"The hip," I said. "What happened?"
"Bad check. Last season." He stretched the leg out, wincing. "Guy twice my size decided I looked like a good target. I went into the boards wrong."
"And you're still playing."
"Still playing." His hand went to his hip, fingers pressing into the muscle through his shorts.
I watched his hands. I couldn't help it.
He caught me looking, and for a second neither of us moved. His eyes tracked from my face to my hands, which had gone white-knuckled on my water bottle.
"Can I ask you something?" he asked carefully. "My sister-in-law. She told me you're out. Publicly."
My jaw tightened. "Is that a problem?"
"No. No, I just—" He rubbed the back of his neck. "I think it's cool. What you did."
Cool. Like I'd done a skateboard trick. "It's not cool. It's exhausting." I let the edge into my voice. "Every interview, every profile. It's the first thing they want to talk about. Like it's more interesting than anything else I've ever done."
“That sucks. But… maybe they’d ask other questions if you were a little more…personable.”
“Personable?” I repeated.
He reached for his own water bottle and took a long drink. When he lowered it, that easy smile was back. "You've got that whole hedgehog thing going on," he said.
"Excuse me?"
"Prickly. On the outside." He was grinning again, like I amused him. "But you know… hedgehogs are kinda cute."
I went back out on the ice, skated two strides toward him, fast, and stopped hard enough that ice sprayed toward the bench. He didn't move.
"Do I lookcuteto you?"
Red let his gaze travel down my body. He took his time with it, lingering on my thighs, my chest, my mouth. By the time he dragged his eyes back up to mine, my pulse was pounding so hard I could hear it.
"Cute isn’t the word I would use," he said quietly.
I didn't know what to do with my hands. With my face. With any part of me.
I turned and skated back to the bench, grabbed my water bottle, and started unlacing my skates.
"You're done?" Red sounded surprised. "It's barely six."
"I got what I needed."
"You didn't run your program."
"I'll run it tomorrow." I shoved my skates into my bag. His attention was still on me. I could feel it like a hand on the back of my neck.
“See you later, then, Sparkles.”
I stared at him. "What did you just call me?"
"Sparkles." He was grinning again. "You know. The rhinestones. The—"
"I wear black. Exclusively black."
"Uh huh." He pushed off from the boards and skated toward the exit, still grinning over his shoulder. "See you tomorrow, Sparkles."
