Page 107 of Ice Princesses
“I haven’t even decided anything.”
“Sure,” Sandra replies. “But you’re thinking about it, aren’t you?”
I nod once.
“And you’re not going to tell her,” she adds.
“I don’t know what to say,” I admit, quieter now. “It’s not like we’ve had any type of conversation about anything. Last time I saw her, we said we wouldplay it by ear, and then she went to Ireland to find a replacement for Rodrigo and I was left standing there in her kitchen like a desperate little?—”
Sandra huffs out a breath, shaking her head slightly. “You could start with the truth.”
I let out a short, humorless laugh. “That seems extremely aggressive.”
“Only because you’ve been avoiding it.”
We stand there for a second, the noise of the rink filling the space between us. Rodrigo skates past on his last warm-up lap, focused, steady, completely in his own world.
“You don’t have to figure it out today,” Sandra says finally. “But you do have to stop pretending this is not happening.”
I nod again, even though I’m not sure what that actually looks like in practice.
“Remember when you retired?” There’s a faint smile on her face. “You were so sure that was the end for you.”
I shrug. “It felt like it.”
“It felt like that because you were done fighting for something that wasn’t giving you anything back,” she says.
She’s right. I remember exactly what that felt like—waking up every day already tired, already bracing forsomething that was supposed to matter and somehow didn’t anymore. I remember deciding that was enough, that I was done asking—pleading—for something that wasn’t there. And something in my chest tightens.
She nods towards the ice. “And then Rodrigo showed up, and you built something anyway. Despite everything we had against us. You are making history with him, Ceci.”
I press my lips together and try not to blink.
“You’ve been waiting for something to meet you halfway for a long time,” she adds, softer now.
I don’t look at her.
“Maybe this is it.”
The doors open again, and I swear I don’t mean to look.
I do anyway.
Every time.
CHAPTER 37
ISABELLA
I saysomething to the person in front of me, quick and impatient, and then I’m moving. Not rushing or drawing attention, I don’t think, but closing the space between Cecilia and me like I’ve done it a hundred times already.
Like this is normal.
“Hey,” she says when she gets close enough, meeting me halfway in the lobby of the facility where the International Skating Championship is starting in just a few hours.
“Hey,” I reply. We don’t stop to pretend this is a casual chat.
Her hand finds mine, quick and certain, and pulls me down a corridor without asking, past the open doors and the noise and the people who don’t matter right now. I let her lead.
