Crossing the Ice Read online

He hugged me back and then slowly worked himself out of my embrace. “I think that was the best I’ve ever skated.”

  Two tipsy fan-girls raced over and asked Kyle for a photo, which I took while they cozied up to him. As they walked away giggling, I grabbed one of Kyle’s two huge bags full of stuffies and other gifts thrown by the fans.

  “I’ll help you bring all this to your room,” I said.

  “You don’t have to do that.”

  Does he not want me to go up to his room with him? We hadn’t spent much time alone together that week because of our busy schedules, but I’d hoped this would finally be our chance. Maybe he just didn’t want me to carry his stuff.

  “I’ve got it.” I smiled and slung the bag over my shoulder.

  Kyle hesitated before following me up the escalator to the elevators. His silence on the way upstairs unnerved me even more, but I rationalized that he was probably still decompressing from the frenzy at the arena.

  Once we reached his room, I set down the bag and took a peek at the bed. Kyle and I hadn’t gotten that far in our relationship (I hadn’t gotten that far with anyone), but I felt like I was ready. I’d thought about this for a while, and I wanted him to be my first.

  Surely, he wants it too, right?

  I walked over to where he stood in front of the desk, and I slipped my arms around his narrow waist. Softly touching my lips to his, I waited for him to respond and pull me close. Instead he stiffened and unwound my grip.

  “Court, don’t…” He raked his hand through his hair.

  I took a rocky step backward and shook my head. “I don’t understand.”

  “I wanted to wait until after we competed to tell you.”

  “Tell me what?” I asked shakily.

  He stared at the carpet for what seemed like an hour before he finally answered, “I met someone.”

  My stomach flipped upside down, and anger quickly chased the hurt.

  “Have you been dating her behind my back?” I demanded. “Who is she?”

  “She works at my gym. We started talking one day, and then we kept talking longer—”

  “Is that all you’ve been doing? Talking? Or did you hook up with her?”

  He took a tight swallow as he avoided the furious burn I felt in my gaze. “We’ve been seeing each other.”

  I balled my hands into fists at my sides and inhaled and exhaled a deep breath. “So that’s a yes, then.”

  “I didn’t want to break things off with you over the phone. I thought the right thing to do would be to wait until after the competition and tell you—”

  “The right thing!” I shrieked. “The right thing would’ve been to not sleep with some other girl while still acting like my boyfriend.”

  “I’m sorry. I really didn’t want to hurt you.”

  I choked out a bitter laugh. “Well, it’s too late for that. I can’t believe I was stupid enough to think you were worth…”

  I glanced again at the bed, and a sickening sensation swirled in my gut. I stormed away from Kyle and then spun around, stopping just before the door.

  “You’re not worth a second more of my time.”

  Chapter Two

  “He cheated on you?” Mark paused with his sandwich aimed at his mouth. “That little prick.”

  I poked and prodded my chicken Caesar salad but didn’t know if I could stomach actually eating it. My insides had been twisted since the previous night when Kyle had dropped his bomb on me and exploded all my hopes for us to smithereens. I’d thought soaking up some L.A. sunshine at an outdoor café might make me feel better, but there was apparently no quick cure for heartbreak.

  “I hope you told him off,” Mark said.

  “I don’t even remember what I said. I was just so blindsided.”

  I put down my fork and pressed my fingers to my temples. To think I’d been ready to lose my virginity to Kyle. My eyes misted from both the hurt and stupidity I felt, and I pushed my sunglasses higher on my nose. The sidewalk next to our table had heavy traffic of skaters and fans walking from the hotel to Staples Center. This wasn’t the ideal place to start crying.

  “Coco!” a little girl’s voice squeaked behind me.

  I turned to see Em, Sergei, Em’s Aunt Debbie, and the twins approaching us. Neither Quinn nor her brother Alex could say my name when they’d first started talking, so I’d been Coco to them ever since. I took a deep breath to push down the ache in my chest before I reached over the low railing and ruffled Quinn’s curly blond hair.

