Page 2 of Hearts on Ice
“No one is taking new clients,” Cynthia said, following her daughter down to Declan.
“Josh, can you shut off the bloody music?” Declan asked through his teeth as he slapped the skate guards on the blades.
Josh seemed just as grateful to get away, nodding and running up the stairs to the PA controls.
And then the place was silent, just the two hopeful mothers, the young skaters who appeared uncomfortable, and Colby.
All the peace Declan had built was erased, and he stormed up the steps to the lobby.
No one else had arrived yet, thank God, but they’d be coming soon. His students had the ice to themselves right now, and he was wasting their time, but really, he was furious.
“Go warm up,” he said to Lexi, gruffer than he intended. Honestly, he wanted to go into his office and slam the door, but he had an obligation to these kids, and to their parents. “Excuse us,” he said to Colby, and ushered the mothers through the door into his office. He knew that didn’t afford them much privacy, since it was a hollow core door. But at least he wouldn’t have Colby looking at him while he confronted the women.
He took a seat behind his desk in the small room, but the mothers did not sit in the chairs he gestured to.
“You have to know how difficult it would be to work with her,” he said, wishing he’d had more time to think out his response. “You no doubt know our history.”
“Yes, of course, but she said it would be okay with her. She would be fine working with you,” Cynthia said.
He looked at the woman he had known for years like he was looking at a stranger. “Why didn’t you ask me if I’d be fine working with her?”
“The two of you made such a good team! You won gold! I thought it was kismet when she was available,” Melina said.
“She’s available because she’s extremely difficult to work with.” She hadn’t always been, but the better they’d gotten, the more of a diva she’d become. “And who do you think would know that better than I do?”
“I’m sorry, Declan. We just assumed you’d be professional about this,” Melina said with a small, hurt sniff.
Oh, no, they were not going to put this on him. “You thought I’d be professional?” He’d raised his voice and hadn’t meant to. He glanced toward the door, certain Colby was on the other side of it, listening to everything. He decided he didn’t care. No one had hurt him like she did. No one.
“We want the best for our kids. We want them to have the same chances you did. That’s why we hired you, and that’s why we hired her.”
“Look, can she not just devise the routine, and you implement it?” Cynthia asked. “It’s not like you’d have to work with her for long. Or she can work with them, then you can? Take turns? We really did a lot of investigating into this. No one else was taking clients this year. Please, Declan.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking.” He couldn’t believe he had to keep saying it. Figure skating was a small world, sure, and he hadn’t had to encounter her in the past eight years, mainly because she had gone to Los Angeles, hoping to make it big in acting. He hadn’t heard she’d come back to Aspen, hadn’t heard she’d come back to skating.
He wondered why.
“Could you talk to her?” Melina asked. “Just see if there’s something the two of you can work out?”
“You’re putting your kids in the middle of this,” he said, one last shot at appealing to them. He honestly wanted to tell them to find another coach, but he’d been working with these kids since they were twelve, and he genuinely liked them. He’d known time would come when he’d have to, if not give them up to more experienced coaches, at least give up some of the control he had, to share them with another coach. But he’d never expected to be forced to work with Colby.
“Please, just talk to her. She seemed to think there would be no problem, so maybe she has a solution you haven’t thought of.”
“I need to get to your kids’ lesson,” he said. “If Colby wants to stick around to talk to me when we’re done, that’s fine. I’ll talk to her then.”
Maybe by then he would have figured out what to say. Or she would give up and leave.
Yeah. Sure. Unlikely.
As he expected, when he opened the door, she was standing just outside it, still silent, making him want to scream.
But he had to rein it in, get to Josh and Lexi so they could take advantage of their two hour block before they had to go to school.
“Come back at nine,” he said brusquely, not exactly meeting her gaze, but not exactly avoiding it, either.
She was still so beautiful, smooth skin, big blue eyes accented with perfect makeup, that shiny hair that was not quite brown, not quite red, piled in a messy bun on her head. Those full lips that brought back so many pleasant memories, and through which such nasty things had been said.
“I’m going to stay and watch,” she said. “I need to know what these kids can do before I design a program for them.”
