Page 14 of Hearts on Ice
Colby looked down, and Meghan drew in a breath. “You approached them?”
Colby looked up. “I made it be known I was accepting students. I knew Declan was coaching, and I knew this was his rink.”
“So you’re back here to torture him.”
Colby dropped her shoulders, trying not to sigh. “I’m not.”
“But you’re back here because of him.”
“I’m back here because this is the best chance for my new business.”
Meghan grunted. “You could have gone anywhere. Park City, Sun Valley. But you came back to where you knew Declan was.”
“This used to be my home, too,” Colby pointed out. “My family moved here when I was eight.”
“Oh.” Meghan drew back a bit at that.
Colby did not clarify that they did not live here any longer, and that they didn’t have much to do with her anymore, anyway.
Nicole returned with the bag and held it out to her mother, who stuffed the soiled suit inside. Colby wanted to remind her not to forget it, because what would be worse than a puked-on suit? A puked-on-and-mildewed suit. And she didn’t have the money to replace it, yet.
“I’ll get it back to you as soon as possible,” Meghan said, and ushered her daughter out of the locker room.
Colby turned to the mirror and wiped at the smudged makeup under her eyes until she was as presentable as she could make herself, before she, too, left the locker room.
She thought more people would be waiting in the lobby for her to appear, but she only received a few glances, and her gaze locked on Declan, who was holding the door to the exit for his sister-in-law and her kids. He turned back and looked right at her, as if he’d known she was there.
Meghan turned, too, and touched her son on his shoulder. “Tristan, you have something to say to Colby?”
The little boy, who still looked a little pale, to be honest, and whose hair was slicked down from his shower and whose sweatsuit matched hers, turned to look up at her.
“I’m sorry.”
She wanted to just accept his apology and go on, but something in his sad little eyes made her crouch down before him. “It was my fault. I shouldn’t have spun you so fast. It takes getting used to and I had forgotten about that. So I am sorry, Tristan.” She held out her hand to the little boy, who only looked a little less sad as he shook her hand, then followed his mother out the door.
She straightened and turned to see Declan watching her, assessing. She squared her shoulders, not wanting him to think she was trying to get back in his good graces. He read her body language and gave a short nod, then motioned to the rink.
“Are you ready to get to work? We owe Josh and Lexi some time.”
Surprised that was all he had to say, she followed him, retrieving the skates she’d left at the entrance to the rink.
“Thank you for the suit,”she said. “It’s very warm.”
He glanced over. She looked like a kid in the oversized fleece sweats, her hair scraped back and tied, her face clean of the makeup she usually wore. For some reason seeing her without the eyeliner and mascara made her eyes look bigger.
Or maybe she was just feeling kind of humble right now. She’d certainly seemed that way when she apologized to Tristan, a move that had surprised both him and Meghan.
“You have something for us to work on, right?” he asked, skating toward Josh and Lexi.
“I think I have the song, and I have the crescendo.”
“What song?” Lexi asked.
“Well, I listened to a lot of music this weekend,” Colby said. “I didn’t want anything too modern, something that would sound dated in another year or so. And I didn’t want anything that’s been so overdone.” She named a song that had been popular in the early part of the century.
Declan looked at both kids’ faces and saw a bit of a grimace on Josh’s.
“Why did you pick that one?” Declan asked.
