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“So, what’s going on? Do we not have the ice or something?” Chandler asked.
Her brown hair was pinned back into a tight ballet bun, just how it had been the last time Belle had seen her at the rink when she’d packed her things and had turned, hoping Chandler would say goodbye, but other girls had been there, so Chandler hadn’t even looked at Belle. Her blue eyes were that kind of ice blue that people always described as cold, but Belle had always thought they just fit who Chandler was: a talented figure skater who loved ice almost as much as Belle did.
“Uh… No, you’re good. It’s your ice,” she replied. “Sorry, we just closed and didn’t have time to clean it for you.”
“No problem. I’m just getting in a little practice time.”
“You need clean ice,” the woman Belle now knew as Cat remarked.
“Cat, it’s fine. Just chill. God, take the stick out of your ass and just let me skate. It’s late, and I want to go to the hotel and get some sleep at some point tonight, so can we get this practice session over with, please?”
“Fine,” Cat said. “But I want a discount on the ice time.”
“Sure. No problem,” Belle replied before she skated to the door, which she closed behind her, walked over to the bleachers where she’d left her bag, and sat down to change out of her skates. “Fuck,” she whispered.
She’d just let Steph go home. Her dad was probably in the back office, doing paperwork, but she didn’t want to make him close up the front just because Chandler Wolfe had shown up unexpectedly.
It didn’t make any sense. Chandler, of all people, had no reason to compete in some small, regional competition at a community ice rink. US Figure Skating wasn’t even sponsoring the event. Chandler was paired with Walker Wilcox and was probably about to go to the Olympics.
“What is she even doing here?” Belle muttered to herself as she shoved her skates into her bag.
She wasn’t going to sit around and look like a creep, so she grabbed her bag, walked it to the locker room, and shoved it inside her locker before heading back to the concession stand to check that Steph had taken the money from the drawer and had brought it to the back to be counted. Then, Belle noticed that three hot dogs were still left on the spinning racks that weren’t spinning anymore. Steph had probably turned it off but had forgotten to clean it, so that meant that while Chandler Wolfe was out on her ice, Belle would be cleaning hot dog juice from the machine and wondering how exactly she was going to handle this competition, given this new development.
CHAPTER 4
Chandler bent down to tighten the laces on her skates. She didn’t need to; they were fine. But she’d just seen Belle Elrod for the first time since she was a teenager. Her heart was racing, and her brain was recalling over and over again the last time she’d seen Belle’s sad and scared face in that locker room before Chandler had turned away because she couldn’t take it anymore. She’d been the reason that Belle had that look. Chandler had kissed her. She’d wanted to kiss Belle again and again, but when those girls had walked in and started making fun of them, she hadn’t had the courage to tell them that she’d been the one to kiss Belle and to leave Belle alone. Instead, she’d laughed along with them, and she’d stopped talking to Belle after that.
Belle, who had always been nice to her and hadn’t deserved to be picked on at all, hadn’t said a word to Chandler after that day unless she had to on the ice, and even then, she hadn’t said much. They’d gone from being friends and teammates in the program to not speaking at all. Suddenly, Belle was packing her things in the locker room, looking devastated, while the others around them all seemed happy to see her go. Chandler should have said something, and even all these years later, that time in her life was still her biggest regret. Not the falls and not the missed jumps or tiny mistakes that added up to points being lost on the ice, and not even the kissing part. She regretted not having the courage to stand up in that room and tell them all to shut up, to leave them alone, and let them be. She regretted not kissing Belle again, too, because she’d wanted that. She’d been so surprised when Belle had given her that kiss on the cheek.
As Chandler rose from pretending to tighten her laces, her hand went to that same spot as it had done over and over again throughout the years. She touched her cheek, remembering the warmth of Belle’s lips there more than any lover’s touch, and that was probably a bad thing, but she still did it every so often. When she looked over her sister’s shoulder, more by accident than anything, she saw Belle working inside the concession stand. She couldn’t see what Belle was doing, but she didn’t appear to be happy about it. She was still just so pretty, though. Beautiful now, Chandler supposed. She wasn’t as rail-thin as she’d been when they were skating together as kids, but that was likely because she wasn’t competing anymore and, apparently, worked here at a rink instead of doing what she loved. Chandler had known how much Belle had loved skating. It was why it hurt her now thinking about Belle working concessions at an event instead of skating in it, knowing that it was her fault.
“Hey, are you here?” Cat asked.
“Yes, I’m here. What?”
“We’re supposed to be practicing.”
“It’s late, Cat. Can we just go to the hotel instead? I don’t really want to do this right now.”
“You’re here for a reason. You haven’t skated as an individual in years, Chandler. You need all the practice you can get. You were more than rusty this morning.”
Catalina had woken her up at four in the morning. They’d had a quick breakfast and had gone immediately to the ice, where her coach and sister had made her run through an old individual routine that Chandler, up until very recently, hadn’t done in years. They’d been running through it over and over since Walker’s injury. Catalina, on her part, was still working on finding Chandler a partner, and she’d discovered that there was a promising skater who was participating in this regional event. Everyone had called him a prodigy. He wasn’t part of any well-known program more because he didn’t want to be than he wasn’t good enough, and when she’d seen his videos, Chandler had to agree that he was good. He was also more age-appropriate for her, so that was a plus.
Catalina had decided that she wanted her to compete in this event, too. Chandler hadn’t competed in an event like this and on her own since she was around seventeen, so she hadn’t been happy about it, but it kept her on the ice even though she had some things she needed to work through and this kind of competition didn’t help her work through much because of the small scale. Chandler wasn’t even sure why she’d agreed to do it other than she hadn’t wanted to argue with her sister, who would just call their parents and tell them to make Chandler do it because it was right for her career, as if they knew much about how her career was going right now.
When Chandler glanced over at the concession stand again, she saw Belle throwing something away. The woman, apparently, hadn’t recognized Chandler, which was strange because Chandler pretty much looked the same. Belle had changed a lot, though. Her hair was shorter now. It was also red, which it hadn’t been when they were kids. It had been more strawberry blonde back then, so either Belle had started to dye it, or it had somehow gotten darker as she’d gotten older. She had it at a length just below her ears, and it was wavy now, where it used to be long and straightened but pinned back and put into a bun or a braid in order to compete. She envied Belle a little as she began to skate to the middle of the rink. Chandler’s bun felt tight. She knew she’d gained a pound or two recently, dealing with all the stress of losing Walker for at least four to six months after his tests came back and showed that the tear would require surgery and recovery time before physical therapy. In a way, Belle was free, and Chandler was jealous of that freedom.
Without the music playing overhead, she took her first position and began to move over the ice, her muscle memory taking over more than actual thought about what she was doing as she glided and prepared for her first jump, which was the easiest of the routine. When Chandler hit the ice unexpectedly, it knocked the wind out of her, and she shook her head.
“What the hell, Chandler? Come on. You can do that in your sleep.”
“I know. Sorry. I lost focus.”
“Again,” Cat ordered. “From the beginning.”
Chandler grumbled under her breath and returned to her starting position. She played the music in her mind and made the jump this time, but the landing wasn’t solid, which made Catalina yell at her a second time.
“Chandler!”
