Page 11 of Hearts on Ice
He looked at his sister-in-law, knowing she was trying to be supportive, but her questions seemed a little intrusive. Especially since he didn’t really talk about it. Or think about it.
“It was kind of a shock. I mean.” No “kind of” about it. “I hadn’t seen her since she left seven years ago.” He’d avoided any press that mentioned her, avoided any magazines with her photo on it, had walked out of a movie she’d had a cameo in, even though he’d been looking forward to that movie.
“But she, like, she didn’t care that she was just walking back into your life?” Meghan asked. “She had to know how you felt.”
“I guess she did, but I can’t say for sure she did. You know how she was. She didn’t pay attention to her effect on anyone else.”
And yet he had loved her. God, he had loved her. He took another, deeper swallow of his wine.
Meghan leaned forward and touched his hand. “Are you going to be okay?”
“I will be fine. I’m in great shape. I have the rink, my students are doing well, I have everything I wanted.”
Except Colby. Why had he never stopped wanting Colby?
CHAPTER5
He hadn’t been looking forward to going to the rink the next day, thinking Colby would be back and ready with the routine by then, but Meghan texted him after he got home and told him she was going to bring the kids for their first skating lessons after school, and, yeah, he was really looking forward to that. He’d wanted to teach them to skate for a while, but Evan’s reluctance that they’d be automatically pushed into a high pressure situation was understandable.
He was pretty sure, though, that Meghan just wanted to get a look at Colby.
He was surprised, and somewhat relieved that Colby didn’t show up for Josh and Lexi’s morning practice, though he preferred she show up for that one, since they pretty much had the rink to themselves. A lot more people were on the ice in the afternoon, and this afternoon that would include Meghan, who hated Colby.
Since Colby didn’t show up with the routine, Declan worked on jumps with his students. He was considering asking Josh’s mom to look into hiring a jump coach, just to get that triple toe loop landed on a consistent level. But until he had a routine, he was going to drill the young man on it himself. Josh just couldn’t get the rotation right so that he landed skating backwards, and that was an important element in pairs.
Declan was actually able to relax after Josh and Lexi left for school. He got his workout in, maybe a little longer than usual to work off the tension that gathered in his shoulders as he anticipated Colby’s arrival. Then he got his paperwork done, and by the time Meghan turned up with Nicole and Tristan, he felt more like himself than he had since Colby rode back into town.
He greeted the kids with hugs, just as the lobby was starting to fill up with students, and their parents who waited for lessons to be done. Declan took his niece and nephew to the skate counter and fitted them for skates. He lifted each onto the counter and removed their shoes to check their size and motioned for Delia, his counter helper, to pull the skates.
“Now these blades are sharp, so I don’t want you touching them. They have guards on them to protect the blades and the floor as we go from here to the ice.” He tightened the skates on Nicole first, then Tristan, because he was pretty sure that if he told Tristan not to do something, he’d turn around and do it when Declan wasn’t looking. “Next time I will show you how to lace up your own skates, but today I want to make sure they fit right and give you a lot of support.”
He lowered each of them to the carpeted lobby and watched them wobble on the narrow blades. He hadn’t taught brand new skaters in eons, and he had to remind himself to pace himself.
They tottered down to the ice, holding up the flow of some of the traffic on the stairs, and Declan crouched to removed the blade guards before holding their hands and taking them out to the ice.
“Okay, the first thing we’re doing is to learn how to fall.”
“Uncle Declan,” Nicole laughed. “I already know how to do that.”
“No, I mean, you are going to fall. No question. But you don’t want to fall back on your butt. You can break your wrist that way, trying to catch yourself. Ask me how I know.”
“How do you know?” Tristan asked dutifully.
“I broke both my wrists when I started skating.”
“At the same time?” Nicole asked, her eyes wide.
Declan nodded. “So when you fall, you’re going to fall sideways.” He demonstrated, and watched while they mimicked him. He was envious of their lower center of gravity and younger bones as they practiced again and again. He was glad he only had to demonstrate the once, and they took over from there.
“Okay, do you think you’re ready for the next step?” He glanced at the clock above the door leading to the lobby. He had a little more than half an hour until Josh and Lexi arrived.
He moved his niece and nephew closer to the wall and showed them how to march in their skates. Tristan was a little more enthusiastic, sending bits of ice flying up with each step, but Nicole was the first to be brave enough to release the wall, holding her arms out to her sides to keep her balance.
“Make sure you bend your knees just a little,” Declan said, skating backwards and urging her to move toward him.
“This isn’t what it looks like when you skate,” she said.
“No, but this is how I learned.” He moved on through the steps, teaching them how to stop and eager to teach them more, but time was growing short, and he didn’t want to overwhelm them. But he wanted them to be excited about coming back, so he thought he probably needed to go out on a high note. “We’re going to skip ahead, just for right now.” He took both Nicole’s hands in his. “You’re going to practice stroking, and I’m going to pull you around, okay? Like I showed you. I won’t let you fall.”
