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But a lot of it they’d picked up without much help at all. Lou had risen to the challenge with the same fierceness I’d seen her approach every part of her skating, and the occasional snarky remarks she exchanged with Jasper only seemed to add more vigor to her powerfully graceful moves.
As for Jasper… He’d been tense to start, but he was pretty much always at least a little stiff during practice. I’d watched him loosen up more than ever before while he had to concentrate on Lou’s timing as well as his own.
He wasn’t worrying about how fast or how high he could go on his own, only about matching another skater with at least as much talent as him. He tried to act as if he was still skeptical, but I’d even caught a few brief smiles when they’d nailed a spin.
Which meant it was time to try something a little more complicated.
I leaned over the boards to call out to them. “I think that’s enough work on the ice. We’re going to move on to lifts next.”
Lou skated over to me, looking unusually uncertain. “Lifts? Already?”
Jasper mirrored her expression; his silence was somehow louder than his usual sarcasm.
“You’ve got it.” I waved them back towards the stands. “You can take your skates off over there. You won’t need them for this.”
The two of them shared a look.
“Come on,” I stepped between them to lay my hands on each of their shoulders. “Don’t doubt me. Look at how far you’ve come already. Here, follow me. Let’s get our lift on!”
Jasper snorted. “Niko, no one says that.”
“I say that. Now come on, let’s —”
“Get our lift on,” Lou finished for me. I could hear the smile hiding underneath her words. “Yeah, yeah.”
They followed me back to one of the storerooms where I’d set up a little surprise for them earlier that day. Neither one spoke as they passed by the piles of equipment that I’d dragged out to make room for the —
“Foam pads?” Lou said once I’d pushed the door open.
A sea of thick blocks of foam layered the floor from wall to wall. We had to nudge some aside while walking inside, treading on others.
“Foam pads!” I said, grinning back at her. “So you don’t bust your head open or break your neck if you fall. You’re welcome.”
She stared at me a moment before nudging me in the shoulder playfully. “Okay, okay. Thank you. This is… I feelwaybetter about this now.”
“Of course,” Jasper said. “This is how serious figure skaters always practice lifts. Don’t tell me you didn’t know off-ice practice is a thing.”
Oh, Jasper.
I knew he was touchy lately, but every now and again, he’d gone out of his way to prod her. Lou usually shot back in kind or annoyed him even further by giving him some silly, singsong retort, but this time, she just stared down at her sneakers.
“No, I didn’t.” She twirled a strand of dark hair around her pinkie. “I’ve never skated with anyone else before. When I trained, it was just me and my coach. That’s all.”
“There weren’t any other skaters around trying things like this?” I asked.
Lou shook her head. “Nope, I’ve never seen lifts done except on TV and the live performances I’ve made it to.” She shot a cheeky grin at Jasper that didn’t totally reach her eyes. “So, if I suck at first, it’s not totally my fault.”
Jasper reached up to scratch behind the back of his head. I could see the discomfort scrawled across his face, but I wasn’t about to step in and help him out here.
He was the one who’d stuck his foot in his mouth and provoked that slump in Lou’s spirits when rarely anything seemed to faze her. Whatever was going on under his prickly exterior, I couldn’t sort it out for him.
As much as I wished I could.
“I’ve never practiced them either,” he admitted, staring pointedly at the foam pads I’d laid out on the floor. “So we can both suck together, Punk.”
The first hour was full of a lot of awkward positioning and sudden tumbles. But though Lou’s hesitation got the better of her at first, she gained confidence as quickly as she always seemed to. There was no denying her enthusiasm for giving the attempts her all.
Still, once she was up in the air, there were times when she would glance down at the ground and wobble in the palms of Jasper’s hands. Something about the way she was holding her body didn’t seem exactly right, but I couldn’t tell what it was.
