Rising into the air, she kept her body open and only performed a single rotation. Her gaze was focused on Charlie. He had so much speed and attack going into the jump, but his torso whipped around too quickly. Bailing at two and a half rotations, Charlie fell sideways and went down.
Frankie was at his side immediately. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” He sat on the ice for a moment and was slow to come to a stand. “Gah. That was awful. I was thinking double, but my body was ready to do a triple.”
“Muscle memory is powerful.”
He brushed the dusting of snow from his pants. “I have to try that again. My pride won’t let me leave the ice until I land a clean one.”
An amused grin crossed her face. “Try to relax when you take off. Your body was so tense that it almost looked like your shoulders were trying to hide your ears.”
She skated over to the boards and watched Charlie skate off for his second attempt. He went up into the air and had plenty of time to kick out for the landing.
I shouldn’t be jealous, but I am. All his jumps are so easy. He flies across the ice.
Frankie slow clapped. “You get some extra brownie points for actually going for it.”
He bowed.
Their time was up. Their first set of students would be arriving at the rink in the next half hour. They both wanted time to have a snack and change clothes.
“What jumps did you use to do with your partner?” Charlie asked.
Frankie draped her jacket over her shoulders. “We competed double Axels and double flips. Had we moved up to seniors, we would’ve replaced the flips with triple toes. What about you?”
“We did the standard side-by-side triple Sals and triple toes. I had hoped Camille would be up for trying side-by-side triple loops, but it wasn’t ever consistent.”
“You can do a triple loop?”
“Yes, I can.” He puffed his chest out and struck a pose with his hands on his hips. “Or rather, I used to be able to.” He scratched the back of his head. “I had all my triples through the Lutz. I was hopeless with triple Axels. Forget ever learning a quad. Since my coach knew there was no way I’d be competitive in senior men’s without those jumps, we decided I should switch to pairs. Best decision I ever made.”
“As soon as you get your triple loop back, we’re so making that our signature move.”
“I’ll think about it.”
Charlie was so different than Danny ever was. He used to always blame Frankie when the jumps went wrong.
“You’ll get it back.” She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. One of Charlie’s hallmarks was that he was an excellent technical coach. If anyone could break a jump down and figure out how to fix it, he could.
She wouldn’t admit it to him, but her quad muscles were starting to tighten up. Every step she took, she could feel the fibers pulling in the front and on the side of her leg. She needed to cool down and stretch if she hoped to be able to skate again later that afternoon. Charlie had been right. It was probably a good thing they hadn’t pushed the limits and gone for the throw triple Salchow.
They stopped outside the door to their locker room. “Do you mind if I ask you something?” Frankie said.
“You just did.”
She tapped his arm playfully. “That wasn’t what I meant.”
“Ow,” he said with mock hurt.
She rolled her eyes. “I didn’t hit you that hard.”But his arm has gotten firmer.
“I know. Go ahead. Ask me anything.”
“You don’t have to answer this if you don’t want to, but I’m just curious. What made you retire from competitive skating?”
Charlie’s face paled, and his shoulders hunched. A look of weariness passed over his face. He opened and closed his mouth several times. Strained tones escaped.
She didn’t think such a simple question would set him off.Why did I have to open my big mouth and ask? It must have to do with his unfinished business.
