Find Me in Philadelphia //nolan patrick

34. Scratches In My Skin

Once Nolan and I start our second lap around the crowded ice, I see Travis across the way but Hanna is no longer in his arms. "Where's Han?" I ask aloud, craning my neck to find her.

As Travis skates by, Nolan grabs his arm. "Dude where's Hanna?"

"Ivan stole her from me," he says while laughing. Sure enough, Ivan and her are slowly skating backwards on the other side of the ice.

And he's not the only one who takes an interest in teaching Hanna how to skate. She loves all the attention, but eventually she makes her way back to Nolan and me.

"Hey Hanny, you having fun?" I ask.

She nods and shows us how she can skate backwards now. I high five her and she shows off her baby toothed smile. "Nolan can you go really fast? I wanna see."

He raises his eyebrows at the small girl and then picks her up quickly, making her giggle. "How bout you come with me while I go really fast?"

She giggles, obviously agreeing. "You better hold on tight, Han," I tell her. Nolan winks at me and Hanna clutches his neck as he takes off.

I laugh as I watch him weave through everyone with Hanna held against his chest. Her hair is flying and she's laughing like crazy. When they get back to where I'm standing, he stops real quick, getting ice shaving all over my jeans.

Hanna is still laughing and holding onto Nolan's neck. "Was that fast enough?" He says to her. She nods furiously.

Over the next hour or so on the ice, the rest of the players and girlfriends play around with Hanna and all the young kids. They get a game of Simon Says going at some point, but Hanna gets out pretty quickly. She didn't really understand the concept so much.

After ice time is over, the party continues with a visit from Santa to all the kids and they each get a turn.

"Your sister is adorable," Gina says to me as we watch the kids each take a turn on Santa's lap. "She's having such a great time today," I say, watching her laugh with Dale and Lauren Weise's son Hunter.

"She's out," Nolan says quietly after coming back into the living room. He just carried Hanna into the guest room. She had been sleeping on this couch for about an hour.

I wrap an arm around his shoulders as he sits next to me. "She had a fun day," I explain. "So did I."

He looks down at me, a soft smile on his lips. "Me too."

I return the smile and rub his chest with my free hand. Today was a great day, with the team and with Hanna. I'm so happy that the two get along so well.

The way he acts around the little girl is so sexy to me, I couldn't help but grow hot at every wink he sent my way today. I bite my lip as I look up at his soft eyes and softer smile. Such a beautiful face- one that's tired but not exhausted, innocent but not clueless.