“If it involves your humiliation, I’m betting it is.” She nudges her chin at him.
Holden, still laughing, points at Adrien, stretching his arm across the table. “Remember, they even took his underpants.” Tears of mirth leak from his eyes.
“He ran down the hall to get me in a hand towel, not even a full-sized one,” Adrien wheezes out.
“Hahaha. Laugh it up,” Sergio says with a crisp shake of his head and his nostrils flaring. “They stole my best camera.”
“Well, that is a shame,” Jeremy says, his face soft and voice sincere. It catches Sergio off guard.
“Don’t let him fool you,” Adrien says, catching his breath. “After I bought him enough clothing to get through the rest of the trip, I bought him a replacement camera as well.”
Jeremy shrugs. “It’s still a loss.” He looks across the table at Sergio and offers him a small smile. “I mean, if someone stole my skates, sure, I could buy a new pair, but they wouldn’t be the same. Even if they were seemingly identical. The tools of your craft always hold a piece of your soul when you use them as an extension of yourself.”
“Very true,” Rose says and grabs his hand on the table. She turns to look at Sergio again. “But dammit if it isn’t funny when it happens to Sergio.”
The whole table bursts out laughing some more. Well, almost everyone. Sergio and Jeremy stay quiet, eyes locked in their shared knowledge of what it’s like to hide your true self beneath your craft. Together, they share a pair of genuine, albeit shy, smiles for the first time since before Jeremy put the brakes on their fledgling courtship underneath the stands of the aerial ski event four years ago.
“Can you grab Henry from Jeremy?” Rose asks Holden when they pull into the garage. “I need to get cleaned up and start getting ready for tonight.”
“Sure thing,” Holden says, then turns to look at Sergio and Adrien in the back seat. “Do either of you want to come with? Maybe Jeremy has Henry up and on skates. You should see him. He’s terrible.”
“Yeah, I’ll come.” Sergio nods. Jeremy’s smile at him from lunch is still in the forefront of his mind, helping him to feel hopeful that there is a path for an apology to be accepted.
“Adrien?”
“Nah,” he says and begins the spiel Sergio is so familiar with. He says it silently along with him. “It’s almost midnight in Paris. I’m gonna call Daphne and wish her a Happy New Year.”
“Alright, send her our love,” Holden says and exits the car with Sergio following after him out of the garage and around the house to head down to the barn.
“What’s the deal with Jeremy?” Sergio asks when the barn comes into view. “Is he seeing anyone?”
Holden stops in his tracks and turns to look at Sergio. “You’re not looking to rekindle an old flame, are you?”
“No. Not at all,” Sergio lies, a ghost of a memory of what Jeremy’s lips felt like pressed against his tickles his skin.
“Good. Because if you think Rose is protective of Allison, you have no idea how fierce she is when it comes to Jeremy.” Holden’s whole body quakes, and he continues walking. “I shudder at the thought of your castration.”
“Why is everyone in your family out for blood with my balls?” Sergio asks.
“Huh?” Holden looks at him, confused.
Sergio, recalling his daily wake-ups, shakes his head. “Let’s just say your son has one hell of a kick.”
“He’s got his mother's legs,” Holden says by way of explanation while opening the door, wafting the sound ofWicked Gameby Chris Isaak through the air.
After they enter, Sergio pauses at the rink's wall and watches Jeremy move. The way he carries himself on the ice is confident, even though the moves he makes are relatively simple and not showy. But nonetheless, they are beautiful. There are no jumps or complicated tricks. It’s pure unbridled skating done perhaps the way it’s meant to be, with smooth gliding footwork carving large loops into the ice and body movements flowing to the melody and finding pauses in the downbeats. Like the first timehe saw Jeremy working this routine, it’s soothing. The moves and the music, though haunting, are perfectly aligned.
“Hey, guys!” Holden yells out, announcing their arrival. Jeremy puts a pause on his moves, and Henry waves so enthusiastically from his seat on the low ledge that he falls onto the ice, laughing. Holden moves quickly to help him back onto the low ledge. “Routine is looking good. Legs feeling alright today?”
“Yeah,” Jeremy says, smiling. His cheeks are flushed with that happy blush that Sergio has never noticed on anyone outside of Jeremy … ever.
“You really look good out there,” Sergio says. “Best I’ve ever seen you skate.”
“Don’t tease,” Jeremy says. The smile drops from his lips.
“I wasn’t teasing. I meant it.” He pauses and tries to find his words. “It’s like, when you watch the competitions, you can always read the nerves, and fear, and stress on the skater's faces. But not you. Not here. You skate like you’re doing what you love because you love it.”
Holden dramatically turns, doing a big sweeping motion with his head, and looks at Sergio. His eyebrows are raised high, and he has a hint of a smirk pulling at his lips. “Excuse me, but who are you and what have you done with my friend Sergio?”
