Had he not been so busy chasing other athletes around the Olympic Village after his rejection from Jeremy, he might have known why. Jeremy’s dramatic exit from the games was the biggest tear-filled news story on the world’s stage at the time.
“So, what do you think?” Rose asks him, breaking him from his stupor of staring at Jeremy.
He rakes his eyes back over to the young woman Jeremy is working with. “She looks good. Promising.”
Rose rolls her eyes. “I meant the rink. Pretty awesome, right?”
“Oh, yeah. Definitely …” Sergio says, his voice trailing off as he continues to watch the two skaters on the ice. He’s now giving them equal attention while his libido argues over whichone he should try to pull into his bed tonight. The way the woman moves is mesmerizing. She practically floats across the surface, as if her blades aren’t carving deep edges into the frozen water. Jeremy, however, looks less sure-footed as he skates slowly beside her, giving her choreographic directions to lead her through a series of flourishes of the arms as well as careful loops, turns, and crossovers of the feet that she mimics in time to the classical music softly playing through the barn’s speakers.
“Allison. Jeremy. Let’s wrap it up!” Rose calls as she skates onto the ice with Henry in her arms. Eventually, she lets him down onto the surface. He slips and slides on the soles of his shoes, his little voice calling Jeremy’s name the entire way.
“Careful, buddy. Remember what we talked about,” Rose says.
“I know, Mom!” Henry yells back. “Be careful around Jeremy on the ice.”
“Yeah, Henry!” Holden says beside Sergio. “If you want to knock someone over, your uncle Sergio is a much better target.”
Sergio mocks being offended by placing a hand over his heart. “How dare you turn my godson against me?”
Holden smiles and laughs, his eyebrows lifting in a playful challenge. “It’s not like we all haven’t wanted to knock you over from time to time.”
“And again, it’s back to pick-on-Sergio day,” Sergio says with a light-hearted laugh, but he wonders what’s with all the cutting remarks leveled at him at first by Adrien and now Holden. He supposes it must be brotherly teasing, and he goes back to watching the skaters.
Allison gracefully makes her way to the low step on the side of the rink and takes a seat. She grabs a sip of water out of a nearby bottle. She looks up at Rose. “That new sequence leading into the triple flip feels more natural. It’s an easier flow.”
“You hear that, Jeremy?” Rose says. “You were right about changing up that footwork pattern.”
“I’m glad that worked. If we need to tweak it some more, we can,” Jeremy says as he carefully skates to meet Henry where he’s fallen yet again. A big, dimple-filled grin lights up Henry’s face when Jeremy gets to him. He grabs Henry’s hand and attempts to hold him steady. “Easy now, Henry. Remember what I taught you.”
“So what’s with this guy?” Sergio asks Holden, jutting his chin forward.
“Jeremy?”
“No, the other guy on the ice.”
“You’ve met him before.”
“I know that.” Sergio takes a sip of his beer. “I meant, why is he here?”
“Oh, right. Well, he’s working with Rose now. She’s hired him on as her assistant coach and choreographer.” Holden pauses and points up towards the rafters of the barn. To the far side is a closed-off area with a set of windows that look down upon the ice. There’s a staircase right to the side of where Allison is sitting and now unlacing her skates that leads up to it. “And he’s living up there. We set him up with a nice little studio.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“Why would I joke about that?”
“Why would a grown man need to live in your ice rink disguised as a barn?” Holden downs what’s left of his beer in a final swig, then turns to look at Sergio. “You really only pay attention to what’s happening to yourself, don’t you?”
Sergio, determined to prove Holden’s assertion wrong, makes an extra effort for the rest of the evening to pay thorough attention to everyone else. It starts in the easiest place possible for him,with Henry. He sits on the floor with the kid and lets him chew his ear off all throughout their pizza dinner. He listens to him share his imagination and regale Sergio with his adventures on the ski slopes with his dad, on the ice with his mom, and quiet moments of reading and coloring with Jeremy Owens. It’s those last details that have Sergio’s hackles slightly raised.
“You spend a lot of time with Jeremy, huh?” he asks, keeping his voice light and cheerful even though he’s silently seething at the idea that this other man, this interloper in Holden’s and Rose’s and Henry’s world, living in their barn, could possibly be stealing some of Henry’s affection. Sergio has always prided himself on being Henry’s favorite. He does not enjoy the idea of someone else shoehorning themselves into his territory.
He looks over his shoulder to where Jeremy is sitting on the large leather sofa across from Rose, his back against the armrest. His knees are pulled towards his chest, and his plate of pizza rests on them. He and Rose appear to be having a very lively conversation, probably reminiscing about their glory days of old. They only pause in talking when Holden comes by and refills Rose’s glass of wine, then comes by Sergio and does the same. He takes a seat back down with Adrien and dumps what’s left of the bottle into their glasses. Everyone seems happy and content. Even Adrien has a smile on his face as he banters with Holden and idly pets Gus sitting beside him from ear to tail.
Gus catches Sergio looking and hisses at him again.
“Uncle Sergio, are you listening to me?”
Sergio glares at the cat, then pivots his attention back to Henry. “Of course!” he says, exaggerating his words. “You are my favorite person to pay attention to.”
