Today I had given her far too much to work with.
We finished the session on instinct, moving through the familiarroutine without conversation. Blade guards snapped into place. Towels disappeared into bags. Other skaters passed around us in a blur of movement and noise while the silence between Mila and me settled into something heavier.
Only once we reached the corridor did she stop.
“I don’t want details.”
Relief arrived so quickly it was almost embarrassing.
“Good,” I said.
“I mean it.”
“I know.”
For a moment she simply looked at me.
“We have four days.”
There it was.
The team event. The reason we were here.
“You’ve already said this. I know.”
“Do you?”
The worry behind the question landed harder than the words themselves.
Then she sighed. “Luka.”
“I’m trying.”
“I know.”
That was the problem.
Iwastrying. But every time my thoughts slipped, they found Dean.
Dean standing close enough to send heat flooding through me.
Dean kissing me.
The memory tightened low in my chest.
“I won’t let it affect us,” I said.
Mila held my gaze for a long moment.
Neither of us said anything.
We both knew what I was promising.
I wished I felt as certain as I sounded.
Dean
By the timeI got back to the Village, my head still hadn’t settled into any place useful.
