A small hand hit his arm. “Dada!”
Turning, Ben smiled at his daughter. She was a beautiful combination of him and Amelia, with a head of blonde curls and bright blue eyes. “Hey, Riley Rose.”
Shiloh, Amelia’s younger sister, let Ben take the toddler from her. She had come on board as a nanny/assistant for Amelia, doing whatever was needed on any given day. While they were at the competitions, she mainly helped care for Riley, his and Amelia’s eighteen-month-old.
Amelia’s friend, Tracy, had also become part of the skating business. When she’d lost her job, Amelia had suggested she move to Serenity and join the company. She had taken over all the administrative duties, leaving Amelia and Lexi free to focus on the skating side of things.
Since both Tracy and Amelia struggled with autoimmune diseases, there was a lot of slack offered when it came to their limitations. It was the benefit of having their own company.
Ben still worked for Burke, but it was mainly from the estate. And while he still enjoyed the work he did, there was no doubt that his favorite place to be was at Amelia’s side, supporting her as she helped others reach their dreams.
As the skaters came off the ice after the warm-up, Lexi and Amelia disappeared from sight, going into the back to wait for their final skater’s turn on the ice. Ben wished that he could be with Amelia, but that area was limited to skaters and their coaches.
“Do you think we’re going to win a medal today?” Shiloh asked as she pulled out a baggie of small snacks for Riley.
“I hope so,” Ben said. “If Bethany skates clean and does her triples, I think she has a good chance.”
“She was so nervous this morning. I hope her nerves don’t get the better of her.”
Bethany was the third to last skater to go and when she finally skated out onto the ice to take her starting pose, they were all on edge.
While everyone focused on the slight figure of the seventeen-year-old on the ice, Ben’s gaze sought his wife. Amelia and Lexi stood at the boards once again, watching as Bethany prepared to skate the program Amelia had choreographed for her.
Once the music began, Ben’s attention was divided between Amelia and Bethany. He knew the program well, having watched it many times, and braced himself as Bethany positioned herself for her first jump. A triple toe loop.
“Perfect!” Shiloh said as Bethany landed the jump on one foot. “That’s a great sign.”
And it was. Bethany had a habit of skating her program based on how her first jump went. If she landed it cleanly, the rest of the program would flow smoothly. If she didn’t… well, it was something Amelia and Lexi were working with her on.
When Bethany reached her final position, perfectly timed to the end of the music, Ben looked over at Amelia to see that she and Lexi were hugging. Bethany’s performance had been perfection, and he knew Amelia would be thrilled.
“Oh, she might get the gold with that,” Tracy commented from Shiloh’s other side.
Amelia and Lexi greeted Bethany with hugs as she came off the ice, then they moved to the kiss and cry area. There was a replay of a few different parts of the program as they waited for the scores. When the replay ended, the screen filled with an image of Bethany with Amelia and Lexi on either side of her.
Ben felt a poke on his shoulder. “Best-looking women out there, eh?”
He glanced back at Wilder with a grin. “You know it.”
They were a fairly large group attending the championship that year. In addition to Lexi, Amelia, and the two skaters, Wilder, Lexi’s husband, was there with their kids, as well as Shiloh, Tracy, Ben, Riley, and three security personnel.
“It’s a personal best!” Shiloh exclaimed when the scores were displayed.
Ben’s attention was on Amelia as she leaned over to hug Bethany. His heart swelled with love for his wife as he saw her face beam with joy for the skater she’d helped get to this point.
The pain of the loss of her own skating career had dulled over time, and she’d fully embraced this new role. This new career. And it was paying off for others as well as for herself.
The final two skaters skated fairly well, though their performance on the ice didn’t touch Bethany’s. Her program hadn’t been just technical perfection, it had been elegance and beauty on ice.
When the first set of scores came up, revealing that Bethany was still in first place, excitement in their area ramped up. And when the final skater’s scores fell just short of Bethany’s, they all jumped to their feet, shouting and applauding.
Riley had been to enough championships that even she knew to clap her little hands and wave them in the air when the adults around her got excited.
Even though she wasn’t yet two, she was already well-acquainted with the world of ice skating. She’d even been on the ice in a pair of small skates that Amelia had gotten for her. Ben didn’t know if she’d ever want to train the way Amelia once had,but he’d support whatever Riley wanted. Just as he supported Amelia.
Some might say that he should focus more on his own dreams, but nothing fulfilled him quite as much as taking care of the family God had given him. He still helped Cole with basketball clinics each summer, and that was enough for him.
It was a couple of hours before they were back in their hotel room. They’d stayed for some media interviews and the medal ceremony—the first gold at World’s for any of their skaters—then they headed back to the hotel.
