AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And how am I a disappointment now, Father?”
His face lacked any and all emotion. “The amount of money we spent for you to be able to get to the professional level of golf, and you take the advice of some old, washed-up golfer who tells you to take a break. For fucking what? So you can be mentally fit?” He let out a harsh laugh that slid across my eardrums like sandpaper. “I hate to break it to you, son, but you’ve always been fucked in the head. That’s not something any amount of time or medication can fix.”
The color drained from my face. The wind had left my sails. Instead of the lava running over, the volcano inside me vanished.
I hated him.So fucking much.
Turning my back to my parents, I strode through the dining room, pushing the doors open in a rush as I stepped out into the hall. My mother’s footsteps followed behind me as I entered the foyer and walked to the front door.
“Malakai, wait,” my mother called out, her voice frantic and her words slurred. She was on my heels as I walked through the front door and her hand darted out to grab my wrist as we stepped onto the driveway. “Your father didn’t mean that. He must have just had a bad day. You know how he can be sometimes.”
“You always have some kind of an excuse for the way he acts,” I shouted at her as I ripped my arm from her grip. “When will you stop defending him?”
She looked back at me like I had just struck her across the face. There was a blankness to her stare, though, and I knew my words were falling on deaf ears.
“Fucking forget it,” I breathed, my words barely audible. “I won’t be coming back here again, but you know how to get a hold of me if you want to meet at a more neutral location. Without him.”
I left her standing there without another word. As I climbed into my car, I chanced one glance back at the front of their house and saw that my mother must have retreated back inside. She was no longer watching me. I knew she went back to see him because if my mother ever had to choose between her husband and child, it would always be him.
As I reached the end of their driveway and pulled through the gates, the weight on my chest was crushing. It was threatening to swallow me whole and I needed to just breathe. I whipped my car onto the road and pressed on the gas pedal as the vehicle surged forward.
I didn’t give two fucks about speeding. There were no other cars on the road, so I wasn’t putting anyone's life in danger but my own. I was conflicted and torn. It felt like the walls I had built around myself were crumbling. There was only one place I would go in moments like this, but I was no longer welcome there.
I was the last person Winter would want to see, but I couldn’t help myself.
I needed to see her.
CHAPTER EIGHT
WINTER
Standing in the center of the ice rink, I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath. My lungs expanded as they filled with the cold air. It burned but I couldn’t fight the smile that crept across my lips. It was so familiar and it was exactly what I needed to calm my soul. It was hard to describe the smell, but if you were ever in an ice rink, you would always remember it.
It was similar to the smell of snow. Especially under the moonlight as it fell from the sky above, covering everything around you. There was something about the quiet, calmness. Ice was deadly, yet it was also magical, just like snow.
My parents got it right when they named me. I was definitely a winter child.
I didn’t know where else to go after I ran into Kai. I wasn’t able to get in with my parents' lawyer until Tuesday morning, so I needed to do something to keep myself busy. My interview was the same day and that had my stomach in knots. I didn’t want to have too much going on that day and be stressed out, but it was all going to work out.
If I was going to be back in Orchid City, I needed to do something that was going to keep me busy. I needed to distract my mind, especially since he was back. I wasn’t going to let myself sit at home and obsess over the past with him. What was done was done and there was no going back.
I ended up at the ice rink that I grew up skating at. They had changed their freestyle times and it ended up being this evening. I was surprised when I found that the rink was barely occupied. A few other skaters moved around the ice, but it wasn’t nearly as busy as it could get. Ice time was always a struggle when you were competing with hockey. Most rinks catered more to hockey than they did to figure skating.
Skating professionally was always my dream. I think it was every little girl's dream who grew up on the ice. My heart clenched at the thought of what I had given up to come back here. I gave it all up, but my head wasn’t really in it. As much as I enjoyed competitions, there was a part of me that always hated it. And I had given up trying to compete against my sister and her accomplishments.
Skating professionally and competitively wasn’t for me. I belonged on the ice, but on my own time, at my own leisure. I wanted to teach and help mold others who were learning. As I opened my eyes, I began to skate backward, letting the music that played throughout the rink match my movements. Nothing else mattered except for my skates and the way they moved across the ice.
I skated with the best of them and I wanted to use that for more than just myself. I wanted to give back, to help the kids that were starting their own figure skating journeys. I just wasn’t sure how to get involved. When I was younger, I used to help with learn-to-skate programs, but that was different from being a coach.
As the freestyle time came to an end, I left the ice and sat on one of the benches as I pulled my skates off. An older woman approached me. Her dark hair was cut short and framed her face. A soft smile touched her lips as she stared down at me for a moment.
“Are you Winter?” she asked me.
My eyebrows pulled together. “Yes,” I said with hesitation as I put my skates into my bag and rose to my feet. “And you are?”
“Linda,” she told me as she held her hand out for me to shake it. “I run the Orchid City Figure Skating Club. I’ve heard a lot about you. You’re kind of a legend here at the rink with how far you’ve gone with figure skating.”
My throat constricted and I smiled back at her. “Thanks,” I nodded. “I don’t really compete anymore, though.”
