33. Savannah
THIRTY-THREE
SAVANNAH
If I thought I was stressed before, it was a hundred times worse now. The news dropped about my partner switch, and I was already getting hate email and bad comments on social media. There were nice ones from people excited to see Logan back on the ice, but all I could focus on were the bad ones.
“You’ve got to stop looking at those,” Logan says from over my shoulder.
“I can’t.”
“Why?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. I like to torture myself, I guess.”
He reaches down and locks my phone. “You don’t need that negativity right now. You know what really happened, and you know it wasn’t your fault. Random people on the internet will never understand, so there’s no point in trying to convince them.”
“I know. Everything would just be so much easier if they liked us.”
“They will like us. We just have to show them how good we are together. Now come on. Let’s skate. We’ll take a video that you can post to show them their nasty comments aren’t bothering us.”
“But they are bothering me,” I say.
He gives me a pointed look. “They don’t need to know that, though. Come on.”
He holds his hand out to me, and I take it.
He’s been so patient with me over the last few weeks following the fallout with Max.
Not only did he pick me up and find a solution, but he held me while I cried.
He’s let me ramble on about how I can’t believe Max would do that to me.
He talked to Tati. And he drove me to my parents’ house so we could tell them what happened.
He’s done everything for me and kept me going so that I didn’t lose any steam in my training.
Not that I need a man to take care of me, but it has been nice to just shut my brain off while I slowly process how quickly everything has changed.
Logan and I skate really well together. Even Tati agreed.
There were a few learning curves, like hand placement on lifts, but we worked them out quickly after hours of practicing.
But we have to start from zero because the new partnership removes my current standings.
We can’t afford to get anything wrong. Because of this, we have to squeeze in a regional competition to make sure we still qualify for the Midwest Sectional Competition.
We skate for hours and send several videos to Tati to review. She provides feedback via text, and by the time our regional competition comes around, I feel just as ready to compete with Logan as I did with Max.
The competition we entered is in Nebraska, so we decided to drive this time so Natalia could come with us. I don’t think anyone is more excited about Logan skating again than her. She’s even been stopping by the rink more to watch us skate, and she does it with the biggest smile on her face, too.
We drop her off at the hotel before we head to the rink. Tati couldn’t make it, so Logan is acting as our coach, too. This time I go with him to registration. The woman working the table is shocked to see Logan and doesn’t try to hide her appraisal of him, which irks me the wrong way.
“We certainly didn’t expect to see you here,” she says, flashing him a flirty smile.
He keeps his focus on the clipboard. “It was a bit of a last-minute thing.”
“Well, we’re happy to have you.” I watch as her eyes move from his face and down his body.
I clear my throat, and her attention finally moves to me. I smile sweetly at her, glad I got her attention off of Logan.
She blushes and looks back at the table. Logan finishes signing us in and then slips his hand to my lower back to move us away from the table.
“What was that?” he asks.
“Do women always stare so blatantly at you?”
He chuckles. “No idea. I’ve never really noticed.”
“Well, it’s annoying.”
He leans in to say, “That’s what happens when you have a hot boyfriend, I guess.”
I roll my eyes. “Hot and humble. What a package.”
“Don’t talk about my package, baby. Or we’ll never make it onto the ice.”
I laugh and hold back the urge to kiss him. We’re not exactly hiding our relationship, but Tati asked us not to call attention to it. At least not yet. We need to focus on getting through this first competition.
Many of the skaters stare and whisper as we walk past. I imagine most people want to know what happened with Max.
He didn’t release a statement, and we only said that he was moving on to pursue other opportunities.
I know that’s not enough detail for all the nosey people out there, but no one is entitled to my business.
There was even concern for Logan’s previous partner, Cassandra.
Why did he retire and leave her, only to come out of retirement a few months later?
Logan hasn’t reached out to her, and as far as I know, she hasn’t reached out to him, but if the comments on my most recent video are any indication of people’s true thoughts, I know the fans are definitely curious.
Logan does better at ignoring people’s stares than I do. While he shakes a few hands and smiles as we make our way to the warm-up area, I send several glaring looks to people I can feel staring at us.
During our warm-up, Logan makes me focus on him, which helps. I tune everything out and focus on stretching my muscles. When we get on the ice, it’s just me and him. The rest of the world disappears as we prepare to debut our partnership to everyone.
The next morning, I’m more than ready to hit the ice with Logan.
While the past few weeks have been exhausting, I feel really, really good about us.
Skating with Max was great. We were in sync and did well.
But Logan is more intuitive, not only with his own skating but with mine.
He anticipates how my body will move. He’s ready for anything.
Even if I have a minor slip-up, he tends to make it look like it was supposed to happen.
There’s a reason he was on Team USA two Olympics in a row.
He’s the best of the best, and now he’s mine.
When our names are called, we skate onto the ice and get in position. Logan is behind me with his hands on my waist. He leans down and whispers, “Let’s give them something to talk about, baby.”
Our music starts, and we do what we came to do.
We skate and dance our hearts out, and by the end of our program, I’m beyond proud of what we’ve accomplished.
Natalia is jumping and clapping in the stands. My heart is racing as the crowd goes wild. I try to ignore everyone else and focus on this moment with Logan. He drops his forehead to mine.
“We did it,” I say.
He smiles. “We did it.”
At the end of the next day, we walk away with first place, securing our spot in the sectional competition, which is exactly what we came here to do.