Page 59 of Hearts on Ice
When the kids left to go to school, he dropped to a seat next to Colby. “Let’s go get breakfast. A big breakfast. And coffee.”
“I really want to work on this,” she said, not looking up at him.
“Aren’t you hungry?”
“Sure, but I’ll just get something here.” She motioned with her pencil toward the snack bar.
He grunted and pushed to his feet. He supposed he would do the same. If he was stuck here.
“Come on, I want to try out this sequence.”
She was on her feet when he returned with two coffees and two breakfast sandwiches. He may have eaten another while waiting for Sandra to make the coffee.
“Nah, Colby, let’s eat something. Take a little break.”
“I need to know if this works or if I have to figure something else out.”
“You can do that after we eat. Come on, now. I’m hungry.”
She gave him a look he couldn’t read, put down her pencil and reached for her sandwich. She unwrapped it and took a big bite, holding his gaze as she did so. He unwrapped his a little more slowly, took a bite, then a long sip of coffee. He wasn’t going to be rushed.
“What part did you need work on?”
“I was just wanting to make sure we could go from this throw to the camel.” She turned the map so he could look at it.
He traced her work with his fingertip, snatched it back when he left a smudge of grease on the page. “You forget these kids are half our age. I am pretty sure I can’t do that throw anymore.”
She blinked, as if she hadn’t considered that. “Ah. Okay. I mean, I’m pretty sure that other choreographers don’t have someone to work out all the moves with.”
He hated to mention that he wasn’t as strong as he used to be. He preferred to think he was just out of practice. He probably could do the throw, sure, if he had more practice.
“I mean, I could throw you. You know, in a few days. After some conditioning.”
She looked up at him through her lashes. “Oh. I know you could.”
Great. Now she was placating him. “I could.”
“No, you’re right, we’re out of practice, and not as young as we used to be.”
“Okay, now you’re making us sound decrepit.”
“Well, I mean, we’re still in good shape, and we have most of the moves, but these are competition moves, and we’re certainly out of practice on those, and I don’t think we could get them back, no matter if the reporters are asking me if we’re going to compete again.”
“Part of you wants to, though, don’t you?”
She gave him her full attention then. “I’d like to think we could still compete, if we’d been conditioning. Torvill and Dean in Lillehammer were older than we are now.”
“They didn’t take a seven year break.” The look in her eyes was making him nervous. “We are not competing, Colby.”
“No, no. Of course not.”
“Colby.” He dragged her name out.
She shook her head, as if to get the idea out of her head. “No. No, I’m not thinking that at all.”
“You were though.”
“Only because you brought it up.” She leaned on her pattern. “It has been fun, though, hasn’t it? Skating together again?”
