Page 71 of Hearts on Ice
“I think I do too,” Declan said. “Mom here?”
“No, still packing. We haven’t even been here long enough, you’d think she wouldn’t have unpacked so much, but there you go. We’ll be back for Christmas, okay?”
Declan nodded, a little surprised at himself for tearing up at watching his dad go. “See you then, Dad. And again, thank you. That meant a lot. To both of us.”
CHAPTER 28
The next few days were near perfection. Whatever his dad had said to Colby had her happier than he’d seen her in a long time. Like a huge weight had been lifted off of her. She still hadn’t told him she loved him, but he could sense her getting closer, could sense her getting to the point where she was ready to make some decisions, ready to make a commitment.
To a job, to a place to live.
To him.
They’d never skated better, and his theory was that they were more relaxed, had nothing to gain, nothing to lose. Their little videos were gaining viewers, gaining fans, and their meme had put them back in the spotlight, though the reporters didn’t stalk the rink like before.
Yeah, Deck hadn’t been this happy in a long time. He didn’t think they’d been this happy even when they were together the first time. He never would have thought it would happen when he’d first seen her all those weeks ago. It felt like she’d always been here.
And then the camera crew walked into the rink. He skated over to the side of the rink, thinking it was reporters, until he saw Xavier.
“Xavier.” He let himself ease away from the wall, putting some distance between himself and Colby’s accomplice when she left him. “What are you doing here?”
The skinny little guy drew himself up to his full height, barely reaching Declan’s nose. “Didn’t Colby tell you? We’re scaling up your little production here. Going to see if we can do better than an amateurly recorded and edited video. We have a cameraman who can skate, and another here who can run a drone, make all this look much smoother.”
But Declan was stuck on “Didn’t Colby tell you?” Because no, she hadn’t. Hadn’t told him a damn thing, not about a camera crew, not about a drone, hadn’t even mentioned she’d talked to Xavier.
And of course she’d run up to change, so their second video of the day looked like it was recorded on a different day, so he couldn’t ask her.
“I didn’t agree to any of that,” Declan said.
Xavier rolled his eyes. “Why am I not surprised by that? Declan, you want to make money, I want to make money, this is how we make money.”
“How?” They’d gained a pretty big following for being a new program, and Colby had received a few more inquiries about coaching, but she hadn’t scheduled anything yet. She said she was waiting to schedule until she’d finalized Josh and Lexi’s program, but he thought it was pretty final, and she hadn’t taken on new clients.
Had she really intended to, or was this her plan all along? Grow the videos so that she could make money off of them, maybe, who knew, make it into a TV show or something? He didn’t know how these things worked.
But even as Xavier took a deep breath to educate him, Colby came running down the steps.
“Xavier! What are you doing here?”
“Colby!” Xavier stepped forward to hug her, and Declan didn’t think it was his imagination that she stiffened in his embrace. “I’ve brought the crew we talked about.”
“The crew we talked about that we don’t need, you mean.”
“No, no, you said you want to grow your audience, want to draw viewers in, and the way to do it is with professional production. And who knows where it can take you?”
“Yeah,” Declan spat. “Who knows.” It wasn’t a question.
“Deck.” That was. She took a step toward him.
He shot a hand out to stop her. “You had this all planned? And you didn’t bother to tell me?”
She lifted a hand in a weak shrug. “I didn’t see the point.”
“You thought I’d rather be invaded?”
“That’s not what I wanted at all. I didn’t want any of this.”
But he couldn’t believe her. She’d never been satisfied with simple things. With staying where she was. Of course she would be looking for more, for a way out.
