his room so often.”
She thought about all the times she’d seen his things in Antonio’s room when she came to visit. She’d known that Jack had been on the outs at Belmont Hill because his father had died and left them with a pile of debts, but that was all. “Twelve miles?” She shook her head. “Antonio would’ve let you bunk with him permanently. You know that.”
He shrugged. “Of course he would have. But I was the man of the house. My mom needed me. My grandmother was sick. And honestly, I wasn’t too welcome with any of the other Hillies, other than your brother.” He glided out toward the center of the enormous roller rink, then skated backward toward her, making it clear that he was just as comfortable on skates as he was with walking. “My real friends were at the skate park. We used to do stunts all over the city. I got arrested once. The look on my grandmother’s face…”
He grimaced.
Eva’s eyes widened. She loved hearing these stories about the man she increasingly wanted to spend more and more time with. “Oh, really? What for?”