I nod once, trying to pretend he’s not flustering me. “As long as you keep your puck on your side.”
I hold his gaze a second too long before I force myself to focus on the ice. My heart is beating fast, and I hate that he still has this effect on me.
Without warning, more lights flicker on overhead. “Victoria, what are you doing here?” My dad stands in the entryway, looking at me in shock.
I freeze as my voice sticks in my throat. We’resobusted.
Dad looks over at Leo, and his face shifts to relief. “Oh... I didn’t realize you were with your new partner.”
My face snaps to Leo’s. “Wait . . . what?”
Dad frowns. “You didn’t tell her yet?”
“What are you talking about?” I demand, my voice rising.
“You haven’t been able to find a skating partner,” Dad explains. “So I arranged one for you.”
I let out a disbelieving laugh. “Leo Anderson?” I scoff. “Oh,heckno. Leo is most definitelynotmy new skating partner.”
Leo leans lazily against his stick, smirking like he’s been waiting for the perfect moment to drop this bomb on me.
“This willnotwork,” I declare, skating toward the bench. “Even if hell froze over, I wouldn’t skate on it with Leo Anderson.”
Leo arches an eyebrow, his mouth twitching, like he finds this amusing.Of course he does.
Dad holds up a hand to stop me from leaving. “I realize this is not ideal.”
I let out a laugh. “Understatement of the year.”
“But you can’t work by yourself,” he says. “You need someone to practice with until Ben gets better.”
“Him?” I say, pointing at Leo, trying to keep my voice under control. “Are you trying to ruin my life?”
Dad knows we dated in college. How could he forget how disastrously it ended? My parents never thought Leo was good enough for me. So why, of all people, would he pick himnow?
“Do you have another option?” Dad asks, eyebrows raised. He knows full well I don’t.
Every competitive pairs skater in the region is partnered up. I can’t exactly borrow some junior league skater who’s still learning algebra without it looking extremely awkward.
But that still doesn’t answer the question of why Leo agreed to it.
I turn to Dad. “What did you do to get him to agree—bribehim?”
Leo crosses his arms. “No, Victoria. You’re my community service project.” His mouth tilts up.
Oh, great.Glad my comeback attempt is everyone’s favorite punchline.
I shake my head. “No. Absolutely not.” I skate off the ice, not looking at either of them. “Anyone but him.”
From the corner of my eye, I can see Leo watching me, arms still folded, probably gloating over this arrangement.
I yank off my skates at the bench, practically throwing them into my bag. “I’m not some charity project, no matter how desperate I appear.”
Dad sighs. “I’m not paying your coach to sit around. You need a partner, and Leo needs hours. What’s the big deal?”
What’s the big deal?I want to scream. I’ll have to work closely with Leo.Every. Freaking. Day.I can’t do that, no matter how convenient this is for my dad.
“The answer is no,” I fire back, storming away from the rink. “Sharing the ice for a night is one thing. But skating with him? Completely unacceptable.”
