Page 39 of Hearts on Ice
Once in the gym, she dragged mats to the floor as a cushion, and he wondered where she got her energy, because he could barely put one foot in front of the other. Then she motioned for him to stand in the center. He used the same stance he would on the ice, feet shoulder-width apart. He regretted the lack of momentum that he could use on the ice to help him lift her over his head, so he bent his knees to accommodate, knowing his form was terrible. But his movements weren’t important. Hers were, and he needed to give her the best foundation he could.
He caught her high on her ribs, beneath her armpit, and at the curve of her hip, and he may have grunted a little too loud as he strained to get her up over his head, his arms straight.
“Keep your body perpendicular to his,” she told Lexi from over his head. “Then he’ll rotate four counts and you’ll kick your top leg up while he helps you, kind of flipping you into a cartwheel.”
As she spoke, Declan pushed up with his right arm and lowered his left, and she completed the flip, landing on her right foot and reaching her right hand out to him.
“Then you’ll skate backwards away from him for a bit, until he catches your hand.”
Without thinking, Declan caught her hand and drew her against him, even though that wasn’t the next step for Josh and Lexi’s routine. Both Josh and Lexi noticed, however, and Declan released Colby with a stroke of his hand down the small of her back.
“Now you try it,” Colby said, stepping away and folding her arms in front of herself, her face betraying no reaction to his caress. “I want you to feel confident in the move before you try it on the ice, but just know you will fall on your ass more than once.”
Declan stepped back, mimicking her by crossing his own arms and leaning against the wall, watching her.
Man, she was something. A force of nature. And she was a pretty good coach, too. Maybe she hadn’t seen herself doing this seven years ago, bringing up the next generation of skaters, but she was good at it.
They made a good team. Probably because they’d been a team since they were eleven and they knew how to read each other. Knew how to visualize what each other was talking about, spoke the same language.
Most of the time.
She hadn’t agreed to come back to his place tonight—well, hadn’t agreed to bring her stuff to his place tonight. He was going to give her time to get used to the idea. He was pretty sure she’d see it was a good one.
Or so he hoped.
He called a halt to practice when he could see the exhaustion in Josh’s shoulders. Lexi still needed work on the move, but Josh was losing strength the longer they rehearsed.
Besides, Declan was starving. They’d grabbed sandwiches from the snack bar when they’d returned to the rink, but they didn’t hold up to hours of practice after hours of sex.
He wondered where Colby would like to go tonight. Making decisions with someone else was nice for a change.
Was he setting himself up for heartache here? Colby had certainly been enthusiastic in bed, but not so enthusiastic about staying at his place. He could tell himself to keep it casual, but he didn’t know if he could actually live up to that.
When they walked out of the gym, Julia was waiting for him, holding a ratty spiral.
“Hey, I need to talk to y’all a minute.” She gestured to the spiral.
“What’s going on?” Declan asked.
“Ever since the news broke that she’s in town, the phones have been ringing with skaters who want the two of you to coach them.” She held up the spiral with a list of names and numbers scrawled on it. “Two out of every three phone calls is about this. I told them Declan isn’t taking more students right now, but these were the ones who were the most persistent.”
“I’m not, but maybe…” He looked over at Colby, who was leaning forward just a bit to look at the list. “Colby’s doing choreography, not coaching. But I was just thinking you’d be a good coach,” he added.
She pressed her lips together. “I don’t know. That’s a bigger commitment than choreographing routines, and I’m not even sure I’m all that good at choreography, at this point.”
“We could look at some of these, see if you think they show promise,” he said, his mind already pushing ahead to the idea that if she was coaching, she would stick around. But he knew better than anyone, he couldn’t force her to do something she didn’t want to do.
“We could,” she said slowly, drawing the word out. “Can I think about it?”
His stomach dipped a bit at that. She wasn’t sure she wanted to stay, and he got that. But this was good, steady, honest work.
And she’d be with him.
“Well, maybe, if you don’t want to do this,” Julia said with a bit of a bite in her voice, “You could put out the word on social media that you’re not looking to take on additional clients at this time? You know, so my day isn’t spent answering the phone? Or else maybe hire another person to do that?”
“We can put out the word,” Declan said, hoping his tone was soothing enough. He didn’t want to agitate Julia and have her quit on him, when he was finally spending time away from the rink for the first time in a long time. But maybe he did need to expand Ronald, his weekend manager’s hours, to help out anyway. Declan was opening, Julia was closing, but their time overlapped, so she was putting in a lot of hours. He didn’t want her to go down the same path he had.
“Thank you, I’d appreciate it.” Julia folded the spiral closed and tucked it under her arm. “Are you heading out?”
