Page 20 of Hearts on Ice
He was silent for a moment. “Can we? In my experience, no. Do you understand how I had to swallow my pride to go to my brother and ask for his help with this? I didn’t want anyone to know you were back, but I had to make sure you won’t bail on Lexi and Josh like you bailed on me.”
She had full responsibility for the end of their marriage, but hearing him say the words felt like an ice pick stabbing through the wall she had built around the past. “It’s hardly the same thing.”
“No, you have that right.” Anger tinged his voice now. “I was your husband, not a client. I’m not talking to you about this, Colby. Let your lawyer talk to Evan. We’re not talking about anything but Josh and Lexi, got it?” And he disconnected.
Damn. She blew out a long breath and set her phone down on the end table. She’d thought she’d been making inroads with him, skating with him earlier, challenging him to lift her. But he was more determined than ever to hold her at a distance. And rightly so. She would never be able to undo the damage she’d caused.
Declan stoodon the edge of the stadium rink, working on not showing his nerves as he waited for his turn—for their turn to enter the ice. But Colby hadn’t shown up yet. He knew she got nervous even after all these years of competing, but he didn’t remember her ever cutting it this close to getting to the ice. The couple ahead of them, Susan and Alonzo, were almost done with their routine. He pulled at the front of his shirt, warm despite the frigid air close to the ice.
Colby hadn’t been super excited about joining the skating exhibition after the Winter Games, but they’d agreed to do this, planning to invest the salary they’d receive into their future, a training facility of their own. Their dream was to turn their fame and popularity into something they could retire on. That meant a couple months of touring every year for about five years, then they’d have what they needed.
So where was Colby?
She’d been in a mood this morning, one of the restless moods he’d learned to ignore. She’d complained about everything from the view from the hotel room to the heat of the shower. He’d kind of tired of smoothing her feathers when she acted like a prima donna. He didn’t know of anything he could say to change her mind. Nothing he hadn’t said before, anyway.
Susan and Alonzo’s song was over, and the two skated toward him to exit the ice. Declan looked back toward the tunnel leading to the dressing rooms, but no Colby.
He heard their names over the speaker, and the producer’s assistant, Debbie, walked over with her clipboard.
“Where’s Colby?”
“I haven’t seen her since we got to the rink,” he said. He didn’t have his phone with him, didn’t like bringing it out here and leaving it unattended, so he left it in his locker.
The announcer said their names again. “Gold medal champions, Declan and Colby O’Hare!”
The crowd cheered again and began chanting her name. “Col-BY. Col-BY. Col-BY.” Her adoring fans.
Declan leaned close to Debbie’s ear. “Put Sonny and Scott on. I’ll go see where she is.”
Debbie frowned. “We already checked the dressing room. She’s not in there.”
His brain raced to find some reason she wasn’t here, or in the locker room. “Maybe she left me a message on my phone,” he said, panic rising, drowning out all other thought. She knew he didn’t bring his phone out, so why would she have done that?
Without waiting for a response from Debbie, he trotted down the tunnel, hoping every step of the way that he’d encounter her, running breathless to meet him at the rink.
Though he already knew that wasn’t going to happen.
By the time he unlocked his locker, he’d resigned himself to the idea there wouldn’t be a message.
Well, he was wrong. Two words.
I’m sorry.
Declan shookhimself away from the dream he wouldn’t have had if Colby hadn’t called him last night when he was half-asleep, if she hadn’t tried to charm him out of the contract. But he’d been burned by her before, and he wasn’t going to let her hurt his students and their families. So yeah, the contract stayed. If he’d put more items in the contract to protect himself, well, she needed to understand why. He’d had to work doubly hard to earn the money for his training facility after Colby abandoned the tour, and in order not to get sued himself for her breach of contract, he’d had to divorce her quickly, before his heart had even processed the idea that she’d abandoned him and his dreams as much as the tour.
So yeah, he was feeling pretty raw. He really wasn’t looking forward to seeing her this morning.
But she was there at the door of the rink, waiting for his arrival. She didn’t look so great herself, dark circles under her eyes showing she hadn’t slept much, and he didn’t like the kick of satisfaction that gave him.
“Good morning,” he said brusquely as he unlocked the door and went about his morning routine, turning all the lights on.
“I’m going out on the ice,” she said.
He grunted in response. If he was smart, he’d go into the office or into the gym where he wouldn’t be tempted to watch her.
But when it came to Colby, he wasn’t very smart.
He could hear the tinny sound of music from her phone through the door as she skated onto the ice. He wondered why she hadn’t asked him to put it on the PA. How could she even hear it over the sounds of her skates? Seemed like it would be easier just to wear earbuds.
