Page 121 of My Last Dance
He held my shoulders, trying to steady me. “This isnotas strenuous as a hockey game, Piper,” he said, trying to downplay it.
“You shouldn’t have been playing hockey either.” I held my temples as my body shook with more tears.What should I do? I didn’t know what to do.
His face softened. “I met with the health team here. They’re now aware of the situation.” He said it like it irritated him, and I wanted to scream. “They’re on standby. They think it’s fine to skate for the Gala and then go in on Monday.”
Standby. A whole ass health team was on standby for a problem I was completely unaware of up until an hour ago. I rushed to the trash can and braced myself. My body lurched, but there was nothing left in my stomach.
Swearing under his breath, Kappy came up behind me and rubbed my back. “C’mon, Piper. It’s going to be okay. It’s only a slow two-and-a-half minute program. I’m asking you to dance with me, please,” he urged, offering me a water bottle.
“The health care team is really on standby? You promise? You’re not lying?” I asked, my hands shaking as I took the water.
“I promise,” he said earnestly.
I locked eyes with him. “And you’ll really go in on Monday?”
He swallowed hard.
“You’ll go in on Monday?” I repeated, my voice going pitchy with panic.
His jaw locked. “Only if you dance with me.”
Squeezing my eyes shut, I wanted to fall into a heap on the floor, but I knew I couldn’t. Steeling my spine, I nodded and followed him out to the rink.
Kappy and Patrick whispered under their breaths to each other while I continued pacing until it was our turn to take the ice.
When the stadium lights shut out, we glided to our opening position.
And that’s when it dawned on me: We’d been speaking to each other through lyrics for years. And now I finally understood this particular song choice of his: He was sharing his thoughts out loud. He was asking if I’d still love him even when he changed, even when he couldn’t physically skate anymore, even when his heart stopped working.
My mind went back to my hotel room, back to everything he said to me this afternoon, and it became clear: Richard made peace with only being the man in my mantel picture. And that angered me more than any bad result or poor skating performance ever had.
Because this just wasn’t enough for me.
I wasn’t about to repeat past mistakes—mistakes like excusing the space and time between us.
I was no longer the girl who would wait around in hopes of earning points for my patience.
I was going to demand moretime—the way I should have with every relationship in my life, the way I should have from the very beginning with him.
I was going todemandhis heart to keep going.
Because what we had was love, and I wasn’t letting it go.
The first few chords floated in the air and the spotlight hit us, making the crowd roar with thunderous applause, but I couldn’t even fake a smile.
He smoothly grabbed my thigh, and I stood tall as he spun me around him like a ballerina in a music box. I hated that my anger and fear turned into tears. My eyes went blurry, and no amount of blinking could clear my vision. Thank God for muscle memory because I couldn’t see a thing through the entire routine, but my body continued moving on its own accord.
By the time we hit our ending pose, we were both on our knees on the ice, leaning against each other.
Taking his face in my hands, I laid my forehead against his, and my shoulders shook with tears.
“Piper…” He features twisted into such helpless anguish that I couldn’t take it.
“You better still be here loving me when we’re old and gray,” I choked out. “That’s not an offer, it’s an order,” I said before wiping my eyes and skating off without him.
26. QUITTERS
Back in Chicago, he followed through with his promise and went to the hospital. Thanks to the Whalers’ medical team, he was able to see specialists right away. But I don’t think he was paying a single speck of attention to anything the doctors were telling him.
