The tip of his tongue went to the inside of his cheek, and those ice blue eyes narrowed on me. Did everything about him have to be immaculate all the damn time? “You’re the worst liar, you know that?” he asked.
“You’re a shitty liar,” I said before I could stop myself.
He shook his head, and I noticed not a single one of his pitch-black hairs moved. “You said you would do whatever needed to be done so we could win, didn’t you?”
I nodded slowly.
He raised an eyebrow. “So, I’m telling you what’s wrong, and you need to fix it.”
Oh my God. “It’s been one day, and I told you what’s wrong. Your hand placement is weird.”
“My hand placement isn’t weird.”
“It is,” I repeated myself.
He blinked. “No one else has ever complained.”
I blinked back. “No one else has probably had the balls to complain,” I told him. “I’ll get used to it. I’m sure you’re doing it right—”
“I am. Want to go look at the trophies in the case on the way out?” the ass asked.
I blew out a breath and gave my wrist a shake… because it was a little achy, not because I wanted to punch him already. Nope. “Do you admire them on the way in and out every day? Polish them up every Sunday? Give them a little kiss?”
Ivan’s mouth opened and then closed.
I smiled. “I’ll get used to it.”
He blinked. “It’s not you getting used to it that’s the problem. You don’t trust me. I can feel it.”
“I trust you not to drop me on purpose,” I said slowly, not liking where this was going. “I think you’d want to figure this out as soon as possible. You wouldn’t want to waste time.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” he said slowly, instantly drawing a line up my spine.
“Look, Satan, how do you expect me to trust you in like the six hours we’ve been practicing?” I snapped before I could stop.
That drew that freaky, joyous smile I’d only seen on his face when we were bickering. “I knew it.”
“No shit, Sherlock. I know you’re not going to drop me on purpose, but what do you want me to do? We don’t like each other. I’m constantly expecting you to not watch out for me, no matter what I tell myself.”
He raised an eyebrow, and I didn’t miss how he didn’t argue the fact we didn’t like each other. Ass. “You need to. Lee thinks we can do this in a year, and I know I can do it in a year—”
I rolled my eyes because I was pretty sure he thought he could do or master anything in that time.
Okay, maybe I thought the same thing about myself, but it was different. I wasn’t a prick for no reason and only to one person.
“—but we need to get over this, and we need to do it soon. You’re hesitating because you don’t trust me because of that idiot before me, so what do you want from me? Or what do you need from me so we can get there?”
That time, it was my turn to blink, because who the fuck was this person? What do you need from me? What the fuck? And why was he bringing up Paul?
Him catching me off guard must have been on my face because he sighed. “I don’t have all day.”
Oh God. “Neither do I.” I didn’t say “shit face,” but I thought it. “Look, I don’t know. I told you, my head knows you won’t drop me on purpose, but the rest of me doesn’t trust it. A week ago, I wouldn’t have trusted you to catch me doing a trust fall. I don’t know how to fix that.”
Ivan blinked. “You aren’t my first new partner, and this is only for a year, so let’s figure it out. You want my word?”
“Notice how you didn’t say you would’ve caught me doing a trust fall.”
“I wouldn’t have.”
I fucking knew it.
“That was then, this is now, Meatball. You want my word I won’t purposely let you get hurt?”
I almost laughed. “Your word? You remember all the other words you’ve told me over the years?”
That jaw of his went hard, making his perfectly sculpted face look tight.
“That’s what I thought.”
“What do you want me to do? Lee’s going to ask what I did to fix this, and I want to tell her I did everything I needed to. Tell me.”
Tell him?
I slid a look to the side before sliding it back to him. “Tell me something embarrassing.”
He didn’t even hesitate. “No.”
I would have smiled if this was someone other than him. “Uh-huh. Who’s the one with the trust issues now, jackass?” I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll get over it. Everything will be fine. I need this more than you do. I’ll figure it out, and everything will be fine.”
It had to.
“Fine.”
I glanced back down and finished tying my shoelace before getting to my feet. God, I really was going to need to ice myself tonight. Maybe even do a whole ice bath. Fuck. I didn’t miss those.
Rolling back my shoulders, which I hadn’t realized were so tight, I glanced at Ivan, who had moved at some point and was busy sliding his feet into what looked like slipper boots.
Whatever. I wanted to get home.
I took a step toward the door and hesitated. We were partners now. For a year. I could be better. I would be. So, I glanced over my shoulder and called out, “See ya.”
I didn’t even add a name to the end of it. That had to mean something.
I waited all of maybe two seconds before I realized he wasn’t going to respond—ass—and headed toward the door, telling myself that it didn’t matter he didn’t say anything. What the hell else was I expecting? Him to actually be friendly? I knew what this was and what this wasn’t.
He’d said it already. One year. That was all we were going to have together.
And he wanted it bad enough to talk to me about what was wrong so we could fix it.
At least I could trust him enough to know I could always rely on him to make the best business decision.
Did I trust him? Hell no. At least not enough. But for what it mattered, yes.
Pulling up the waistband of my leggings, which had gotten stretched out from practice, I rolled my shoulders, sucked in my stomach to see if it was really as sore as I thought it was—and it was—and decided I might as well drop by the convenience store and pick up two bags of ice. Ice baths were pretty much torture, and there were very few things I hated more than them, but… I was going to hate being in pain even more. I just needed to woman up and handle it.
But still, my bones already hurt just thinking about it.
With a shiver racing up my spine that made me feel like a little bitch, I made my way down the hall as quickly as I could. The faster I got home, the better. I could still squeeze in movie night with my mom and Ben.
No one had really batted too many eyelashes at us this morning when we’d skated together, but I figured it was only because everyone in the mornings was too focused on themselves to care. It was the other people, the ones in the afternoon, that would talk.
And if I hadn’t already told my mom about the situation, she would have definitely found out somehow.
I wasn’t going to tell my brothers or sisters in advance, mostly because I liked it when they all lost their shit over things and threw tantrums. It made me laugh. And it made me happy that they cared.
Continuing to roll my shoulders back in place as I walked, I turned down another hall and stopped. Because down the hall by the doors was one figure I knew too well and another that was familiar but not as much. It was Galina and the girl she had replaced me with, and from her body language, I could tell Galina was aggravated. I’d done it enough to her over the years to know exactly what it looked like.
And from the way the girl was rubbing at her cheeks, I could tell she was crying.
She had never made me cry, but I could see how she’d do it to other people who didn’t understand.
Continuing down the hall, wishing I’d brought my bag with me so I could find my headphones and put them on and pretend I couldn’t hear them, I could see and hear Galina talking to the younger girl in a hushed voice that only let me catch onto bits and pieces of her Russian accent. Something about expectations, goals, and not giving up.
I’d probably gotten halfway down the hall when both of them turned around to look at me.