Gideon almost felt a little jealous of Miss Robins for a moment, when she reached over and mussed Billie's hair and Billie laughed and took it in stride. He loved his daughter, and he often had the impulse to do little things like that, but he didn't often follow through; not when physical touch was involved, anyway. Partly it was because of appearances. Billie was, at least as far as the world was concerned, only a girl he'd taken in to live in the bottom of his shop and sweep the floors on occasion, so any overt affection would have seemed out of place (and possibly even a little insidious — him a man living alone and her recently revealed to be a girl after all). Partly it was because of Billie — with her history, she had never seemed particularly encouraging of physical affection. Miss Robins made it look so easy, though. She did it like it was nothing, and Billie reacted as though nothing could have been more natural.

He was pulled from his thoughts when Billie gave him a significant look, and he realized Miss Robins was putting herself in a precarious position by trying to lean over like that when she was barely steady on her skates to begin with. "Oh, here, let me —" he said quickly, trying to reach down and retrieve her hat, but succeeding only in getting his head directly in the way of hers as she righted herself again. The sudden unexpected contact set him off balance, and now it was his turn to have his skates slip out from under him as he landed hard on the ice.