Chapter 30: Cecile III--My Feet Hurt

Chapter 30: Cecile III—My Feet Hurt

Both Peter and Danny had both insisted that she get a pair of skates that were a size smaller than the shoes she wore. Was there anything more ridiculous than that? They said it would help her grip the ice better and not wobble in her skates. So she hadn’t even got onto the ice yet, she had just forced on those skates, and she was in pain. It felt like the outside halves of the skates were pinching off her little toes.

"Comfy?" Danny had asked.

Cecile just nodded. Maybe it would get better.

She stood up and was certain that her ankles were going to snap and she was going to fall. Sensing this, Peter grabbed her arm to steady her. The man’s hands were huge! She could feel it wrapping completely around her upper arm. Intimidating, yes, but it also gave her a sense of security in a way.

Danny was trotting by her other side, grinning. "You’re gonna love this!" he said.

Cecile smiled weakly.

She almost panicked when they approached the gaping doorway leading onto the huge sheet of ice. It looked like a vast, white desert. Cecile stopped short, her mouth open a little.

Forsberg walked ahead of her and stepped onto the ice backwards. "Come on," he said.

Cecile grimaced. "I don’t know," she said.

Danny put his arm around her waist. "You’ll be fine!" he said.

There was a loud gritty slicing sound as Forsberg turned around and skated deep into the rink. The rink was empty and the sound of his skates echoed through the air, it was a chilly, eerie sound. But Peter cut a beautiful figure.

Cecile blinked and stopped short of gaping at Peter as he circled the ice, twizzling backwards, skating just as fluidly. His speed was breathtaking and before she knew it, he skid to a stop in front of her spraying chips of ice into the air.

"Scared?" he said, tilting his chin down, looking at her seriously.

Cecile pursed her lips in determination. "Of course not!" she said and she almost stomped onto the sheet of ice, with a laughing Danny right behind her.

For two hours, Cecile squealed, giggled and scampered on the ice. Danny was constantly yapping from the perimeters of the rink, teasing her weak ankles. Peter was alternately fawning and then infuriating. He would hold her gently, guiding her along until he was pulling her to deliciously cozy speeds where the cold air would brush across her face. And then he would let her go, and stay just a stride away from her, skating backwards and daring her to grab ahold of him for support. She quickly forgot about how much her feet were hurting.

Cecile fell asleep in the car, listening to Danny’s excited prattle. She woke up when Danny opened the door, leaning in and kissing her forehead. "Wake up!" he whispered.

Cecile half-opened her eyes with a silly grin. "My feet hurt," she sighed.

"Awww," Danny said, and reaching in the car he lifted her up into his arms. Cecile giggled and rested her head on his chest.

Danny swung her around and carried her to the doorway of the Roy house.
He set her down and Cecile yawned. She tried standing on one foot, but they both hurt too much. Danny reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a key. "I’m supposed to give this to you, it’s the house key." he said as he unlocked the door.

Danny swung it open and Cecile frowned. Suddenly, she didn’t want to go inside. She wasn’t tired anymore, she just wanted to get back into the car and hide with Danny.

"Come inside with me!" Cecile said impulsively.

Danny looked at her. "Yeah?"

Cecile nodded. "You don’t have to be anywhere?"

Danny shook his head.

They walked into the house and Danny closed the door. Cecile looked at him briefly, blushing. "I..I don’t like being alone in big houses," she said. "They scare me."

Danny grinned. "Really? Wow...well I suppose Patty is home, snoring. Mimi will be back soon too, it’s almost dinner time."

Cecile shrugged. "It feels empty," she said.

"You need a nap!" Danny said, "You’re sleepy and you’re spooking yourself."

Cecile yawned. She knew Danny was right. She barely said anything else as Danny led her downstairs into the remarkably well furnished basement, and rolled her up like a burrito in the fluffy goose-down comforter. Cecile giggled. "Danny!" she squealed. "Stop that!"