  “Hey, Cutie.”

  She and Alex were the two most adorable toddlers I’d ever seen with their matching golden locks and big blue eyes. But I’d expected no less with the gorgeous parents they had.

  “Court, why aren’t you at the men’s small medal ceremony?” Em asked as she shifted Alex on her hip. “Isn’t it going on outside Staples?”

  The ache flared again, and I lowered my head. “Oh… um… Kyle and I broke up,” I mumbled.

  “Oh no. What happened?” she asked.

  “I don’t really wanna talk about it right now.”

  “He screwed around on her,” Mark announced.

  Em covered Alex’s ears, albeit too late. I gaped at Mark and kicked his shin under the table.

  “Ow! I was just trying to save you from telling the story again.”

  “Screwed around.” Quinn giggled.

  I cringed while Sergei just shook his head.

  “I’m so sorry, Court,” Em said. “If you want to talk later, call me. We can go do something, just you and me.”

  I gave her a little smile. “Thanks.”

  “Scre-e-e-wed!” Quinn continued to laugh as she arched her neck to look up at Sergei. “What screwed, Daddy?”

  Sergei crouched to her level. “When we get to the arena, would you rather have ice cream or a chocolate chip cookie?”

  Her eyes grew even bigger, and her smile did the same. “Cookie!”

  Oh, to be a kid again and be so easily distracted. Life was so much simpler then.

  “There’s actually something else we need to talk to you guys about,” Mark said. “We ran into the Tuckers last night.”

  The weight on my chest grew even heavier. I’d pushed the issue of our new training mates to the back of my mind after the other earth-shattering news I’d received.

  Em and Sergei exchanged concerned glances, and Sergei turned to Em’s aunt. “Can you take the kids ahead? We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  “Sure. We’ll go look for those cookies.” She took Quinn’s hand and did the same with Alex once Em set his little sneaker-clad feet on the sidewalk. She traveled with them to almost every competition to help out with the twins, so she was used to babysitting in a pinch.

  “Thanks, Aunt Deb.” Em bent and kissed the tops of the twins’ heads. “Be good.”

  She and Sergei came around the railing and borrowed two empty chairs from a nearby table. They both looked nervous about starting the conversation.

  “So, Stephanie said she and Josh are moving to the Cape,” Mark said.

  Em sighed and pushed a few strands of dark blond hair from her face. “We asked them not to tell anyone before we had a chance to talk to you next week.”

  “I don’t think Stephanie really cares about our feelings,” I said.

  Sergei’s mouth pressed into a line. “I’m sorry you had to find out that way.”

  “How’d they talk you into coaching them? Are they paying double your rates?” Mark asked.

  “No, it’s nothing like that,” Em said. “When they asked us, our first instinct was of course to say no. We value our relationship with you so much, and we don’t want you to ever question your trust in us. You guys are so special to me — you were the first team I ever coached.”

  I flashed back to our first lesson with Em, when Sergei told us he’d asked his then-student to help him coach us. Working together was one of the things that had brought them closer off the ice and had led to their romantic relationship. I�
�d wanted them to be a couple from the very beginning, so I always loved that I was a small part of the reason they’d gotten together.

  “We weren’t going to say yes to coaching the Tuckers, but then we talked about it, and we think this will be good for you,” Sergei said.

  “How’s that?” I asked.

  Em leaned forward and folded her hands on the table. “Having one of your biggest competitors training alongside you can only make you better. And honestly, I think you need a little kick in the butt. You need to see what your competition is doing, how hard they’re working. We think it’ll inspire you to work that much harder so you can make a strong push for the Olympic team.”

  “You don’t think we’re working hard enough?” Mark asked.

  “To get to the Olympics, you have to step it up another gear,” Sergei said. “I know you both have the competitiveness and the talent to get there. You just need to train every day with that fire in your belly, and having the Tuckers there will fuel that fire.”

