Page 32 of Hearts on Ice
“We were,” he muttered in agreement.
“We had great chemistry.” Now why had she said that?
His gaze shot to hers, and his brows pulled together. “We don’t any more.”
Liar.She almost said the word aloud, but she was pretty sure he knew.
“I hired security for the rink, in case those photographers come back,” he said, folding the menu closed and setting it aside. “He’ll start Friday.”
“Maybe they won’t come back. We really didn’t give them any reason to come back, nothing to see.”
“Except they know you’re in town now.”
She tapped her fingertips on the table. She was pretty sure the appeal wasn’t about her, but about them. People would be more interested in the two of them getting back together than in her whereabouts on her own.
They had been a big deal. They’d been guest judges on a music show, and even a question on Jeopardy! They’d been on so many magazine covers. America’s sweethearts. So while the reporters might not come back for her, they might come back for them.
“So I guess I don’t really understand why you came back here if you’re short of money. Seems like you could have made more money in California, or you know, something.”
“I needed to find a place to stay,” she said quietly, hating to admit even that much. Bad enough she’d had to swallow her pride to ask her mom, who had directed her to Archie for help. God, that had been miserable.
Almost as miserable as this conversation.
“Was that why you were on those shows? To make more money?”
“In part. The dance show is really popular.”
“Right. The limelight.” He practically spat the word.
“You always said that like it was a bad word.”
He met her gaze. “I never understood your need for it.”
She hadn’t wanted to answer him when he’d made that demand years ago, hadn’t wanted to reveal any weakness about herself, so she just let him be mad and kept doing what she was doing.
“Can’t you sell some of your stuff to make some money?”
“I didn’t buy stuff, exactly. Some of it I did, but mostly it was experiences. Travel. That kind of thing.” And she’d have those memories of a life she’d thought she’d wanted, even while she was drowning in debt.
He nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe that’s better. Though I would have thought you’d traveled enough when we were competing.”
“Sure, but it’s not the same when you travel for pleasure.”
“Of course.”
“Have you done any traveling?”
“Just to see my parents. I’m just as happy to sleep in my own bed every night.”
She angled her head and smiled at him. “How did we ever wind up married? We have nothing in common.”
“We did,” he pointed out. “Skating and competing.”
“We had more than that.”
“We grew up together, and after we won the gold, we didn’t have anything to work toward anymore. We ended up wanting different things. The bad thing was, it took too long for us to realize that, and we ended up hurting each other.”
“I’m sorry I hurt you,” she said, reaching across the table, stopping just short of touching him, though everything in her wanted to. “I know I got pretty crazy there, and I let everything go to my head. The thing was, when you weren’t there beside me anymore, I didn’t know how to stop being crazy, if that makes sense. I didn’t have you there to ground me, so I made—I made a lot of mistakes.” Many she couldn’t walk back. The biggest one had been leaving him. But she wouldn’t say that out loud. She had too much pride.
