Page 52 of Hearts on Ice
“I’m sorry,” she said, as he turned the truck onto the street where the rink was. Already he could see the lights set up by reporters as they waited in the parking lot.
Perhaps he needed to pay his security guard a little more. Or hire another one, just for a few days, until this blew over.
“You ready?” he asked after he parked the truck. He looked over to see her holding her coffee cup in both hands, looking at the cluster of reporters.
“I think we should talk to them.”
“We tried that before. They didn’t go away.”
“That was me talking to them. Maybe if we both do it, they’ll be satisfied and leave so your skaters can come and go without having to endure all this.”
He blew out a breath of frustration. “What are we going to say? We should have come up with this plan earlier this weekend and figured it out.”
“You didn’t want to talk about it.”
“I thought you didn’t want to talk about it,” he countered, though he was pretty sure she was more accurate. He hadn’t wanted to talk about it, had wanted to stay in their little cocoon.
“Just follow my lead,” she said, opening the passenger door.
“That hasn’t always worked out well for us,” he reminded her as they met at the front of the truck. He took her hand and raised it to his lips. “But let’s try.”
A lot of time had passed since the last time he’d felt every eye on him. He squared his shoulders and approached the reporters, letting Colby take the lead as she often had. Sometimes the strategy had worked, and sometimes it had only enflamed things.
He didn’t think she was the type to enflame things anymore.
“Listen, guys, I know you want a story.” Her voice was bright, her hands on her hips, but she had a studied furrow between her eyebrows. “But this is Declan’s place of business and we don’t want you intimidating his students and the people who come here to skate.”
“So the two of you are back together again?” came the question.
“We have been very back together this weekend,” she said, her tone coy.
“Do you think you’ll remarry? What about skate together again? Professionally?”
“I don’t know about skating together,” Declan said. “We’re still pretty good, but those lifts…I’m still feeling them.”
“I don’t think that’s what you’re feeling,” Colby said, smiling up at him.
But her smile wasn’t real. It was her camera smile, and its presence made him uneasy. He didn’t care to talk about their intimate weekend with these strangers, with the world. He wanted to keep what happened between them, well, between them. They deserved that after sharing so much with the world when they were younger.
He started toward the door, still holding her hand, but she stayed in place. He watched her, smiling at the cameras, basking in the attention. He hoped she was right, that talking to the reporters would give them their story and they’d be on their way, but he couldn’t help how dirty he felt.
“Colby. We’ve got to open up,” he reminded her, pulling lightly on her hand.
“Just a minute,” she said, and smiled at the reporters. “Declan has always been all-business, hasn’t he?”
No. He was not going to take that. He was not going to go back into that dynamic. He dropped her hand.
“I need to go.”
“Can we come in, watch you skate?”
“I have students coming shortly,” Declan said, turning toward the door.
“How about a kiss, then?”
He hated the idea, but if it meant they’d leave his rink…
Colby was clearly on board. She turned to him, threaded her fingers through his hair, her lips parted. She was a different woman, not the woman he’d made love to all weekend. He almost felt cheap as he bent his head to meet her kiss, more focused on the picture they presented than the kiss itself.
