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.

“Yozik,” my former coach greeted me with a tight nod.

“Galina,” I said back to her before flicking my gaze over to the other girl and giving her a nod that probably resembled the older woman’s exactly. “Latasha.”

“Hello,” the younger girl greeted me, looking like she was holding her breath as she ducked her head. Maybe so I couldn’t see her eyes and know she was upset at getting scolded for whatever.

She couldn’t know I didn’t care, and I wasn’t going to tell her.

“Congratulations on the new partner,” Galina said. “I’m happy for you. It was only matter of time, I always knew.”

And that had me almost stumbling.

She was happy and she always knew? What did she always know?

“Your triple Lutzes will look beautiful together,” she kept going, and I could only look at her like I didn’t know her at all.

Where the fuck were all these compliments coming from and why?

“How many times you work on them?” Galina asked, her question pointless because she damn well knew how much I had worked on them. She’d been there. I had told her about all the times my mom had helped me film them so I could see what they looked like.

But I didn’t need to ask why she was asking me this. We’d been together too long for me not to know how her brain worked and what the purpose was. It was to make some kind of point to the younger girl.

“Five thousand times?” I told her with a shrug, because I could only guess. Numbers weren’t my strong point, and I’d lost count after a while.

“Did you cry doing it?”

Now she knew I damn well never cried, and as much as I didn’t want to upset this girl more than she already was by bringing that up, I wasn’t going to lie either. So all I did was shake my head, because actually saying the words felt too brutal. I changed the subject before Galina could keep asking me things that would only make the other girl upset. “Lina, can I ask you something in private?”

The older woman cocked her head to the side, like she was thinking about it, and gave me another of her decisive nods.

When I walked a little further down the hall, she followed after me and stopped at the same time I did. I jumped right into it. “What did Nancy Lee ask you about me?”

Her expression didn’t change, like she wasn’t surprised I was asking her. And she shouldn’t be. She knew I’d never had a problem asking questions. “If I thought you were done. That’s what she asked.”

I blinked.

“If you listened. If you worked hard. If I would coach you again,” she kept going, that hard-as-steel face focused on mine. “I say yes. I said you were meant to have a partner. You have the shoulders. The arms. It was me that didn’t follow you. I said to her you were the best I ever taught—”

I blinked.

“—you only live in that head too much, yozik. You know this. You care too much. You know this too. I tell her all this too. Nobody deserves a chance like Jasmine, I say.” Her gaze was intent on mine as she finished. “I also tell her you and Ivan will kill each other if you talk too much.”

She….

“You are welcome. You will not make me regret this, yes?”

She….

I swallowed. And before I could get another word out, Galina slapped me on the back of the head like she had a thousand times before and said, “I have things to do. We talk later.”

Chapter 6

I made it three days before the text messages started one afternoon while I was trying to finish warming up before our afternoon session. I had gotten to the LC later than usual and had gone straight to the training room, praising Jesus that I’d decided to change my clothes before leaving the diner once I’d seen what time it was and had remembered lunchtime traffic was a real thing. I was in the middle of stretching my hips when my phone beeped from where I’d left it on top of my bag. I took it out and snickered immediately at the message after taking my time with it.

Jojo: WHAT THE FUCK JASMINE

I didn’t need to ask what my brother was what-the-fucking over. It had only been a matter of time. It was really hard to keep a secret in my family, and the only reason why my mom and Ben—who was the only person other than her who knew—had kept their mouths closed was because they had both agreed it would be more fun to piss off my siblings by not saying anything and letting them find out the hard way I was going to be competing again.

Life was all about the little things.

So, I’d slipped my phone back into my bag and kept stretching, not bothering to respond because it would just make him more mad.

Twenty minutes later, while I was still busy stretching, I pulled my phone out and wasn’t surprised more messages appeared.

Jojo: WHY WOULD YOU NOT TELL ME

Jojo: HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME

Jojo: DID THE REST OF YOU KEEP THIS FROM ME

Tali: What happened? What did she not tell you?

Tali: OH MY GOD, Jasmine, did you get knocked up?

Tali: I swear, if you got knocked up, I’m going to beat the hell out of you. We talked about contraception when you hit puberty.

Sebastian: Jasmine’s pregnant?

Rubes: She’s not pregnant.

Rubes: What happened, Jojo?

Jojo: MOM DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THIS

Tali: Would you just tell us what you’re talking about?

Jojo: JASMINE IS SKATING WITH IVAN LUKOV

Jojo: And I found out by going on Picturegram. Someone at the rink posted a picture of them in one of the training rooms. They were doing lifts.

Jojo: JASMINE I SWEAR TO GOD YOU BETTER EXPLAIN EVERYTHING RIGHT NOW

Tali: ARE YOU KIDDING ME? IS THIS TRUE?

Tali: JASMINE

Tali: JASMINE

Tali: JASMINE

Jojo: I’m going on Lukov’s website right now to confirm this

Rubes: I just called Mom but she isn’t answering the phone

Tali: She knew about this. WHO ELSE KNEW?

Sebastian: I didn’t. And quit texting Jas’s name over and over again. It’s annoying. She’s skating again. Good job, Jas. Happy for you.

Jojo: ^^ You’re such a vibe kill

Sebastian: No, I’m just not flipping my shit because she got a new partner.

Jojo: SHE DIDN’T TELL US FIRST THO. What is the point of being related if we didn’t get the scoop before everybody else?

Jojo: I FOUND OUT ON PICTUREGRAM

Sebastian: She doesn’t like you. I wouldn’t tell you either.

Tali: I can’t find anything about it online.

Jojo: JASMINE

Tali: JASMINE

Jojo: JASMINE

Tali: JASMINE

Tali: Tell us everything or I’m coming over to Mom’s today.

Sebastian: You’re annoying. Muting this until I get out of work.

Jojo: Party pooper

Tali: Party pooper

Jojo: Jinx

Tali: Jinx

Sebastian: Annoying