“Thanks,” I mumble.
I feed the cats quickly, and glorious silence descends as they focus on eating. Normally, I don’t have to speak to anyone until after my morning workout and coffee hits my bloodstream. I love my little brother, but I prefer that. It’s best for everyone else, too.
Spence waits until I’m sipping my coffee, seated at the table across from him, before he speaks again. “You ready for today?”
I take a long drag from my coffee cup as I consider his question. Our niece, Thea, is flying in from California to stay with me for the summer. Despite a career sheet of one-episode stints on various procedurals, my sister, Ella, never left LA or gave up on her quest for fame. She joined the cast ofLove Is Blindas her latest bid for a career breakout moment, leaving Thea without a guardian. Ella asked me last week if Thea could stay with me for the duration of this latest adventure. She knows I’d never say no.
“I finished the list El sent me,” I answer.
My house is fully stocked with feminine products, cases of yellow and red Gatorade, and more creams and hair products than I’d bought in my lifetime. I also enrolled Thea in a co-ed hockey training camp that runs all summer at my rink.
“You know that’s not what I meant.”
“Am I ready to parent a teenage girl? That’s what you’re asking?”
Spence drains the dregs of his coffee cup, then places it onto the table and pushes it into the center between us. “Okay, scratch that. But we need a game plan before she gets here, right?”
I raise my eyebrow. “We?”
“You think I’d let you do this alone?”
“You have your hands full this summer, Spencer.”With Isla fucking Covington, the first woman to knock me on my ass. “I’m not the professional athlete.”
I’d wanted that life when I was a kid, but I was lucky to play four years as part of the third defensive pair for a D1 hockey team.
Spencer leans back in his seat. “And I’m not a business owner with employees depending on me.”
“Not the same thing,” I contend, shaking my head.
Despite his success in pairs skating over the last decade, my brother has managed to remain humble. Growing up without the advantages that most of his competitors had probably helped with that. He also doesn’t compete in a sport that pays worth a damn or gets attention outside of the winter Olympics every four years.
“My schedule is more flexible than yours,” I add, “and what you’re goingto be dealing with—”
He holds up a hand. “That’s the second time you’ve said something like that.”
I run my finger over the rim of my coffee cup. “You have six months to get ready before you need to compete to secure a spot at Nationals. With a new partner. Most people wouldn’t go for it.”
His brow wrinkles. “You don’t think I can do it?”
“I have full faith in you, brother.”
“But not in my choice of partner, then.”
Earlier this year, Spencer’s former partner—the one who had been with him for a decade—decided to retire after she tore her ACL for the second time in her career. Spence was devastated for months, thinking that he’d have to hang up his skates too. Finding a partner for pairs skating seems harder than finding a romantic partner; at least the person you date doesn’t hold your life in their hands, literally.
I hated watching him mope around like a lost puppy dog, so when he excitedly told me about the possibility of teaming up with Isla Covington, I kept my mouth shut. Spencer’s eyes sparkled for the first time, and no way would I be the one to throw cold water on his optimism.
“What is your problem with Isla?” Spence presses, steepling his hands together on the table in front of him.
I shove out of my seat to avoid looking him in the eye. “Her reputation precedes her.”
“Her reputation,” he repeats, following me into the kitchen. “How do you know about her reputation?”
Good fucking question, Spence. The extent of my pairs skating knowledge extends fifty feet to him. Despite watching hundreds of his competitions through the years, I couldn’t name a single move he does or explain how they determine a winner.
But I’ve known who Isla Covington is since I was eighteen years old.
“You think I wouldn’t look into the woman you’re staking the rest of your career on? Who you’re bringing into our lives? You roped me into letting her teach at my rink—”
