Page 53 of Hearts on Ice
When she pulled back to break the kiss, she kept her eyes closed for a minute. When she opened them, he saw something in her eyes that asked him to just go along with the plan.
Frustration building up in him, he turned and unlocked the rink, holding the door to let her inside ahead of him. Before the door closed, she turned and waved to the reporters.
And yes, her ploy seemed to work, because they were leaving the front of the rink, with the picture they wanted.
But he felt dirty.
CHAPTER 21
Declan was really quiet as he walked about the rink turning on the lights. Colby was beginning to wonder if her method was the right one. Sure, the reporters were leaving, making way for Josh and Lexi and the other students, but she had felt Declan’s resistance to play the part she’d asked of him. She felt his—well, his disappointment in her.
She didn’t want to revisit that. His disillusionment with her had been the end of their relationship seven years ago. She’d said to herself that they’d wanted different things, but the truth was, he hadn’t looked at her the same way anymore. She hadn’t liked the way he’d looked at her as if she had become a stranger to him. She hadn’t liked the way she felt judged for her behavior, for her choices.
They hadn’t even been back together a week, and she was feeling that same judgement.
She wasn’t going to ignore it like she’d done then. She planted herself in front of the gym door as he was walking out.
“What?” he asked, his tone a touch impatient.
“What is wrong?”
“You mean other than me getting a late start here because we had to put on a show out there for strangers?”
“We’ve always put on a show for strangers.”
He dragged both hands down his face. “You know what I mean. We don’t owe people anything anymore. Not an interview, not a photo opportunity. Why do you still treat them like we do?”
“I thought we were trying to get them to leave.”
“Well, of course I don’t want them hanging around, but I’m saying you’re putting on a show for them like you owe them something. They damn near ruined our lives, Colby.”
She frowned. “Theydid?”
He lifted both hands and looked toward the rink. “Okay, we did, but they didn’t help, reporting on us every time we went out, until I was running away from them and you were running toward them.” He sagged back against the door frame. “It just kind of feels like all of that again, you know?”
But before she could figure out how to respond to that, the door opened and Mrs. Santos and Mrs. Fletcher walked in.
Without the kids.
Colby’s heart sank. Behind her, Declan straightened.
“We wanted to talk to you without the kids,” Mrs. Santos said. “We called and tried to set up something for yesterday but you didn’t answer your phone. So we decided to come today.”
Declan didn’t make an excuse for not answering his phone. “What have you decided?”
“We don’t want our kids exposed to all this,” Mrs. Fletcher said, gesturing behind her to the few reporters who were hanging around. “We don’t want them in the papers or on television. They are too young to be linked with all of this.”
Declan’s shoulders slumped, just for an instant before he squared them. “I can completely understand that,” he said. “I’m planning to hire more security to keep them away from the rink. Colby seems convinced that we’ve given them something to write about and they’ll back off.”
“Do you really think that will work?” Mrs. Fletcher turned to Colby.
Colby lifted her hand. “I’m not sure but we are willing to do whatever we can to keep the kids safe. We don’t want this for them, either. We would like to see them succeed, you know we want that for them. We are very sorry this has all blown up, but you knew who we were when you hired us.”
Declan pivoted tower her, his mouth agape at her words. She held his gaze, daring him to contradict her.
Mrs. Fletcher looked taken aback, but Mrs. Santos nodded.
“We did know,” she said to Mrs. Fletcher. “That was one of the reasons we chose her, was because they’d worked together before. We can’t blame them because we forced them back together. What did we think was going to happen?”
