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.”“Well, no.I mean, some things are worth saving, and some aren’t.And see, that’s the point of the project, to determine, like, what you save…and what you get rid of.And what that means.” As I was talking, I felt my face turning bright red.He was staring at me with his eyebrows slightly raised, as if I’d had too much coffee and was just ranting and raving.Which I was.“So that wasn’t worth keeping.Does the person you wrote to know that? Or share the same opinion?”“No, of course not.She thinks it’s brilliant, like everything I write.”“She must be a really good friend, then.”I narrowed my eyes and glared at him.Then all of a sudden there was this strange grating noise coming from the street.It sounded like someone was pushing a shovel against the cement and pulling it back and forth.It was like nails on a chalkboard, only ten thousand times worse.“I think that dog’s had enough,” Conor commented as he gazed out the window and up the block.“Who would be dumb enough to tie their dog to a newspaper rack in the middle of winter? Talk about cruel.”Bear! I realized.Oh no!Conor went back into the kitchen.Thank God he was gone—didn’t he already think I was awful?I jammed my computer into my backpack without even turning it off, left my mug on the table and just grabbed my jacket and ran out the door.I felt terrible.I’d completely forgotten about Bear.I wasn’t used to having a dog! He was attempting to drag the newspaper box down the street.He had gotten one side of it unbolted somehow, and he was turning it and running around in circles.“Oh no, Bear—I’m sorry!” I said as I ran over to him.He jumped on me to lick my face.It wasn’t long before he had the leash wrapped around my legs, and I was about to go down with the Star Tribune box.Please don’t be looking out the window, I thought as I slowly and carefully untangled the leash.I unclipped Bear’s collar for a second, and miraculously, he didn’t run off.He just sat there waiting for me while I unhooked the leash from the newspaper box and then tried to reset the box so that it didn’t look like it had just been vandalized.Then I realized Bear wasn’t being obedient and sitting there waiting for me.He was waiting for Sean, who was walking toward us.Of all the luck.Did I have time to grab a piece of gum? Fix my hair? Anything?Big city, but small neighborhood, I guess.I’d always heard that about cities, but I didn’t know how true it was.“Hey! Kirsten, right?” he said.I nodded.“Hi.How’s it going?”“This puppy’s got some serious energy, doesn’t he?” He leaned down to scratch Bear behind the ears.“The problem is that he doesn’t realize he’s not a puppy anymore.” I smiled.“I think I’m going to have to start taking him for really long walks.Or run a marathon or something.”“You run marathons?” Sean asked, looking impressed—or startled, I wasn’t sure.“Oh, yeah.Sure.Doesn’t everyone?” I laughed nervously.“I mean, when I have to, I will.Like if I were being chased, I’m sure I could move quickly.” I was babbling like a fool.I was saying nothing that made sense.Why did I insist on making the least out of this situation?“You plan on being chased?” Sean asked.Well, it would be nice, I thought as I looked into his eyes.“Not exactly,” I said.“Good.Hey, you should come down to the lake tomorrow.You know, like we talked about?”“Oh.Yeah?” I asked.Did I ever say anything else when he was around? I got so tongue-tied, it was ridiculous.“I mean, yes, I should.Shouldn’t I? It would be fun.”There was an awkward pause.Come on, I urged myself.If you don’t make something happen right now, you might never be lucky enough to see this guy again.Who knows if it’ll snow again while you’re here? You can’t rely on Mother Nature to get you on a date.“So when do you work at the rink?” I asked.“I’ll be there tomorrow morning,” he said.“Nine until noon.Is tomorrow good for you?”It is now, I thought.It’s a whole lot better, in fact.“We’ll try to make it,” I said, not wanting to sound too anxious about it.Just keep things casual—until I could tackle him.And then Bear saw a squirrel and dragged me away before I could say anything else, which was probably a good thing.Chapter 6The first thing I saw when I woke up the next morning was frost on the window.I snuggled under the down comforter, where I was cozy and warm.I didn’t see a reason to jump out of bed.And then I remembered: Sean had said he’d be at the rink that morning.We had a semi-date set up.I had to get down there!I threw back the comforter, swung my legs over the edge of the bed, stood up, and found my slippers and my fleece sweatshirt as quickly as I could.The house was so cold in the morning that you had to be prepared.Besides, you never knew when you were going to end up in the driveway in your pajamas.Ahem.I went downstairs, opened the door and grabbed the morning newspaper from the top step.I shook it open to the weather section, where it said today would be a high of ten degrees.Not the best weather to take a toddler skating.But Brett was tough.Besides, I’d put so many layers on him that he’d be unable to move, but he’d be warm enough.When I told Gretchen that we were going down to the lake, she looked up from reading the morning newspaper.“The UV Index today is zero point three.That’s the risk of getting a sunburn or skin damage.Why do they even bother reporting that? Anything under five is completely useless.Anyway, I don’t know about the skating.I thought you could spend the morning cleaning.”“Uh…I could?” Quick.Think of something, I told myself.“Well, unless you have another idea,” Gretchen said.If I told her I was going down there to see Sean, she might even be supportive.But I didn’t want her knowing that I liked him, for some reason.She’d only tease me and tell me I didn’t have the right outfit on or something.“Actually, the thing is, Gretch, I’ve signed Brett up for skating lessons.Well, hockey lessons.And the class starts this morning.” I looked up at the clock.“At ten.” That should give me enough time to get Brett ready to go, and to make myself look decent in however many layers it would take for me not to get frostbite.Also, I didn’t want to seem too eager by showing up at 9:01.We didn’t actually have to skate long.We just had to see Sean and I had to talk to him and make him fall in love with me, or at least crush on me enough to go away with me for a weekend.That could happen in the warm rec building as well as on the ice.In fact I’d prefer going inside.It could take him a few minutes to get from barely knowing me to loving me
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