We go through a warmup and do a few laps of easy skating. After, I pull off to the side, letting Liv take center stage. She shows me her waltz and salchow, followed by a flip jump. Her Lutz is clean, and so is her Axel, but she struggles with her double toe loop.
“I don’t know why that one is so difficult for me.” Liv sighs. “I can’t grasp the concept.”
“It’s my least favorite move because of the weight transfer. We need to make sure our arms and shoulders are in line with our hips. We also don’t want to curtsey. Here.” I motion to the middle of the ice. “Let’s do it slowly.”
Liv runs an exercise I give her, focusing on her single toe loop first. After, we transition to another drill where she pays attention to her takeoff pivot. The last exercise is practicing rotations, and I talk her through landing in a controlled manner. We stop and adjust. I point out her body position, and after half an hour, she tries the double toe loop again.
“Holy cow.” She laughs when she successfully lands the move, looking at me with wide eyes. “That felt so natural.”
“Right? Your alignment was much stronger that time.” I grin and give her a high-five. “I’m someone who likes tricks and flashy moves, but when the flashy moves don’t seem to be working, I wind it back and go through the process step by step. That was beautiful, Liv.”
“Coach Susannah is so nice, but she never explained things like you did. She would just tell me to do something again. I never knew what part of the move I was getting wrong.”
“Every coach has a different feedback method. Mine promoted self-correction. She wouldn’t get involved unless something was glaringly wrong. A lot of figure skating is trial and error, and you just nailed that, Liv. Great job.”
We spend the next hour going through more drills, and by the time we start to wrap up our lesson, Liv’s confidence has only grown. I’m giddy at the thought of having made a positive impact on our first day together.
She pulls over to the bench and grabs her water bottle, taking a long sip while I do a triple Axel and wince at my landing.
“I’m sorry I’m late,” Brody says, and I catch him standing in the tunnel. “I was on the phone and lost track of time.”
“No problem.” I skate over to him and pull out my light blue ribbon. He watches me wrap it around my wrist like a bracelet, his throat bobbing with a slow swallow. “Talking to anyone important?”
“Riley’s agent and our PR department. He’s going to start practicing with our AHL affiliate team next week, so we were trying to come up with a plan for announcing his two-way contract.”
“No way. That’s amazing! Grant told me how hard he’s been working. It’s going to be so special when he officially gets back on the ice.”
“Yeah.” He lifts his chin in Olivia’s direction. “How did it go?”
“Great. Liv is so fun, and she’s really talented, Brody. A lot of younger skaters have an ego. They don’t like to be told what they’re doing wrong, but Liv asks for that feedback and accepts it humbly.”
“She’s loved skating for as long as I can remember.” Brody waves, his mouth twitching with a smile as he motions for his daughter to grab her gear. “I did some research.”
“On?”
“Figure skating coaches and their salaries. I know what I was paying her old coach, but Liv is getting personalized, one-on-one lessons now. You’re going to be with her four times a week, and I thought eight grand a month seemed fair? But tell me if I’m wrong.”
I do quick math in my head and gape at him. “You want to pay me five hundred dollars a session?”
“Is that not enough? Damn the internet for lying to me. We can make it?—”
“Brody. That’s obscene. Especially for someone who has no experience coaching. I don’t pay my coaches close to that.”
“Is it obscene?” He folds his arms and peers over my shoulder again. “My daughter is smiling. She’s not hurt, and from the way she’s practically sprinting over here, I’d say she had a good time.” There’s pressure behind my ribs. It expands, taking up too much space when his eyes shift back to me. “There’s no number you could come up with that would ever be too high a cost to make Liv this happy every day.”
“Okay, well.” My skin feels clammy. I’m flustered. In my head, I knew he was a good dad, but seeing it firsthand is beyond obnoxious in the best kind of way. “We can discuss it next time.”
“Discussion is over. I’ll get a contract drawn up and we’ll switch to biweekly payments going forward. Consider this a deposit.” Brody pulls out his wallet and counts five hundred-dollar bills. His fingers wrap around my wrist, careful as he lifts my arm and unfolds my hand. He sets the money in my open palm, his thumb grazing my fingers when he pulls away. “Pleasure doing business with you, Hannah.”
He drapes an arm around Liv’s shoulders, nodding while she shares her rambled debrief about our session. Brody gives me a final, sweeping look and I watch them go, cash still in my hand and a warmth low in my belly.
Pleasure indeed.
THIRTEEN
BRODY
The arenawhere the Minneapolis Loons play is cold as hell. I can’t warm up my hands, and I rub my palms together as I join the coaching staff in the locker room.
