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“I think this sounds like a great plan,” I said. “We can definitely work something out.”
I sat and finalized some details with Bergy while Levi helped Sophie remove all her gear and bundle up to head home. Within ten minutes, I had my first steady client lined up, and some weight lifted off my shoulders. Not bad, for an afternoon of skating.
Once she was ready to go, she came over and gave me another big hug, squeezing my ribs almost to the point of bruising.
I squeezed her back. “I’ll see you on Tuesday, okay?”
“Okay. I love you, Cadence.”
“Love you, too.” It was easy to love Sophie. To open up and let her worm her way into my heart. I only wished letting someone else in was so easy.
Someone like Levi.
Whether I wanted him in my heart or not, he was finding a way to get there. But while letting Sophie in felt like the warm summer sun hitting my face, letting Levi in felt like pieces of me were breaking off. Shattering. Splitting in half. The problem was, I wasn’t sure if the pieces he was ripping open at the seams were really meant to stay where I’d put them or not. Maybe it was for the best, even if it hurt. How could something good cause so much pain? But then again, it was easiest to rip the Band-Aid straight off, right? That was the old wisdom.
As usual, when it came to this budding courtship between us, I ended up with more questions than answers.
“That was nice of you,” Levi said as we watched Sophie bound out of the rink with Bergy following behind her, carrying her gear.
I took a seat next to him and started unlacing my skates. “It wasn’t nice. It was the least I could do for your best girlfriend.” I glanced up to see how he’d reacted to my teasing.
The skin around his eyes crinkled with a silent laugh. “Was that for her, or for me?”
“I don’t know.” I shook my head, somewhat surprised to realize that it was absolutely the truth. I wasn’t sure who I’d done it for. “Maybe for both of you.”
“If you don’t mind, I’m going to pretend you did it for me. All for me.” He cocked me a grin and winked.
I laughed. “Tell yourself whatever you want.”
“I’m trying to let her down easy. The last thing I want to do is break that little girl’s heart, you know?”
“Let her down easy?” I said, and something squeezed around my lungs. No, not my lungs—my heart. It was my heart that stopped working, which made it impossible to breathe. “Because of me?”
He shrugged. “I’m still waiting. Hoping.”
If I wasn’t careful, he wouldn’t have to wait too much longer.
“Any chance you’re going to be ready to let me kiss you sometime soon?” he asked.
And even though a piece of my heart was desperate to say yes, I nibbled on the inside of my lower lip and shook my head. “I don’t think so. Not yet.”
“Okay.” He didn’t sound too insanely frustrated, at least. But when I met his eyes, I could tell he saw more in mine than I’d hoped for. He could see I was wavering. That he was wearing me down with patience and persistence and charm, not to mention his kindness when it came to Sophie.
That realization would only give him more hope. And there was some small part of me that refused to believe it was bad to let him have hope.
In fact, I was starting to hope, too.
WITH ALL THEgentleness in the world, Anthony lowered me to my skates and put his hand on my waist, drawing me back into position following the star lift we’d just done—the first time we’d done one flawlessly together. Everything about the trick had felt right.
“Yes!” Ellen called out from the boards, cheering us on. “That’s exactly what I want. Now do it again, and don’t either of you change a thing.”
Anthony squeezed my hand gently, and as one we inhaled and took off with our left foot. Everything we’d done in the last week had been to improve our synchronicity, learning to breathe in time with each other, to match our strides, to anticipate the other’s actions two beats before they would happen. All our hard work was paying off. It was crazy to think that less than a month had passed since our first skate together.
It was all starting to come together. We had officially agreed to a partnership now, which meant I needed to start moving on the massive amounts of paperwork I needed to file. It wasn’t unheard of for a government to push through citizenship for an athlete who could compete at my level, especially considering I’d already won gold once, because of the prestige of international competition. Anthony and I would definitely have to sit out this season, but we could potentially be ready to compete next year. That would give us two full years leading up to the next Winter Games. But none of this would happen if I didn’t file all the appropriate forms and convince the U.S. President to push things through. That was next on my to-do list.
After three strides, Anthony’s hands were at my waist, and in no time I was soaring high in the air above him, my arms and legs locked into position, my abs tight to keep me balanced. At exactly the same moment, we shifted my position in the air, easily finding a new center point. Three seconds until the dismount. One, one thousand. Two, one thousand. Three, one thousand. He changed his grip and brought me back to earth. My skate blades met the ice in a feather-light caress, not like the way Guy would sometimes plunk me down following a lift. Guy had never been overly careful with me. He’d expected me to look out for myself. Working with Anthony was a nice change of pace.
“All right,” Ellen said, her enthusiasm bringing her face to life and erasing the lines around her mouth and eyes. “Do that three more times, perfectly in sync with each other, and then we can call it a day.”
