Page 67 of Hearts on Ice
“Why are you nervous? They think you can do no wrong. Everything will be fine,” she said as they went into their new routine of opening the rink. The idea of having a routine here kind of made Colby nervous, because she still didn’t know what the future held. She hadn’t slept much last night thinking about Meghan’s questions about children, about a life outside of skating. What did they have? They worked together, and enjoyed skating together. She’d enjoyed going out dancing and drinking when she was in Hollywood, but Declan hadn’t really, and that had caused more fights than anything else in their marriage.
“Did you let Patrick know they were on their way?”
She wasn’t sure they still needed a security guard. The reporters had fallen off their interest, at least in the mornings. Not much to see when Colby and Declan dragged themselves into the rink and locked themselves in. The reporters had figured out no one really wanted to see that. She wondered if that would change if the videos got popular, or if the videos themselves would satisfy people’s curiosity.
Of course, it could be that people were just losing interest in the two of them, since everything was pretty smooth right now. The news loved drama.
“They’ve been here before, right?”
“Right, but they haven’t watched me coach. The idea was that this would be just an investment, not that I’d be so hands-on once it got off the ground. But turns out I like being hands-on.” He waggled his eyebrows at her and dropped to the bench to lace up his skates. “Come on, let’s get some skating in before they get here. I need to work off some of this energy.”
Colby wanted to make a comment that they could have worked it off a lot more fun way, but he’d been too anxious about getting out here. So she laced up her skates and followed him to the ice.
For some reason, today the temperature of the rink seeped into her clothing, beneath her skin, but when she took his hand, looked into his eyes, everything was right. Why couldn’t she be as sure of her life off the ice with him as she was on the ice?
He skated backwards, pulling her into the waltz position, which had been their warm-up from way back. She let his hands calm her, hoped she calmed him as they skated the perimeter, before he pulled her closer with just a flex of his fingers on her back, easing her into a two-handed lift, so she perched on his shoulder for just a moment, facing the opposite direction before somersaulting off and onto the ice on one skate. When she turned, he was facing her, reaching out to her with a grin, and she sped up a little to let him pull her back into the waltz position. This time their turns were deeper, more exaggerated, building momentum before he eased back to hold her waist, her hands going to his wrists as he lifted her, then gave her just enough of a spin when he threw her for her to make two complete rotations, landing on one skate, her other leg straight behind her.
The applause jolted them out of their little world, and Colby skated quickly back toward Declan as they turned to face his parents.
“You two always were magic on ice,” his mother said, a little more gushy than she’d been yesterday. “Have you been practicing that long?”
“It’s just part of a routine our students are doing,” Colby said, a little out of breath as she joined Declan at the rail. “We work out the steps before we teach the kids. We’re just playing around right now, getting some kinks out.”
“Doesn’t look like you have any kinks,” Declan’s dad said. “You look like you never took a break from skating.”
“They’ve always had that chemistry,” his mother said. “That ability to read each other.”
Colby saw a small smile play at the corners of Declan’s mouth, because she’d rather look at him than his mother, because she felt that “But” hanging in the air.
“If you were staying, you two could skate again, an exhibition or something?”
“If she was staying?” Declan turned his head to look at Colby.
“Well, we know she won’t be staying around long.”
“We don’t know that,” Declan said, keeping his gaze on Colby, waiting for her to say something, she was sure. But she wasn’t going to have this discussion with Declan in front of his parents who thought the worst of her anyway.
“I think our professional performing days are behind us,” she said instead.
“Not from what I see,” Cecily said.
Wow, she hadn’t really thought her mother and Declan’s mother had that much in common.
“Thank you,” was all she said in response, praying that Lexi and Josh would be early today of all days. “You didn’t bring Nicole?”
“No, Evan didn’t really want that to be a thing,” Declan’s mother said. “He’s adamant his children won’t grow up like he and Declan did, though I think they turned out just great.”
“They did,” Colby agreed, and Declan rewarded her by skating backwards and taking her hand, spinning her beneath his arm.
She laughed, her spirits lifting even as he dipped her so low her head almost touched the ice. He lifted her again, turning her in a circle and curving his hand around her waist as they spun.
“You’re not going anywhere, right?” he asked, low enough for her to hear.
She didn’t know what to say, didn’t know enough to know if she was staying or going. Right now she didn’t want to go anywhere. She was happy just being in his arms.
She just couldn’t say for sure if she was going to stay there.
Good thing the question seemed rhetorical, because he didn’t seem to be waiting for her to answer.
