“Ten points to Frankie,” he confirmed. “I had my first gym session yesterday too. When you gave me your answer, which I’d hoped would be a yes, I wanted to be able to physically show you that I’m taking this seriously.” He lifted his left arm and winced. “See? I’m so sore that I can’t even lift my arm above my head.”
“And what if I’d said no? That I wouldn’t skate with you?” She leaned her elbows on the counter.
“It wouldn’t make any difference. I still would’ve started my eating clean and working out this week.” He pulled out a green basket of baby carrots from the fridge. “I’ll never admit this to anyone else, but helping Kaylee with the harness last week made me so sore. I had a hard time getting myself out of bed and moving around for two days. Everything hurt.”
“You looked fine on Saturday.”
“I’m a talented actor.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Don’t believe me? It’s true. Well, at least that’s what the TV commentators used to say,” he joked.
“Suuuuuuuuuuuure.”
He chuckled to himself as he washed the carrots in the sink. “Anyways, I decided that no matter what, I needed to build up enough strength so that wouldn’t happen again. Both pairs teams I coach are on the verge of learning riskier and more difficult elements. Sooner or later, that means I’ll have to step in and help them with the harness, spot them on lifts, et cetera, et cetera. When it happens, I want to be ready.”
Her gaze lingered on him a moment longer before returning to her paper. Her body warmed. Charlie’s students were lucky. It was rare to have a coach who wanted to take such an active and hands-on role in teaching them skills. It said a lot about his dedication.
“You’ve let me go on long enough.” He started slicing the carrots into small equal pieces. “What’s on your list?”
“Oh.” She cleared her throat and stared at the writing in her notebook. “Um . . . I had a couple of things to ask you, but number one was picking out the days and times we could skate together.”
“Hmm . . . would mornings work? Right now, the first freestyle session of the day is scheduled from four to five. Hardly anyone ever shows up. If you have a day in mind, I could adjust the schedule so we could have private ice time for an hour, hour and fifteen minutes. My first lesson isn’t until five-thirty.”
“That would be awesome.” She made a note. “I could do any morning Monday through Friday. You pick.”
“Those are dangerous words,” he said ominously. “How ambitious are you?”
“When it comes to skating, I’mveryambitious.”
“Then let’s skate every day.”
“As my bestie Gemma would say, that’s brilliant.” She grinned. “That brings us to item number two. What does your afternoon schedule look like? I’d like for us to try and get some off-ice training time in somewhere too.”
“On a normal day, I coach until ten. Then from ten to one, I try to catch up on paperwork and any other admin duties.” His voice grew softer. “I . . . ugh, I usually end up needing all three hours.”
She glanced up. “What about asking Leslie to help?”
“I’ll talk to her later,” he mumbled.
“Great, just make sure you do it sooner rather than later.”
He grunted. Frankie took that to mean yes.
She tapped her pen against the counter. “Let me know if she says she’s too busy. I can jump in and help you out. That way, we could reallocate one of those hours to off-ice prep.”
“Good point. The ice is open from ten to twelve. Why don’t you tentatively pencil us down for ten to eleven?” Charlie wiped his hands against his apron and placed the knife down, turning to face her. “Eleven to two is too chaotic. I usually help cover staff lunch breaks.”
“Yeah!” Frankie turned the page of her notebook. “This is really starting to come together! I’m so excited. Now, next item. . .”
He raised an eyebrow. “Just how many things did you write down?”
She hesitated. “Six?”
“Well, at least you’re organized.” He shook his head, amused. “What’s number three?”
“Action item three is more for me. When I skated pairs, I was definitely more of a technical skater than an artistic one. Touring with Dreams on Ice helped, but I still feel like I would benefit from some type of dance class. Do you guys have a ballet teacher at the rink?”
