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Niko’s mouth twisted. He was normally so relaxed, but there was no mistaking the tension in his stance now as he tried to talk Jasper down.
“You know that’s not what I meant. Of course you’re drawing on all your talent. But you’ve got to let people fully see it. You’re so close to mastering this spin. Come on, from the top, let’s keep at it.”
Jasper’s expression hardened, but he cast off to attempt the move on his own, not even waiting to see if I’d join him. He whirled himself around with a kick of his legs, but even I could see that his temper was getting the better of him.
This time, his whole torso swayed too close to the ice. He broke out of the spin a rotation early with a string of curses.
Niko held up his hands. “All right. Take a breather, skate a few laps around the rink to cool down, and then we’ll come back to it. We’re not giving up until—”
“Oh, come off it,” Jasper interrupted in a snap as sharp as the blades of my skates. “You can quit coddling me. Maybe the problem is you’re not half as good a coach as you thought you’d be, and you don’t actually know how to solve any of this. You can stop treating me like a pity case and go skate your own fucking routine if you want to see it so badly.”
He shot off toward the stands and was stomping up the aisle the second he’d wrenched his skates off.
Okay, then. I had no idea what that fit of anger was all about, but apparently we were finishing practice early today.
I glanced toward Niko, expecting the easygoing man to crack a joke to ease up the mood, but his shoulders had slumped. Defeat was written across his delicately chiseled features.
My stomach sank. I pushed off to glide right over to his side.
“Hey. Are you okay? I don’t know what his deal is today, but you didn’t do anything wrong.”
Niko swiped his hand over his face. “I might not have this afternoon, but that isn’t the real issue. I thought I could shake him out of his slump—I thought I could fix the problem… But maybe that was ridiculous when it’s my fault in the end.”
I frowned. “What do you mean it’s your fault? You’ve beenhelpingJasper—it sounds like he’d still be holed up at his grandparents’ house not even skating if you hadn’t dragged him out here.”
“He might not have ended up there in the first place if I wasn’t so thoughtless.”
Thoughtless? That didn’t sound anything like the Niko I knew. I wasn’t sure if he’d just picked the wrong English word for what he meant or something beyond my comprehension was going on here, but I wasn’t leaving without getting to the bottom of this.
I nudged him toward the boards, and he meandered over with me. When he rested his arm against one, I set my hands on my hips.
“All right, I think you’d better tell me what’s the matter. What do you think you did? How could you have had anything to do with Jasper dropping out of the competitive circuit?”
Niko sighed and seemed to shake himself. “I’ve probably already said more than I should. Jasper wasn’t in the right headspace, and it seems I’m not either.”
“Oh no, you don’t. You’re my coach too—he’s my partner. If there’s something more going on, you’ve already gotten me mixed up in the middle of it. I have a right to know.”
His despondent expression wrenched at my heart, but he squared his shoulders as my comments got through to him. He raised his bright brown eyes to meet my gaze.
“It was just a quick moment. But sometimes something small can totally throw things off.”
“Something small like what?”
Niko ran his hand back through his streaked hair. “After one of the international competitions early last year, a bunch of us headed out to get some drinks. A little friendly celebration after the rivalries had been settled. I was a little… tipsy, that’s the word. And I think Jasper was too. We started chatting in a corner, and it seemed like there were… sparks. So I leaned in and kissed him.”
My eyes widened. “You and Jasper hooked up?”
A blush colored Niko’s cheeks.
“No,” he said quickly. “It was just the one kiss. Agoodkiss, but—”
He cut himself off with even more obvious embarrassment. “That’s not important. I don’t know if Jasper had ever done even that much with another man before. He kissed me back as if he was happy to, but then he acted awkward and left. And the rest of the international circuit, he kept floundering with his performance…”
The pieces clicked together in my head. So much made sense that I’d never have figured out without this crucial detail.
All the odd looks I’d seen pass between the two men. Niko’s determination to get Jasper back on his feet.
I stared at him. “Hold on. You think you kissing him sent him into his slump?”
