Page 92 of The Fall

I laugh and hold back the urge to kiss him. We’re not exactly hiding our relationship, but Tati asked us not to call attention to it. At least not yet. We need to focus on getting through this first competition.

Many of the skaters stare and whisper as we walk past. I imagine most people want to know what happened with Max. He didn’t release a statement, and we only said that he was moving on to pursue other opportunities. I know that’s not enough detail for all the nosey people out there, but no one is entitled to my business.

There was even concern for Logan’s previous partner, Cassandra. Why did he retire and leave her, only to come out of retirement a few months later? Logan hasn’t reached out to her, and as far as I know, she hasn’t reached out to him, but if the comments on my most recent video are any indication of people’s true thoughts, I know the fans are definitely curious.

Logan does better at ignoring people’s stares than I do. While he shakes a few hands and smiles as we make our way to the warm-up area, I send several glaring looks to people I can feel staring at us.

During our warm-up, Logan makes me focus on him, which helps. I tune everything out and focus on stretching my muscles. When we get on the ice, it’s just me and him. The rest of the world disappears as we prepare to debut our partnership to everyone.

The next morning, I’m more than ready to hit the ice with Logan. While the past few weeks have been exhausting, I feel really, really good about us. Skating with Max was great. We were in sync and did well. But Logan is more intuitive, not only with his own skating but with mine. He anticipates how my body will move. He’s ready for anything. Even if I have a minor slip-up, he tends to make it look like it was supposed to happen. There’s a reason he was on Team USA two Olympics in a row. He’s the best of the best, and now he’s mine.

When our names are called, we skate onto the ice and get in position. Logan is behind me with his hands on my waist. He leans down and whispers, “Let’s give them something to talk about, baby.”

Our music starts, and we do what we came to do.

We skate and dance our hearts out, and by the end of our program, I’m beyond proud of what we’ve accomplished.

Natalia is jumping and clapping in the stands. My heart is racing as the crowd goes wild. I try to ignore everyone else and focus on this moment with Logan. He drops his forehead to mine.

“We did it,” I say.

He smiles. “We did it.”

At the end of the next day, we walk away with first place, securing our spot in the sectional competition, which is exactly what we came here to do.

THIRTY-FOUR

LOGAN

The Midwestern Sectional competition comes quick. Savannah and I, well, mostly Savannah, prepared incessantly. We skate almost every day. I’ve had to force her to take rest days, which sometimes involved me turning off her alarm once she was already asleep so she wouldn’t know. I’m not proud of that, but she was going to run herself into the ground without my interference.

Plus, there’s no point in her practicing without me, and I sure as hell am not skating every single day when it’s not necessary. That’s how you burn out. I’ve been there and I never want to do it again.

We got great feedback from the judges in Nebraska but still have a few things we could work on. Which we did.

All that hard work is what led us to this podium with silver medals around our necks at the Midwestern Sectional in Michigan.

It’s amazing what we’ve managed to accomplish in such a short time, and it’s only a small preview of what’s to come.

My arm is tight around Savannah’s waist. I’ve never seen her smile so wide as she waves at my mom, her parents, and Kelsey, who all came to Michigan to support us.

Once we’re released from the podium, we skate off the ice and are ushered straight into interviews. Interviews certainly aren’t my favorite part of the job, but I manage. Savannah, however, loathes interviews, so I’ve decided to make this as painless as possible for her by doing most of the talking.

The first interviewer congratulates us and asks how it’s going skating together.

“It’s easy to skate with someone like Savannah. She’s very skilled. We worked really hard to get here.”

“I see that. It’s incredible how quickly you two came together on the ice,” the interviewer states.

I nod. “Yes. We had no time to waste. Savannah and I have big dreams. We’re both willing to put in the work to make that happen.” She squeezes my hand at that answer. She’s thanked me over and over again the past few weeks. I keep telling her she doesn’t need to thank me. I’d do anything for her. All she has to do is say “jump,” and I’ll ask “how high.” No questions asked.

“You two have such great chemistry on the ice. Did you know each other before this partnership?”

“No. We’d met in passing at events like this.” Like me accidentally breaking her ankle. “But we didn’t really know each other. I was her coach for a little bit, but our chemistry came naturally. It’s an honor to skate with Savannah. She’s the love of my life, and I plan on marrying her the second she agrees to it.”

Savannah’s body goes rigid at my confession. Even the interviewer seems stunned. We still haven’t made our relationship public, and I hate that. I want people to know that I’m hers and she’s mine. We’re a team in everything we do, and we worked hard to get to this point in our relationship.

“Oh, I didn’t realize you two were together together.”