  I understood what they were saying, but I still couldn’t grasp how we could all be one big happy family. The issue of loyalty hadn’t been addressed.

  “There are only two spots on the team, and since Rebekah and Evan have won nationals two years in a row, they have one of them almost locked up,” I said. “So we’ll be going against Stephanie and Josh for the one remaining spot. How can you fully support both of us?”

  “Because we want you both on the team and we believe it can happen.” Em’s voice took on its “coach pep talk” tone. “Nothing is guaranteed for Rebekah and Evan. If you all put in the work, you can be in those top two spots.”

  “You have to believe it, too,” Sergei added. “You can’t go into next season narrowing your odds.”

  It was easy for Em and Sergei to have confidence. They’d been on top of the world at the last Olympics with Sergei coaching Em and her partner Chris to the gold medal. But as much as Mark and I had tried to emulate them, we didn’t have their superstar talent. We’d had to set more modest goals.

  Mark took off his shades and wiped them on his T-shirt. “Why are Stephanie and Josh moving this late in their career anyway? They’ve been with the same coach since they were kids.”

  “They want us to help them with their jump technique. They’ve had a lot of problems with consistency and under-rotations,” Sergei said.

  I looked down and spun the chunky bracelet around my wrist. “I hope they’re not going to mess up the good atmosphere we have at the rink. Stephanie is… well, it doesn’t seem like her attitude will fit in with our group.” In other words, we don’t want to deal with her bitchiness every day.

  “We wouldn’t have agreed to coach them if we thought there’d be major problems. You don’t have to be best buddies with them, but I think you can all get along,” Em said.

  Mark bumped the toe of my sandal and shot me a look across the table that said he wasn’t convinced. I wasn’t either, but the deal was done, and putting up resistance wasn’t going to get us anywhere.

  “If you think this will help us, then we’ll do our best to make them feel welcome,” I said, knowing exactly what Em and Sergei wanted to hear.

  “Thanks, Court.” Em touched my arm. “And I promise this won’t change the amount of time and attention we give you. We’re committed to you just as much as we always have been.”

  Mark and I both slowly nodded. Em’s and Sergei’s eyes were hidden behind their sunglasses, but I could feel the intensity with which they watched us. They could probably tell we were still skeptical.

  “Do you have any more questions?” Sergei asked.

  We turned our nods into equally slow head shaking.

  “Okay. Well…” Sergei pushed back his chair. “We’d better catch up to Aunt Deb before the kids talk her into buying more than cookies.”

  Em stood and squeezed my shoulder. “My offer still stands if you need to talk later. About anything.”

  They headed in the direction of the arena, and I took a sip of my lemonade. Tilting my head back, I let the warmth of the bright sunshine spread over my face. This was supposed to be my week in paradise, a trip I’d highly anticipated since the moment we’d qualified for Worlds back in January.

  “I thought this week would be so amazing. Visiting fabulous L.A., competing with the best in the world, hanging out with my boyfriend… and what happens? We bomb in the free skate, Kyle tells me he’s been cheating on me, and we find out we have to train with the most disliked pair skater in the country. It’s like the nightmare that won’t end.”

  Mark picked up a potato chip and stared at it a moment before popping it into his mouth. “What do you think about Em saying we need to work harder?”

  I took a longer drink from my glass. “Maybe she’s right. Maybe we need to push ourselves more. We could add another hour a day on the ice or in the gym.”

  “I guess I always thought we were doing enough.”

  “It was probably enough to get where we are, but is it enough to make the Olympic team? To beat Stephanie and Josh, who are likely going to get better with Em and Sergei coaching them?”

  “No way am I losing out on the Olympics to them,” Mark said.

  “My sentiments exactly. We have to do whatever it takes to be in Vancouver next February. We’re not missing out by one place again.”

  Finishing fourth at nationals in 2006 when the U.S. had sent three teams had been the most painful experience of my life. We’d been in the perfect position to be in the top three, but then we’d had a meltdown in the free skate. I still got a lump in my throat every time I thought about that night.

