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“I’d never leave my house again if my career was cut short like that. Embarrassing.”
Whirling around, I shot her the most vicious glare I could muster.
She’d made similar comments to Brynn when she was first getting back on the ice after giving birth to the twins.
Opening my mouth I was about to tear the other woman a new asshole when Brynn plopped down into the seat next to me and started putting her skates on.
“What’d I miss?” she asked cheerfully, clearly not picking up on the tenseness in the air.
“Ariana was just being a cunt because she doesn’t understand how accommodations work.” I made sure I was looking her in the eye as I spoke.
Brynn’s head wheeled back and forth between me and Ariana, her blue eyes widening as the other woman scrunched her nose distastefully at me.
“I understand accommodations, Callaghan. But aren’t they supposed to make things fair and not give someone else an advantage. We all have to skate with multiple other people on the ice. That’s fair.”
I didn’t have the time nor the desire to tell her how absolutely stupid she sounded.
Artie was up again, practicing footwork this time as Eli barked orders at him.
Everything seemed to be coming to a head and I should have just minded my business. Artie had almost nothing to do with me outside of Leith, but seeing the way his lips pressed into a thin line and then wobbled like he was going to cry… and my damn bleeding heart took over.
“Kick them outside,” I told Brynn as I stood, reaching down to take off my skate guards.
“What? You can’t kick us out—” Ariana began, gaping at me like a fish.
I shot her a seething look. “I can actually. If you actually read your contract it says that you have the right not to be observed by the competition during your ice time, and while it’s not my time, I’m sure that he’ll agree with me.”
Ariana sputtered but Brynn was already up and gesturing to the door. “Don’t make me tell Mr. Stone,” she murmured, using our secret weapon.
We almost never whipped it out, not wanting to use our connection to Colt Stone to throw our weight around, but for this my conscience would be clear.
Leaving Brynn to bully those assholes out, I stepped onto the ice.
“Oi, Ciara! It’s not your ice time yet, get your ass off!” Eli bellowed at me but I ignored him.
Hearing my name, Artie slid to a stop and turned, squinting in my direction until I got closer.
I didn’t know how far along his vision loss was, but I knew he could at least see a little bit of me because his eyes slanted away and his cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
“I can hear them,” he muttered, gesturing to his ears. “The funny thing about going blind is that it makes you have ears like a bat. I could hear you too.”
“Do you want me to kick Eli out?” I asked, looking over at the still-fuming coach.
Artie’s head jerked up with surprise. “You can’t. He’s the coach.”
A slow grin filled my face and I turned to shout in the direction of the man. “Eli, I’ll take it from here.”
Eli’s red face shifted into a deeper shade—almost purple at this point. “What d’you mean you’ll take it from here? Ciara I don’t know who died and made you queen of the fucking ice, but he desperately needs coaching.”
“And he’ll get it,” I shot back.
Eli scoffed. “From who? His imaginary fucking friend?”
Sucking in a breath, I ignored the tiny sliver of panic settling inside of my stomach at what I was about to say.
But apparently today was going to forever be known as the day Ciara Callaghan’s heart grew two sizes and she started doing things that were really out of fucking character.
“From me,” I finally said, shocking myself as I turned back to Artie. “If you’ll have me.”
