Page 38 of Hearts on Ice
He should check himself, he knew. He was charging straight ahead into trouble, which was usually her M.O. And why was he so eager to get her to stay with him? Because they’d remembered how good they were at making love? Because he wanted to do more of that, since he’d deprived himself for more than a year? Or because he wanted them to get back together?
He could not let his thoughts go down that last road. Getting back together would be a disaster. They weren’t good for each other. He couldn’t be what she needed, and she couldn’t be what he did.
Wanted, well, that was a whole other story. He’d never wanted someone as much as he wanted her.
“I don’t know, Colby. We’ve been managing at work.”
“Yeah, but, this would be all day every day. You know how that worked out for us before.”
“Yeah, because your goals and my goals were different then. For now, anyway, they’re the same. And you wouldn’t have to worry about Archie kicking you out at the end of the month for his rental.”
She blew out a breath, half laugh, half resignation. “No I’d just have to worry about you kicking me out because you can’t stand me anymore.”
He grunted. “You know I wouldn’t do that.”
“You’d just suffer in silence?”
“Not sure I’d be silent.” He softened the words with a grin. “And I know you wouldn’t be.”
She stood to tug her pants up. “I guess I’m just…everything is kind of happening quickly. This morning you wanted to do our old routine, and then hours later you kiss me, hours later we’re in bed, and hours later you ask me to move in with you. The thing is, I don’t even know what changed from yesterday to today?”
Did he even know? “I guess I went down the rabbit hole of watching our old videos, looking at old pictures of us. I guess I got sentimental.”
She was already shaking her head as he spoke. “We’re not the same people, though. We changed each other, what happened to us. What I did.”
He could see she had trouble admitting that, and he gave her credit for doing it. “I’m not saying this as a second chance, I guess, just more of a…let’s enjoy each other and spend more time in bed and less on the road.”
She leveled her gaze at him. “So just sex?”
He lifted his eyebrows, the corner of his mouth kicking up. “Ah, well, not just sex, but definitely sex.”
She laughed at that. “I don’t want you to get your hopes up thinking we’re getting back together, because I am still just as big of a mess now as I was then. But sex? Yeah, I can deal with that.”
He took two steps over and hooked his arm around her waist, bringing her against him. “We are going to have a hell of a time keeping this a secret.”
“I can’t pictureit in my head,” Lexi said as the four of them stood near the wall of the rink. “You want him to lift me, then flip me?”
Colby took a deep breath. “He’s going to lift you, and you’re going to flip yourself, using his hands as to push yourself off. Think about it like he’s catching you in the middle of a cartwheel.”
“Not exactly,” Declan said. “He’s holding you over his head for the count. You’ll be on your side, facing the same direction as him. He’ll hold you here and here.” He pointed to himself, beneath his armpit and his hip. “And your dismount is when you lift your legs over your head and flip yourself to land on the ice, facing him.”
Lexi was already shaking her head. “That’s impossible. I don’t know how to do that.”
“We’ll start in the gym.” Colby started toward the ramp leading away from the ice. “I know you’ve got the lift. I’ve seen you do it. The dismount is what we need to work on.”
“No, it’s impossible,” Lexi insisted.
“It’s not. I mean, you’ve clearly watched your competition. You have to add some level of difficulty to the routine.”
Colby sounded like she was losing her patience with Lexi. Declan wanted to interject, but maybe Lexi would listen to Colby more than himself. And maybe Colby was right—he didn’t take enough risks. Keeping himself from success was one thing, but he wouldn’t hold the kids back.
“Declan, come on.” Colby skated over and took his hand. “We can show them.”
He angled his head, looking down at her. “Not sure I have the legs for it today.”
She narrowed her eyes at him and skated to the edge of the rink. “Okay, let’s go into the gym. We’ll show you there.”
He wasn’t sure he’d have the legs there, either, but he got that Colby wanted to show the dismount, not necessarily anything else.
