Page 4 of Hearts on Ice
She followed him.
“Good idea, adding a gym, making it all in one.”
“If I had room, I’d add a ballet studio as well,” he said, pulling his hoodie off over his head and revealing a t-shirt with the name of a skate brand emblazoned on it.
“You could always add another story. Make this a true complex.”
“I could, if I had that kind of focus.” He sat on the bench of a weight machine, checked the amount of weight, hooked his hands in the straps and started pulling.
“Am I interrupting?” She kept her tone cool, hoping her eyes also remained aloof as the muscles of his shoulders and arms flexed beneath the knit.
“Yes.”
She glanced around, and sat on another weight bench, facing him. She folded her jacket on the bench behind her and linked her hands together at her knees.
“They’re very good,” she said.
“Yes,” he said without hesitation.
“You’ve done good work with them, but together we can take them farther.”
He stopped and stared at her. “I’ve been their coach for four years, and I would love to take them all the way, but I would give that up in a minute before working with you.”
His bluntness took her breath away, but she wouldn’t let him know it. “Please, don’t hold back.”
“There is nothing you can say to make up for what went on between us.”
“Not even that I’ve changed?”
“Why would I believe you have? How many times did you say that to me? ‘I’m sorry, Declan, I’ve changed?’” He let the weights fall back into place with a clang that echoed around the room as he sat forward, his brows drawn together, his eyes hard. “What would make me think that was possible? I mean, you were in L.A., weren’t you? Hollywood? Seeking fame? Needing it? Craving it? No matter the cost?”
She wasn’t accustomed to humility, especially when she’d come to this place ready to show Declan she didn’t need him, that she was a success on her own, only to see that the opposite was true. She didn’t want to admit to Declan how many ways she’d failed, how much of her life she’d screwed up. How she was looking for another path, and it was a path that happened to intersect with his, running parallel with it for a while.
“I don’t know how many times I can say I’m sorry,” she murmured.
“You can say it a hundred times a day every day for the rest of your life, and I won’t believe you’re serious until you actually show me.”
“And how can I do that?”
“First of all, by walking away from this place, from walking away from these kids, making your career somewhere else, where I don’t have to see it. There are plenty of options out there.”
She considered him a long moment, this man she’d known since she was eleven years old. The one person she had been able to count on to know what she was going through. Yes, okay, she’d let the fame go to her head, had become addicted to it, chasing it to the point of sacrificing everything else, even him, the man who knew her best.
“Is there someone else in your life?”
A harsh laugh burst from him, and he twisted from the waist to adjust the weights. “See? How have you changed? Of course you’re so self-centered you think the only reason I’m turning you away is if someone else is in my life. You can’t accept that you messed up so bad that I don’t want to subject myself to it again.”
“We won’t be working together long. I’ll devise the routine, modify it as needed, only a few weeks’ time. No more than a month. Then I’ll be out of your hair for the rest of your life.”
“Or you could be out of my hair for the rest of my life starting now.” He pushed to his feet, his movements jerky, and he walked to the treadmill. “I would prefer that option.” He started at a steady jog.
“But is it best for Josh and Lexi?” she asked, having to raise her voice over the noise of the machine and the pulse of his steps. “Give me the opportunity to come up with something, and if you don’t like it, you can toss me out.”
“Why?”
She certainly wasn’t going to tell him she needed the money. She never would admit that to him. He would just think she’d become accustomed to a lavish lifestyle, which maybe she had, but she had really gotten herself in over her head and she didn’t know what else she could do to make the money she needed. She needed to present her best self to him. He could never see her as less.
“I want to get back into the business. You know I was good. And this is the life I know best.”
