3. Leo
CHAPTER THREE
Austin is waiting for me at the bar when I arrive and I take a seat beside him. Austin and I have been best friends since we were in elementary school. His family moved to Idyll Cove after his mother left his father when he was seven. He was the new kid in town and we met on the playground one afternoon. A group of kids had him cornered along the side of an old brick building. I couldn't see what was happening at first and then I saw Austin throwing punches at each kid that towered over him. They never messed with him again after that day.
His white t-shirt was torn on the shoulder and I gave him my black lightweight jacket to block out the cool air that day. I had brought a basketball to the playground and asked him if he wanted to shoot hoops with me. The rest was history after that.
Fast-forward two decades and we’re still best friends, even if life didn't always make it the easiest for us to see each other, especially since Austin moved to New York. He still has his place here in Idyll Cove, but he’s been spending more time in the city than he has been here lately.
Austin glances over at me, his almost black hair shifting on top of his head. He unbuttons the sleeves of his white dress shirt and begins to roll them up his forearms, revealing the ink that’s etched on his skin. His left arm is covered in a mural of ocean-themed tattoos, all colored in black and white. "So, you and Ari, huh?"
"She told you, didn’t she?" I pause for a second, pushing the bar menu out of my way as I fold my arms on the cool wooden bar top. Of course she told him. He is her brother, after all. "I can’t believe I’m really stuck with her."
Austin lifts his glass of bourbon and takes a slow sip as he narrows his eyes on me. His throat bobs as he swallows the mouthful of liquid. "I feel like I should warn you to tread lightly with how you talk about my sister." He rolls his dark gray eyes and shakes his head. "You know you couldn't find a better partner than her. She is literally one of the best skaters in the entire world. Can it really be that terrible?"
I rake a hand through my hair as the bartender approaches. I pause our conversation and order whatever it is that Austin is drinking. Knowing him, the drink probably costs more than my mortgage payment. “You’re right.”
“I know I am.”
The bartender brings me my drink and I take a sip of it, feeling the burn of the bourbon as it slides down my throat. Aria is my best shot at staying at the top. As much as I hate admitting it, it’s the truth. I’ve been an asshole to her, acting like we don’t have any chemistry when we both know we do. That damn woman has been under my skin for years. She’s an itch I can’t scratch. A delicacy I won’t allow myself the pleasure of indulging in.
“Are you really still pissed off at her because she dated Griffin Carr in high school?”
My posture stiffens momentarily and I shrug. “I never cared about that,” I lie through my teeth as Austin toys with the gold AP watch on his wrist. “She has the ability to beat me. I don’t like that.”
“Which is exactly why you should want her as your partner, you damn idiot.”
An exasperated sigh escapes me and my shoulders momentarily sag. “I know. I’m supposed to meet her tomorrow morning to see how we skate together.”
He levels his gaze on mine and his gray eyes look like molten steel. “Don’t fuck it up.” He pauses for a moment, his tone sharpening like the blade of a knife. “Don’t make me have to fuck you up. You being my best friend does not give you a free pass. Ari is my sister first.”
“I’m literally shaking in my boots right now.” I stare back at him before my face finally cracks. Laughter spills from my lips and I shake my head at him, feeling the lightness in my chest. The tension dissipates and a slow smile creeps onto Austin’s lips. “You do know I have a tendency to fuck things up, right?”
“Well, duh.” He chuckles as he rests his arms on the bar. “I’m just saying… fuck up your own career and not my sister’s.”
“I mean, I’ll try my hardest,” I tell him with sarcasm in my voice and laughter still lingering in the air.
“That’s all I can ask for.” Austin lifts his glass for me to tap mine against. “Cheers. To trying not to fuck things up.”
And working with the one person you’ve been trying to avoid.
“Cheers,” I say as I clink my glass against his, and we both drain our glasses. “Another one?”
Austin smiles, flashing his bright white teeth. “Abso-fucking-lutely.”
***
My head is pounding.
I didn’t plan on drinking as much as I did with Austin last night. The two of us sat at the bar until it was closing time. And then we both had to get an Uber because neither of us were in any condition to drive. I barely remember stumbling into my house a few hours ago. The only thing I remember is my cats being slightly pissed off that I shut them out of my bedroom.
When my alarm went off this morning, I instantly regretted telling Aria I could meet her at nine o’clock. There was a part of me that wanted to cancel, and another part of me that felt extremely guilty about doing that. I wasn't sure why I cared if it bothered her or not, but I did.
