Page 78 of My Last Dance

“Just think about it,” he pleaded.

Swallowing hard, I stared up at him. He really was the perfect height for a partner, and I knew from personal experience that he was a good dancer. From our college days, I knew he had great edge control, so he had the ability to master footwork. And he was a great teammate, there’s no way he’d ever let me hit the ice.

But no.

Nope.

I shook my head out.

This was crazy, there’s no way he was serious. I scanned the arena around us. “Should I be looking for hidden cameras?”

“No.” His shoulders shook with a laugh. “I took us here for privacy.” His brown eyes were serious when he said, “Give me one practice, then decide.”

“Ice dance isnoteasy,” I repeated, leveling him with a glare.

His nose flared with a breath. “One. Practice.”

I’m not sure what compelled me to agree, but I heard myself saying, “Fine.One. But—”

“Let’s gooo!” he shouted, his voice echoing in the empty arena. He looked way too happy about this.

“It’ll be pointless anyway,” I finished, trying to bring him back down to reality. “No coach will take us. No one wantsmeright now, and they surely won’t wantyou,” I warned him.

A wry chuckle popped out of him. “What a pair we make, eh? Let me worry about the rest.” He grabbed my hand and tugged me toward the exit, but I still pulled back a little.

“If I find out this was all a joke, I’ll kill you. You know that, right?”

A full dimpled smile spread on his face, making my heart stutter in my chest. “I’m not scared of you, Viper,” he said with a wink.

But maybe I’m scared of you,my heart whispered.

15. BACK IN CHICAGO

I tossed and turned all night, running through all the different scenarios of how I could possibly get to the Olympics next year.

Each time I played out a mental montage of pairing up with Richard, it ended in disaster.

There’s no way we could pull this off. We’d end up a laughingstock of the rink. Actually, we’d end up being the butt of the joke for all of US Figure Skating.

Around 3 a.m., I wrote out a text cancelling the practice with him, but for some reason, I couldn’t bring myself to hit send.

Tossing my phone aside, I paced my apartment and stared out at the lit-up skyscrapers with Lake Michigan resting in the back. In the two months I was away from Chicago, something changed in Richard. It was subtle, but it was there. He seemed…calmer, more sure of himself.

And talking with him at night, just the two of us, brought back all the memories that I tried to block out.

We ended in heartbreak, for both of us, I realized. But he was the same Richard that used to wait for me, quarters in hand, to dance with me after practice. Was that for him? For me? For the both of us? I had no clue. But picturing the way his eyes danced with happiness and the way he grinned at me like I was the only personthat mattered sent a shiver skating through me.

Shit.

There’s no way we could skate together just for that reason alone. I never thought anything of Patrick touching me, almost kissing me, caressing me. It was all business.

But with Richard?

There was attraction.

There was chemistry.

And there werefeelings.

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