Page 113 of My Last Dance

“What? What’s wrong?” I asked, alarmed now.

“I’ll help!” Lucy hollered as she jumped down the last three steps. Her brown hair was tied up in little buns and she still wore her tights and dress from skating practice earlier in the day.

Kappy gave her a cheeky smile. “You don’t need to. I was using it as an expression, Lu. I’m feeling great! Promise!”

Lucy frowned while studying his face. She reached to touch his forehead and gave him a grave look. “You need medical intervention, Richard.” She gave him a firm nod. “Wait here,” she said before speeding off to the kitchen.

Mer rolled her lips together to keep from laughing. “She’s playing doctor. She needs to go mix up some medicine for him,” she explained to me.

“Medicine? More like anything she sees in the fridge,” Kappy complained. “I can’t do this anymore.” He shook his head and carefully removed my legs from his lap. “I’m sorry, babe, but I need to go hide.” He pointed a finger at Colt. “And you need to tell Lu that—”

Colt shoved him back on the couch. “If you crush my daughter’s medical school aspirations, I will crush you.”

“I will, too,” JP said with a shit-eating grin on his face.

A minute later, Lucy carefully walked into the living room holding a full mug.

One whiff from the mug had me almost gagging.

“Drink it, Richard,” Lucy ordered.

“But I don’t need it!” he said, trying to placate her with a smile.

“Drink it! You need to feel better to skate!” she ordered with wide chocolate brown eyes.

He looked to me for help.

I struggled to keep a straight face. “Yeah, we need you in top shape to skate.”

“What?” he strangled out. The pure desperation on his face made me giggle.

“C’mon, Richard.” Lucy tapped her foot impatiently.

Reaching for the mug, he took a very small sip of the drink, almost gagged, but managed to swallow it down.

“Good boy, Richard Charles Kappers!” Lucy said with a bright smile before scampering back to the kitchen.

Colt cracked up laughing. “Yeah, good boy, Richard.”

“You guys are mean,” Kappy grumbled, wiping his mouth on his shirt and grabbing his water bottle.

“So, are you two fully dating now? Or just having fun?” JP asked.

Kappy continued guzzling from his water bottle. Unsure of what to say, I felt like shrinking on the spot. We hadn’t really talked about it or defined anything, so I had no clue how to answer that question.

Kappy’s eyes locked on mine. “I’ve only ever planned to be with one girl,” he said, squeezing my thigh. His words and earnest eyes were like a warm blanket, settling the unease in my chest.

“Didn’t you date that Brandi girl?” Colt asked, making Mer smack him upside the head.

“No,” Kappy snapped. “And besides, we were on a break.”

“Ehhh,” I said, making him look alarmed, but then I laughed and patted his cheek.

He stole my hand in his and repeated, “We were on a break,” before kissing me fiercely.

My hand went to his neck, and I giggled against his lips. Part of me wanted to pry and define, but I shoved those feelings down. We needed our gold medal first. We had all the time in the world after the Olympics for our relationship.

After.

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