Page 77 of Ice Princesses
“She’s fast,” Cecilia says, grabbing a stack of papers from my desk and perusing them lazily. “But she’s not consistent enough to compete at the level you want her to in this discipline. Not long term.”
“And you think—what?”
“I think she’d be better in dance,” she says simply. “Her edge quality is almost there. Her musicality is better than she realizes. We just need to find her a partner.”
“We?”
She looks up at me then, steady and certain. “I mean… your program.You.”
The correction comes quickly, almost automatically, like she hears it as soon as it leaves her mouth and tries to pull it back into something safer, something that doesn’t assume too much.
But it’s already there. The seed has been planted by her competency.
I don’t say anything right away. I just watch her for a second longer than necessary, the papers half-forgotten inher hands. Her posture shifts under the weight of her own words and the way I’m looking at her, I think.
A smile pulls at my mouth before I can stop it.
“Right,” I say lightly, but there’s something warmer under it now. “My program.”
Her eyes flick to mine, searching, like she’s trying to read how I took it, whether she overstepped or said too much or not enough.
Then I huff out a quiet laugh, shaking my head once. “You’re already planning my expansion strategy?”
She relaxes a little at that, one shoulder dropping. “I’m just saying, if you’re serious about building something here—and I know you are—you can’t think small.”
“I like the way you think,” I say, reaching for the papers she’s holding but not taking them from her. Her fingers tighten slightly on the stack before she lets me have it. “What would you do next?”
“Well,” she says, her eyes studying my face. I don’t know what she’s looking for, but there’s a spark there that I only see when she’s on the ice with Rodrigo. “I would do some scouting at Internationals, to start.”
“But don’t you think those dancers might have established partners?”
“Hmm,” she murmurs. “I mean, you’re Isabella Pierce. I think you could convince anyone to join your program.”
I let out a quiet breath through my nose, a small smile pulling at my mouth. “That sounds like a dangerous amount of confidence in me.”
“It’s not confidence,” she says almost casually, but her gaze lingers. “It’s observation.”
“Is that why you joined my program, Ceci?”
Her mouth curves at that, slow and deliberate. She taps the edge of the desk with her thumb, like she’s buying herself a second.
“I didn’tjoinyour program,” she says finally, softer now. “I brought you a skater you couldn’t ignore.”
I laugh louder than I mean to, and that makes her grin. “That’s one way to frame it.”
“It’s the correct way,” she replies, but there’s a hint of a smile still there, something warmer underneath her deflection.
My eyes drop briefly to her mouth before I catch myself. The air between us tightens in a slow, delicate way—the way it’s been all week, circling something without naming it.
“Careful, Princess,” she murmurs. “You keep encouraging me and I might start making decisions I can’t justify on paper.”
I glance up at her, meeting her eyes fully this time. “Maybe I want you to.”
CHAPTER 27
CECILIA
Showingup at someone’s house unannounced is the kind of impulsive decision that usually ends with me regretting it. The kind that later turns into ghosting the person entirely, just to avoid the awkward conversation about why I appeared in the first place.
