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“I was just wondering.”
“I do, yeah. Not tomorrow, obviously. I’m thinking one, and we’ll see how that goes. Another one after that, if we don’t screw that one up too much.”
“We?” Chandler asked, realizing she hadn’t even thought to ask Belle if she was seeing somebody. “Girlfriend? I haven’t seen you wear a ring.”
“Oh, no. I don’t have a girlfriend. I just meant in the future. I want kids, but I want them with a wife. That’s the plan, anyway. What about you?”
“Uh… No. I’m not seeing anyone.”
“I mean the kids thing.”
“Oh,” she said. “Yeah, I want them. I don’t want them to be like me, though.”
“What do you mean?”
“If they want to skate, great. I’ll take them to their classes. I’d never pressure them like I’ve been pressured, though. And I don’t want to just ditch them. I’d be there to watch them like your parents were with you. If they want nothing to do with skating, that’s fine, too. They can play soccer or basketball, or be into science and math, or learn how to code or something. I’d want to be there for them; for whatever they needed.”
“I feel the same way,” Belle said.
“Why aren’t you two skating?” Catalina asked when she emerged from the gym.
“Because we were talking about skating,” Chandler lied. “We were talking about how best to work together.”
“Sure, you were. Let’s go,” Catalina said, making her way back out onto the ice.
CHAPTER 15
After a long day of skating and a long night of soaking in a huge bathtub that she’d never be able to fit into her bathroom back at home, Belle got some much-needed sleep. When she woke up, though, she had the need to skate, and not skate with Chandler, having Cat watching over them, judging their every glide. She wanted to skate on her own. Since Cat had told them they could sleep in until five today, she figured she’d have the ice to herself, with Chandler likely taking advantage of that.
She dressed after her cold shower and went to the kitchen, where she grabbed a quick granola bar, leaving the coffee for later, and headed to the rink. She breathed in the smell of freshly cleaned ice and looked down at the hockey stick and puck she’d brought with her. Being back here, in this town, was strange, to be sure. So far, she hadn’t left the estate, as Chandler had called it, but the drive from the airport had been a blast from the past. High-Performance Skate wasn’t far from this place, and it was on the way from the airport to Chandler’s home, so she’d seen it from the highway with its red-white-and-blue lit up sign. Chandler had grown up so close to the place, likely because her mother had been a skater, and they’d chosen this estate for that reason, but Belle had moved here just to be part of the program. When she’d left, they hadn’t returned home, having nothing to go back to, really, and with her mom being sick, her dad wanted them closer to the hospital treating her, so they’d moved again, and he’d found the Ice Park.
Somehow, though, she was right back here now, with the program’s headquarters only about twenty minutes away, and she was in a private ice rink owned by Chandler Wolfe’s parents because they were going to skate together. She was holding a hockey stick and a puck in the other hand. There wasn’t a goal on the ice, but before she put her skates on, she walked around the rink, finding a closet, believing that Chandler wouldn’t not have some hockey equipment for the kids she sometimes let play here. Finding a net, Belle smiled and pulled it out of the closet, setting it on the ice. Then, she put on her old, trusty skates. She’d worn the new ones once so far, but only long enough for the guy Chandler had, who could make perfect skates with science and maybe a little magic, to take them away to do some work on them for her. That was fine by her. She liked her old ones anyway.
On the ice, Belle moved with her stick, pushing the puck around more than having any kind of plan of what to do with it. When she was finally ready to aim for the goal, she skated toward it and went to stop, but forgot too late that she was in figure skates and not her hockey skates. Then, she fell on the ice.
“No wonder they put you in goal.”
Belle turned to see Chandler standing just inside the door. She was laughing.
“Nice one, Elrod.”
“I forgot I wasn’t wearing my hockey skates.”
“It’s amazing how different they are, huh?” Chandler asked, walking around the outside of the ice. “Hockey and figure skates.”
“Yeah, I would agree with that right now especially.” She got back on her feet.
“Did you hurt yourself?”
“No. Just bruised my ego.”
“Needed to play some hockey this morning?” Chandler asked as she sat on the bench to put on her skates.
“Yeah. I found the net in the closet. I hope that’s okay.”
“It’s fine. There are all sorts of things in there, I’m sure. Probably even a mask if you want to play in goal sometime. It might be a little small for you since it’s made for a kid, but I’m sure you could squeeze that big head in there if you want.”
“Shut up.” Belle skated over to the side wall and watched as Chandler put on her skates. “I thought you’d still be sleeping.”