As I open the door to the rink and step inside, the cold air sweeps over my body, sending a shiver down my spine. I welcome the sensation, closing my eyes for a breath as I breathe deeply. The smell is familiar and comforting, although it has a hint of chemicals lingering through it. It's really indescribable, more like one of those ‘if you've smelled it before, you get it’ kind of smells.
Aria is already here and I catch sight of her as I round the corner of the arena. She bends over, her black leggings stretching around her taut muscles as she gathers her long midnight-colored hair in her hands. My feet stop moving and I'm momentarily cemented to the floor as I let my eyes roam over her body. She's literal perfection. She secures a hair tie around her thick hair and swings it back as she stands back upright.
I can't get caught looking at her.
Quickly, I divert my gaze down to the black rubber flooring as I turn and drop down onto one of the benches along the boards. As I pull on the zipper of my bag, I see Aria moving from the corner of my eye. It takes everything in me to ignore her presence as I take out my skates and kick my sneakers off my feet.
"Hey," Aria says quietly as she steps over to me. Her voice is soft and warm. I hate how much I love the sound of it. "I wasn't sure if you were going to show up."
I lift my gaze to hers, finding her steel-colored eyes trained on mine. "I wasn't sure I was going to either."
It's not a lie. It still feels weird, the thought of skating with her. We've spent years in silent competition with one another. Years of avoiding each other after she started dating my rival in high school. Years of this fucking tension between us that you could practically reach out and pluck from the air. Something about her has always been like a thorn in my side.
Probably the fact that I've never been able to get her out of my head.
"Well, I appreciate the honesty." She smiles and nods. I direct my attention back to my feet and finish tying my skates as she watches me. "Did you have a preference for music?"
Shaking my head, I stand up. Aria's already well over a foot shorter than me, but standing on skates, she appears that much shorter. "Just put on whatever you like."
She tilts her head to the side ever so slightly that if I weren't studying her, I would have missed the moment. I see the unreadable look pass through her expression before it disappears. She gives nothing away, holding her cards close to her chest. Add that to the list of things about Aria Reed that drive me fucking insane.
"I'll meet you on the ice," she tells me with a bright smile before she walks past me. I catch a whiff of her perfume again and I can't help myself as I inhale deeply. That smell has been etched in my memory since the night I had her against the wall in the foyer of her house. I want to go back to that night. I should have fucked her then so I could have gotten her out of my system.
I'm not sure how avoiding her is going to work anymore since we're stuck together indefinitely.
I get on the ice while Aria goes to the sound system and connects her phone to the speakers. A classical song starts playing, one I don't recognize. My blades slide across the surface and I use the muscles in my thighs to generate power as I bend my knees. I move swiftly around the rink, warming up my legs while tuning out the world around me. The music is background noise and my mind is finally in a state of nothingness. I breeze past Aria, who is slowly moving around, going through her own warm-up routine.
We skate separately for the duration of the song, both of us ending up at opposite sides of the rink from one another. The song shifts into another, the sound of the cello and piano melting together through the speakers. Aria's eyes meet mine from across the ice. I swallow hard as her gaze holds mine and she begins to skate toward me. My breath hitches and I start to move, following her lead.
We meet in the face-off circle in the center of the ice. Our toes just barely touch each other as we lock our gazes, listening to the tempo of the music beginning to pick up. Aria moves first, positioning herself so her hips are facing me as she begins to skate around me. Pushing off with the inside edge of my skate, I move in synchrony with her, both of us circling around each other. The way we move together, there's a subtle push and then a magnetic pull, drawing us back to one another.
Aria moves in front of me as she does a mohawk so her back is facing me. She comes toward me with her arms stretched out to the sides. I hook my hands under her arms and lift her into the air in one swift movement. Her legs stay straight and I skate backward for a few strides before slowly spinning her in a circle. I set her down on the ice, sliding my hands out to hers, and we begin to skate together, moving across the rink.
The pounding sensation is gone from my head. My muscles are warm and pliable. My heart beats hard and strong in my chest, my breathing picking up. Nothing else matters in this moment except the perfect harmony that is being created between Aria and I.
I hate it so much.
I hate that I fucking love this.
Releasing her, we break apart, skating separately before we come together again. This isn't a planned routine or anything we've done before. We're simply moving together, making it up as we go. We're doing whatever feels right in the moment.
I spin to face Aria, my hands instinctively grabbing hers. I start to skate backward, pulling her with me as she skates forward. "Do you trust me?" I ask her, my eyes searching hers as we round the corner of the rink.
