AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Artie shifted from one foot to the other, glancing over at me before back down to the ice. “I’m just having trouble keeping it together once everything starts moving and before I know if I’m kind of just guessing where Ciara is at with the choreo…”
“I wasn’t talking about you, Artem.” Eli turned to shoot me a withering look.
My spine straightened as I held my hands up defensively. “What did I do?”
Eli scoffed at my tone. “This was your idea but you’re trying to lead the entire damn thing. Just like you always have.”
“I do not do that and I resent even the accusation of it…” I muttered under my breath but the man just ignored me.
“If you two really want this to work, Callaghan, you’re going to have to change that stubborn ass mindset of yours and let Artie lead. You watch him and sync with his movements because half the damn time he can’t see what you’re doing.”
I hated to admit it… but he was right. Glancing over at Artie, I found that his shoulders had sunk again. The omega was obviously despondent over our clear lack of progress.
On our own, we were great skaters, but together it was like we were learning how to do it all over again from scratch.
Eli looked between the two of us before sighing. “Ice practice is done for the day.”
“What? But we’ve still got another hour!” I protested, loathe to give up the ice any earlier than we had to.
“You may have another hour but you two are going to sit your happy asses down on this bench and actually get to know each other,” Eli said, pointing at the bench behind him.
Artie frowned. “And how are we supposed to do that?”
Eli looked as if he was about to start yelling, but he finally sucked in a calming breath before throwing his hands up in the air.
“I don’t know! However the hell you young people get to know each other these days. Play fifty questions for all I care, but if I come back in fifteen minutes and you aren’t engrossed in deep, meaningful conversation then I’m going to bar you from the ice for the rest of the week!”
With that the man turned and ducked out of the doors to the lobby, leaving Artie and me alone.
I wasn’t very good at “getting to know” people. My track record with anyone outside of my family was… not good.
Glancing over at Artie, I realized that he seemed to be having the same problem as me.
With a sigh, I skated to the edge of the ice and put my skate guards on before wobbling over to the bench and flopping down.
“So,” I began, searching my mind for a question—any question—to ask. “Do you have a favorite color?”
Artie stood, frowning at me, and for a moment I was scared he was going to refuse to answer entirely. Then he humored me.
Once he’d settled in next to me, he untied his skates and popped them off. “I like the color blue. My mum does too—painted nearly every wall in the house some shade of it. You?”
“Green.” I answered, not elaborating because as soon as I said it a certain alpha’s green eyes popped into my head.
The corner of Artie’s mouth pulled up into a half-smile, like he could read my mind and he knew that my thoughts had strayed to his packmate the way they often did these days.
“What’s your favorite food?” I hurried to ask before he could say anything else.
We went back and forth like that for who knows how long until I knew what his favorite food was, where’d he’d gone to university, how he’d gotten into figure skating. He knew about what I liked to the extent that no one outside of my family knew.
The questions and answers were easier now and I found myself laughing at him as he told me a story about something Enzo had done that sounded nothing like the surly, frowning alpha.
“He just doesn’t look like the type to pull pranks,” I told him honestly.
Artie’s easy grin faded. “He wasn’t always the alphahole that’s been rearing its ugly head these days. When we first met he was so fun. Everyone always knew it would be a good time if Enzo showed up and while we Brits rag on Americans, we do love to party with them.”
“And he’s changed because of your…?” I gestured to my own eyes.
The omega nodded, his cloudy blue eyes slanting away from me as his lips came together into a tight line. “It was like life poured a bucket of ice water on him that day. He threw himself into protecting me and all he saw were potential dangers—even when my eyesight was better than it is now.”