  We only had one more chance to get on the Olympic team. I was going to start my college career the next year, and Mark wanted to get engaged and work with his dad at his auto shop.

  I wasn’t going to let the Tuckers move in, use our coaches for one season, and steal our dream. Hell to the no.

  Chapter Three

  I pushed open the rink door and took a moment to breathe in the cold air. With things about to change at our training base, I wanted to hang onto the familiarity of the place. I’d had two months to get used to the idea of the Tuckers skating with us, but it hadn’t made me any less anxious about their arrival, which would be happening in a few minutes.

  Mark was just starting his morning jog around the rink, so I quickly stashed my rolling bag in the locker room and followed his path. Someone had already turned on the stereo, and “Poker Face” echoed off the sky-high ceiling. Normally, Lady Gaga got me going in the morning, but today it was just making me jumpier.

  As I completed my first full lap, the blue double doors from the lobby opened, and Stephanie and Josh entered. Stephanie dragged a Louis Vuitton bag, carried a matching purse, and wore a pair of sunglasses that were five times too big for her bobble head. Josh looked much less “L.A.” in his plain black fleece jacket and black pants.

  I slowed to a stop near them, and Stephanie propped her glasses atop her head. “Where’s the locker room?” she asked.

  Hello to you, too.

  I swallowed my irritation and pointed behind them. “It’s the second door.”

  Without so much as a nod of thanks, she turned and marched away. Josh lingered and looked all around the large building.

  “This is really nice. A lot newer than our rink in Burbank.”

  The complete one-eighty from Stephanie’s frigidness to Josh’s friendliness threw me, and I needed a second before I could answer, “Yeah, everything had to be redone after the snowstorm caved in the roof a few years ago.”

  “I remember hearing about that.”

  We stood for a few awkward silent moments, and I had a déjà vu flash from when we’d met as young teens. I could see us so clearly in the small room, fidgeting anxiously, all alone with nothing to say to each other.

  Josh motioned with his thumb to the locker room. “I should warm up.”

  I nodded and was about to resume jogging, but Josh’s quiet voice calling m
y name halted me. “I know it has to be weird having us here, but we’re not here to get in your way. We just want to get better.”

  The way his eyes didn’t waver from mine made me believe he was sincere. I was pretty sure his sister didn’t share his amicable feelings, though.

  “That’s what Mark and I want, too… to get better. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t all be able to do that without getting in each other’s way.”

  His lips twitched into the faintest hint of a smile as his eyes continued to steadily hold my gaze. Another round of uncomfortable silence followed, so I quickly pivoted and took off at a faster pace than usual. Glancing backward, I saw Josh disappear into the locker room. He and Stephanie might share a number of physical features, but they couldn’t be more different personality-wise. I was curious to see their training relationship. Stephanie had drama queen written all over her, but Josh didn’t seem like the type to put up with that kind of nonsense.

  After a few more laps and my standard stretching routine, I headed to the locker room to put on my skates. Mark sat on the bench along the far wall, lacing up his boots and chatting with one of Em and Sergei’s junior teams. I sat beside him and slipped my feet out of my sneakers and into my skates.

  “Did you talk to them?” Mark asked.

  I knew who “them” was without asking. “Just for a second.”

  “I walked past Stephanie and she wouldn’t even look at me.” Mark pulled the knot tight on his laces and stood in front of me. “We need to bring our ‘A’ game today and show them we’re not affected by them being here.”

  “We need to bring our ‘A’ game every day.”

  “True, but today we have to really be on. We should do full run-throughs of the short and long — let them see we already have our new programs in good shape.”

  I stopped tying and held up my hands. “Slow your roll. We just finished putting together the long last week, and Em said she still wants to change up the middle section. Let’s not rush things just to make a point.”

  I could just see us trying to do a full run-through of a program we barely knew and doing more harm than good. That would be a great way to show how much we were on top of our game.