"Can I have a kiss?" Danny asked. He was leaning lightly on top of her, smiling and batting his large eyes.

"Mmhmm," Cecile said. She closed her eyes as Danny planted a soft, closed mouth kiss on her lips.

"Your feet don’t hurt too much, do they?" Danny asked.

"No," Cecile said. "I’m OK."

Danny rolled over next to her on the bed, hugging her comforter wrapped body. Cecile sighed a contented sigh. She looked deep into Danny’s eyes and then closed hers. Within the minute, both of them were asleep.

It was the smell of hot food that awoke Cecile, her stomach was roaring. Or was that Danny’s stomach? Either way, Cecile was wide awake and doing everything she could not to just tear up the stairs and begin wolfing down whatever she smelled in the kitchen. Cecile sat up and nudged Danny who was blinking and yawning.

"She’s a great cook, eh?" Cecile whispered.

She could see Danny’s teeth gleam with a smile in the darkened room. "Yeah," Danny said. "You’ll love it! In fact, Karns got after me today. I gained five pounds!"

Dinner went quite well and did a lot to calm Cecile’s fears about being in the house. Absolutely no attention was directed at her or Danny. It seemed that Alex Tanguay had taken the kids to the amusement park and the whole lot had come back tired and sun-burned.

In fact, when Cecile and Danny had come upstairs it was to the rather disconcerting sight of Michele slathering aloe vera cream on Tanguay’s burned shoulders and neck while he rubbed the same on Jonathen who was rubbing some on Freddy who was rubbing it on Jana’s reddened face. Cecile raised her eyebrows and the glanced into the kitchen where she could see Patrick opening up a pot on the stove and dipping a piece of bread into the contents.

"Patrick, get out of the sauce!" Michele snapped without looking into the kitchen.

Cecile smiled when Patrick quietly put the lid back on the pot and scurried to the other side of the kitchen. "I’m not in the sauce!" he called back.

Cecile blushed a little and found herself smiling back when Patrick caught her looking and he winked, putting his index finger to his lips.

The family was bright and talkative at the dinner table. Not like at the Sakic house where the meals were rather quiet and polite. Here, there were all sorts of conversations going on at the same time and a lot of loud laughter. No one but Danny said a word of anything to Cecile and if they did she wouldn’t have noticed. She was absorbed in eating everything that she could get her hands on, not even caring about the no doubt astronomical calorie content she was consuming.

Needless to say, when Cecile crawled to bed that night. She was asleep like a stone.

Cecile woke up to a strong scent of roses and a soft voice in her ear. "I’m sorry Cecile but I need your help, Cherie. I’ll pay you, I promise."

Cecile fluttered her eyes open. Michele Roy was kneeling next to the bed, a small smile on her face. "Yes?" Cecile asked.

"Something happened to Joe last night," Michele said, "And I’m going over to see if Debbie needs any help."

Cecile was wide awake now. "What?" she asked. "Is he OK?"

Michele nodded. "He’ll be OK, he fell down the stairs and he’s a little banged up. So I don’t want to take the children there, so I was wondering if you could watch them for an hour if Mrs. Allison doesn’t come sooner? I’ll pay you of course. I’d ask Patrick to do it, but he’s already left for practice and the last time Patrick took them to a practice without me, they managed to short-circuit the Zamboni."

Cecile just went numb inside. "Um...." she said.

Michele broke into a sparkling smile. "I knew you would! Merci! I’ll be back in a few hours, and don’t worry, if they get a little rambunctious just tell them to...to..play some hockey in the yard, they’ll listen!"

"But..."Cecile said helplessly.

"Merci!" Michele said briskly, giving Cecile a big kiss on the forehead. "I’ll be back this afternoon."

Cecile sat up, rubbing her forehead and wrinkling her nose as Michele went up the basement stairs. "I made some breakfast for you its on the stove."

Cecile flopped onto her back and sighed. "Ooooh, I knew this was too good to be true."

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