Page 17 of Hearts on Ice
His lips curved in an almost-smile. “Didn’t really have an option there, did I? Couldn’t exactly send Meghan into the men’s locker room, and couldn’t chase everyone out of there. Though I have to admit the smell sent some of them scrambling.” He shook his head. “Thought I was going to hurl myself.”
“At least it wasn’t in your mouth and your hair and down the front of your shirt.”
Declan shuddered and stood up. “Yup, would have hurled.”
“And then plastered all over the internet and news stations. It’s one thing to be noticed for my own behavior, another to be a victim.”
He met her gaze for a long moment. “Yeah, it is, isn’t it?” He held out his hand, palm up.
She stared at it a minute, not sure if it was a peace offering.
When she hesitated too long, he said, “The music? I’ll go put it on.”
Of course. She placed the thumb drive in his hand and pressed her palms against her hips to try to quell the urge she’d had to put her hand in his.
Colby had givenup the rink for the movies, but she certainly hadn’t neglected her skating, or if she had, she had enough muscle memory that she wasn’t rusty at all. She skated the routine for him, her movements graceful, her lines clean. She glanced over at him when the jumps came up, or the lifts. She told him what kind of lift she envisioned, and he wondered if she wanted him to lift her. He didn’t want to put his hands on her if he could help it.
He recognized some of the elements from their own routines. They’d skated together for years, so of course she was going to pull from her own medal-winning experience. He didn’t know why he resented it.
He was grateful when Josh and Lexi showed up, and the four of them got to work.
As his team skated, he realized a week had passed already since she’d showed up in his life. He had lived his career in a series of countdowns—countdowns to competitions as a skater, now as a coach. Now he was counting down until she was gone.
He felt maybe a little bad for her that she’d gone viral with the incident yesterday. She didn’t deserve that, though Meghan had insisted karma had a part in it. But has he watched her now, he saw something different in her, something more mature, he supposed. Of course she would have matured after experiencing hope and disappointment, repeatedly, when she’d been so used to winning when she was young. That, he thought, was more suitable karma.
But something else was going on, too. He’d seen her car—hard not to when it was the only one in the lot besides his, a luxury car, but not new. Five years old, maybe, or older. Why was she driving an old car?
And Meghan had washed her suit for her, so clearly Colby didn’t have easy access to a washer. He figured she was probably staying in a hotel, maybe hadn’t wanted to go to the laundromat. Something just wasn’t adding up.
Okay, so maybe he was spending too much time thinking about her. He needed to focus on his students, on getting them ready for the competition season that began in November. They were dedicated. He needed to be, also.
“No,” he heard Colby say. “That’s not the lift I want there.”
Josh lowered Lexi gently to the ice, one hand at her back and the other at her waist. “I did what you said.” He looked at Declan for verification that he had.
Declan honestly couldn’t remember what Colby had told him, so he looked at her. “Sorry, what lift were you wanting?”
“Like we did in our last championship. The drape lift and then you’d lower me to your thigh.”
Ah, so she’d put that one in here. The move was challenging, but had earned them points. He’d used a hand lift to raise her over his head, then lowered her, one hand on her arched back, her skate on his knee, her hands stretched over her head.
“Pull it up on your phone,” he told her. “I’m sure it’s online somewhere.” He actually knew because he’d watched it the other day.
“Could we just show them?”
“Why can’t you just find the video?”
“It would take less time for us to show them, Declan. Unless you don’t think you can lift me anymore.”
Honestly, he didn’t doubt that he could. He was probably stronger now than he’d been then, and she didn’t look like she’d gained any weight. If anything, she looked even thinner.
“Out of practice,” he said. “And it’s not an easy lift, if you don’t have control.”
“Let’s see. Just do a hand lift, see if you can.”
He heard the challenge in her voice and didn’t want to react to it.
“Look, it will be easier to teach them if we can take them through step-by-step.”