Aria’s pink lips part and her gaze is trained on mine. “At this moment? Yes.”
“Good answer,” I say, pulling her along. It’s a risky move, especially since we’ve never done it together before, but the adrenaline rushing through my body has me ready to do it now. If we're going to be a pair, this is something we will have to do together. "I'm going to spin you around and throw you into a jump."
She nods as she folds her lips in between her teeth and then releases them. "I'll do a triple toe loop."
"Perfect. Are you ready?"
As we come back around the opposite side of the rink, Aria's gloved hands leave mine and she spins around to face the other direction. She glances over her shoulder, extending her hand back to me as we both begin to skate backward. I pull her along and she does a few crossovers as we skate past the benches. When we pass through the neutral zone, I reach for her hips and she keeps her feet crossed over one another.
Bending my knees, I press my weight into my feet and grip her hips harder as I begin to lift her into the air. It all happens so quickly and she doesn’t miss a beat. I spring up, spinning to face the other direction. Her body leaves my hands as I throw her upward. I watch her spin and I’m completely captivated at how effortless she looks spinning through the air. I skate forward as she lands the jump perfectly, coming down on one skate with her other foot out behind her.
Her eyes quickly meet mine. Her chest heaves with a rushed breath, cheeks tinted pink. My mouth is instantly dry and the depth of my own breathing matches hers. My heart pounds erratically in my chest and I meet her again on the ice. My hands instinctively drop down to her hips and I pull her closer to me.
"Leo," she murmurs, her voice like velvet as we slow to a stop. Our skates shave the ice, creating a dusting of snow. Aria tips her head back to look up at me as she holds on to my biceps. Her chest rises and falls with every breath that escapes her. My gaze drops down to her lips.
I shouldn't do it.
Do not do it.
My face begins to dip down to hers. There isn't a single coherent thought inside my head. I'm too caught up in the moment, lost in the euphoria after skating with her like that. We connect on a level I've never felt with anyone else before, not even with Delaney. I'd be a fucking idiot if I turned down being her partner.
Clearly I am a fucking idiot because I'm about to fuck it all up in one second.
My lips are mere millimeters from hers. Her warm breath fans across my face, smelling faintly of her strawberry lip gloss. Her eyelids flutter shut, her long black lashes resting against her skin. I let my own eyes shut. Just as I'm about to kiss her, someone starts to clap. It's like a slap in the face and reality comes crashing down around us.
Aria quickly pulls away from me, her hands abandoning my biceps as she inhales sharply. I instantly feel her absence and also want to kick myself for being such an idiot. I told myself not to do it and what did I do? I started to do it anyway. Her eyes are wide, her face flushed, and she blinks three times. The music shifts into a different song and things just feel off-balance now.
"Um, I'm sorry," she says in a rush as she glances around me. My back is to the door and I’m shielding her with my height. My jaw clenches and I slowly turn around to see who the hell is clapping for us.
It’s Coach Kincaid.
A part of me is relieved, but I also want to put my fist through his face. He came at the perfect time, yet I also wanted to be catapulted back into the moment he ruined.
Luca pushes open the door that leads onto the ice and he stands there as Aria and I begin to skate toward him. "I only caught the tail end of that performance, but holy shit. The two of you are meant to skate together."
Aria smiles at Luca and nods. "It felt really good," she tells him before turning to look at me. "How about you, Leo?"
It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced before…
Well, except maybe that one time many years ago, but we’re more skilled skaters now. More experienced in life. More experienced with each other.
“It was good.”
Luca moves out of the way as Aria steps through the door, and I follow after her. We fall into step together as we head over to the bench where our things are.
Aria stops beside me, a shy smile sliding onto her lips as she looks up at me through her lashes. "So, what do you say, Leo?" She pauses for a moment, not looking at Luca as she keeps her eyes glued to mine. "Do you want to be my partner?"
Luca is still standing with us and he's waiting for an answer just like Aria is. She's acting like I didn't almost kiss her. She certainly wasn't making any move to stop me when I did. It was a moment of weakness and I'll gladly pretend it didn't happen.
I can't believe I'm actually going to agree to this. Austin told me not to fuck it up and saying no would most likely fuck up my entire career. I don't have any options other than Aria Reed. If I want to win, I need her, and after skating with her, I know we can do this together. It doesn't mean I have to like her and I certainly won't develop any type of attachment to her.
It's strictly business and nothing more.
"Yes."
Aria's smile doesn't reach her eyes and her expression is unreadable as she nods.
She doesn't want this either.