Page 91 of The Fall

THIRTY-THREE

SAVANNAH

If I thought I was stressed before, it was a hundred times worse now. The news dropped about my partner switch, and I was already getting hate email and bad comments on social media. There were nice ones from people excited to see Logan back on the ice, but all I could focus on were the bad ones.

“You’ve got to stop looking at those,” Logan says from over my shoulder.

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

I shrug. “I don’t know. I like to torture myself, I guess.”

He reaches down and locks my phone. “You don’t need that negativity right now. You know what really happened, and you know it wasn’t your fault. Random people on the internet will never understand, so there’s no point in trying to convince them.”

“I know. Everything would just be so much easier if they liked us.”

“They will like us. We just have to show them how good we are together. Now come on. Let’s skate. We’ll take a video that you can post to show them their nasty comments aren’t bothering us.”

“But they are bothering me,” I say.

He gives me a pointed look. “They don’t need to know that, though. Come on.”

He holds his hand out to me, and I take it. He’s been so patient with me over the last few weeks following the fallout with Max. Not only did he pick me up and find a solution, but he held me while I cried. He’s let me ramble on about how I can’t believe Max would do that to me. He talked to Tati. And he drove me to my parents’ house so we could tell them what happened. He’s done everything for me and kept me going so that I didn’t lose any steam in my training.

Not that I need a man to take care of me, but it has been nice to just shut my brain off while I slowly process how quickly everything has changed.

Logan and I skate really well together. Even Tati agreed. There were a few learning curves, like hand placement on lifts, but we worked them out quickly after hours of practicing. But we have to start from zero because the new partnership removes my current standings. We can’t afford to get anything wrong. Because of this, we have to squeeze in a regional competition to make sure we still qualify for the Midwest Sectional Competition.

We skate for hours and send several videos to Tati to review. She provides feedback via text, and by the time our regional competition comes around, I feel just as ready to compete with Logan as I did with Max.

The competition we entered is in Nebraska, so we decided to drive this time so Natalia could come with us. I don’t think anyone is more excited about Logan skating again than her. She’s even been stopping by the rink more to watch us skate, and she does it with the biggest smile on her face, too.

We drop her off at the hotel before we head to the rink. Tati couldn’t make it, so Logan is acting as our coach, too. This time I go with him to registration. The woman working the table is shocked to see Logan and doesn’t try to hide her appraisal of him, which irks me the wrong way.

“We certainly didn’t expect to see you here,” she says, flashing him a flirty smile.

He keeps his focus on the clipboard. “It was a bit of a last-minute thing.”

“Well, we’re happy to have you.” I watch as her eyes move from his face and down his body.

I clear my throat, and her attention finally moves to me. I smile sweetly at her, glad I got her attention off of Logan.

She blushes and looks back at the table. Logan finishes signing us in and then slips his hand to my lower back to move us away from the table.

“What was that?” he asks.

“Do women always stare so blatantly at you?”

He chuckles. “No idea. I’ve never really noticed.”

“Well, it’s annoying.”

He leans in to say, “That’s what happens when you have a hot boyfriend, I guess.”

I roll my eyes. “Hot and humble. What a package.”

“Don’t talk about my package, baby. Or we’ll never make it onto the ice.”