She watches me for a moment in that open, unguarded way she has when she forgets to mask it, and something in my chest tightens—I recognize it immediately.
“Next time,” she says, leaning back again, “you’re coming to something I choose.”
I lift an eyebrow. “Looking forward to it, baby.”
CHAPTER 23
CECILIA
“I’m not goingto rush the toe,” Rodrigo says, completely unprompted. He’s very nervous today, despite running his whole program back to back impeccably for seven days straight. “I promise.”
I bump his shoulder lightly, and he sighs a little dramatically. I can see him flex his right hand open and closed a few times in a row, almost like he’s trying to get all his nervous energy out of the way now before we reach the rink.
“It’s only a showcase, Rodri,” I say with as much calmness as I can muster. I’m nervous for him, too, because this is an amazing opportunity for his career. “Just have fun.”
“I know.”
The walk from the apartment to the rink barely counts as a commute and it’s a perfect activity for this morning—the way we are enveloped in the kind of quiet Lake Jasper does so well before nine a.m., the mountains still heaving with shadow, the air sharp enough to sting the inside of my lungs. It forces him to breathe. It forcesmeto breathe.
Rodrigo shoves his hands into the pockets of his jacket and tips his head back for a second, staring up at the pale sky as if he can will himself into calm.
“It’s not only a showcase,” he mutters.
I glance at him. “It is, though.”
The automatic doors slide open and the air changes immediately. Banners hang along the boards advertising college programs in clean block lettering. Recruitment booths are set up along the far wall, staffed by men and women in branded quarter-zips holding clipboards and stainless steel coffee tumblers.
Rodrigo goes quiet.
“Everyone will be looking at me,” he says, and for a fraction of a second he’s back to being the twelve-year-old boy I started coaching. Who blushed when I gave him a compliment on his jumps and got teary-eyed if someone was too harsh with their feedback.
“Rodrigo,” I say, stopping him right in the middle of the foyer. His eyes are shiny with unshed tears. The pressure of this whole program is finally catching up to him.
“Everyone has been watching you since Worlds. You’ve already put Argentina on the map, my boy. I don’t care what happens today. Because you are already heading to the Olympic Games, remember?”
He nods and blinks a few times, but his breathing stays shallow.
“You are doing something no one from our country has done in decades,” I continue. “Today, a few more people are going to watch you skate. That’s it. Like you do every day. Then maybe they’ll come talk to you.”
“You did it,” he mumbles under his breath, averting my eyes.
I nudge his shoulder. “Not the same thing, and you know it.” And I want to explain that yes, I did it, against all odds. But instead I leave it there, because anything more would turn this into pressure he doesn’t need right now.
“Just enjoy it, Rodri. Being watched like this is the best part.”
I see the change happen in real time; his body’s shift from wired to calibrated. His shoulders loosen. His eyes scan the lobby of the building we’ve been training in for weeks. He’s growing into himself in ways that feel both satisfying and unsettling.
And every step forward he takes means I’ll have to decide what comes next for me, too.
Inside the rink, warm-up ice has already started. Blades cut steady arcs into the surface, the scrape echoing up into the rafters. I take my usual position at the boards, leaning my forearms against the cool barrier. The ice looks different under competition lighting. Sharper, less forgiving.
Rodrigo steps onto it with the confidence of someone who has rehearsed this moment a hundred times. His first pass is clean—triple, smooth exit, controlled glide. He doesn’t look at me at all after he lands his jump. He doesn’t need to anymore.
A coach I recognize from Worlds drifts closer, arms folded.
“He’s peaking at the right time,” she says, not looking at me.
“He’s been very consistent, yes,” I reply.
