Page 44

Kappy’s breathing went a little ragged. I knew that feeling. Between cramming in as much as possible and the heightened nerves, warm-ups usually winded me as well.

“You good?” I asked, gliding beside him.

He rolled his lips together and nodded.

“We can rest. I don’t think we need this last min—”

Another couple came right at us, making me shriek and cover my face. But I didn’t need to. With shocking quickness, Kappy wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me back.

My hand flew to my chest, trying to calm myself down. “Thank you,” I squeaked out.

Blowing out a breath, Kappy nodded and leaned against the boards, trying to calm himself.

“Sorry, we didn’t see you there!”

My eyes snapped up to see a familiar face. Wearing a bright red dress that cut deep with mesh between her boobs and down to her bellybutton, Annie stood there with a condescending smile on her red lips .

Anger roared to life in my body. Taking a protective stance in front of Kappy, I snapped, “Oh, you’re sorry, really?”

I knew Annie’s tactics. She did that on purpose to rattle us.

“We are sorry,” a deeper voice, her partner, said. He tugged Annie away, but she kept looking over her shoulder, smirking at us.

“How the hell is that witch related to Al Pal?” Kappy said between gritted teeth.

“The world will never know. You good?”

“Yeah,” he grunted.

But looking at him, I gasped. He wasn’t good at all. His middle finger was bent at an unnatural angle.

No, no, no. This wasn’t happening.

“Skaters, the warm-up has concluded. Please leave the ice,” the announcer’s calculated voice said.

Kappy pushed off the boards to glide back to the entrance where Patrick was waiting for us.

I glided beside him, my eyes glued to his hand. “We need to fix that. We can’t skate like that.” I shook my head.

But he ignored me.

Bending slightly forward with his jaw clenched, he grasped his finger and popped it back into place, then shook his hand out.

“All better.” He gave me a tight smile and reached to hold my hand.

“Should thank Annie, that little pain pretty much deleted my nerves.” He rolled his shoulders, looking more relaxed.

Gently taking his hand, I gaped at him. “ Little pain?”

He chuckled. “I took a puck to the face and kept skating. I’m not getting off this ice unless it’s in a body bag.”

While stepping off the ice, we heard the rink-side broadcaster say, “You can take the skater out of hockey, but you can’t take the hockey out of the skater.”

Kappy grinned proudly and waved to the camera.

When it was finally our turn to skate, Kappy seemed totally at ease.

We took our opening stance for our Rhythm Dance—holding hands with our backs to each other so he could pull me into a fun lift right off the bat.

Silence descended while we waited for our music. My body trembled from the adrenaline coursing through my veins, and he could totally feel it. He squeezed my hand three times, making me close my eyes and smile .

And then our music started.

I loved this program.

I loved skating to Gimme, Gimme, Gimme, while jumping into his muscular arms.

I loved playing this bubbly flirty character.

Because he was just as flirty back.

During our little dance in front of the judges, it felt like we let go, and we actually laughed. We were having fun, just like we did when we were young.

We made it through our step-sequence, through our hydroblade, and through our spin. We smiled triumphantly at each other after each element.

By the time we hit the last thirty seconds of our program, my legs felt like lead, but I willed myself to skate with my heart as we pushed into our last lifts.

We were strong.

We were fierce.

We were flying.

We were going to Nationals.

I could feel it.

As soon as we hit our ending pose, the crowd erupted around us, but I couldn’t care less.

I was fully focused on Kappy’s bright smile.

His body shuddered with a laugh. “God, that was fun, P,” he said, pressing a kiss to my forehead, and my heart soared.