CHAPTER THREE
Alexandra Corbyn stood with her arms on the top of the boards of the ice rink. Well, they weren’t really boards. They were nothing like she’d ever seen at any rink she’d been at.
The half wall encircling the rink was something transparent, though she didn’t think it was glass. Topping the transparent part were rustic looking pieces of wood that had been polished and matched end to end to form an oval. It really was a beautiful-looking place.
Most rinks she’d skated in had bleachers surrounding the ice, but this one had round tables with chairs ringing it. The walls of the building itself were made up of floor to ceiling windows with opaque blinds that could be lowered, depending on the position of the sun.
This rink—like many—had a place to get drinks and food. Only the menu didn’t offer hotdogs or bags of chips. No, it had complicated sandwiches, fancy soups, and pastry items.
It was definitely over-the-top for what a skating rink usually offered. But this skating rink catered to the rich who might want to grab a bite to eat in between laps around the rink. Or a parent who brought their kids to the rink but didn’t want to skate themselves.
And here she was, in charge of the place. Oh, how the mighty had fallen.
At one point in her life, if they’d come to the resort, Lexi would have been out on the ice, and her mom would have been sitting at one of the tables with an expensive coffee in hand.
Right then, however, she would have given it all up for the more practical rink she’d practiced in for years. Or a rink with ads on the boards and an audience who loved figure skating competitions, screaming and waving posters with her and Mikhail’s faces on them.
Lexi’s stomach tightened as a familiar anger flickered inside her. She took a deep breath, held it, then exhaled heavily.
Would she ever not feel angry and betrayed?
For sure, it wasn’t that day.
She pulled her phone out of the pocket of her jacket and checked the time. Seeing it was nearly six in the morning, she tapped the screen to pull up her mom’s contact information.
Every day at that time, she called her mom, since she was in the south of France, so nine hours ahead of where Lexi was in Idaho.
“Hello, Lexi, my darling.” Her mom’s face filled the screen of her phone. “How are you doing?”
“I’m fine, Momma,” Lexi said, unwilling to ever tell her anything to the contrary. “How are you?”
“I’m doing well.” The luminous smile on her mom’s face seemed to back up her words. “Leland is off checking on the yacht. They’re supposed to be finishing up the interior this week, and we’re going to go out for a few days once it’s done.”
Lexi smiled, though it wasn’t how she really felt in the moment. A small part of the anger she held inside was directed at her mom. Even though she loved her beyond words, Lexi struggled with how easily her mom had moved on.
That was probably because she hadn’t lost her career the way Lexi had, along with the betrayal they’d both been dealt. She might have lost her first marriage, but she’d already moved on to her second.
The moment Eileen Corbyn had gotten a whiff of the fact that her husband was under investigation for fraud, embezzlement and a bunch of other white-collar crimes, she’d filed for divorce. She’d put distance between herself and her husband as quickly as possible.
The man she’d married afterward was nice enough, but it hurt that her mom had been able to put everything behind her so quickly while Lexi still struggled.
Lexi hadn’t been able to escape the impact of her father’s actions as easily. The past year and a half had been a struggle, as she’d lost her career due to her father’s notoriety. And his recent trial had been a horribly difficult time for her.
Obviously, it had been difficult for her father too, but Lexi didn’t particularly care what he felt because he’d made his own bed. He could lie in it.
The punishment she’d been dealt for his actions felt particularly harsh, but she hadn’t been able to mitigate any of it.
The only reason she’d finally found a place for herself on the other side of the country in small town Idaho after her mom had left New York City for France was that her godfather—a man she hadn’t even known—had stepped in and offered her a job at the new ice rink he’d had built at one of his resort properties.
She was grateful that Alexander Remington hadn’t abandoned them like so many friends had, but she supposed it helped that his wife had been a friend of her mother’s, not her father’s.
“Do you think you’ll come visit soon, darling?” her mom asked, interrupting her rabbiting thoughts. “I miss you so much.”
“I’ve only just started here, Momma. I don’t think I can ask for time off so soon.”
Her mom wrinkled her nose. “Maybe I should have a word with Alexander. Surely he’d understand.”
Lexi wasn’t so sure that her namesake was going to cut her any slack. From what she’d learned about him recently, he was a fair, but firm, businessman.
He didn’t have any involvement in her job there beyond hiring her. The manager at the resort was a woman named Kayleigh St. James, who Lexi had discovered was married to a high-level employee in Remington Properties.
“No, Momma,” Lexi said firmly. “Don’t bother Alexander about it. For now, we’ll just have to be happy with this way of communicating.”
Her mom’s shoulders slumped as she gave a little pout. It was a pout she’d never grown out of, apparently, since Lexi had seen her doing it all of her life. While it might have worked on her husbands, both current and ex, it didn’t work on Lexi.
She was immune to her mom’s attempts to get her way. For as much as she loved her, Lexi didn’t like how she moved through life, usually manipulating in subtle ways to get what she wanted. She had a super sweet disposition, which helped make people want to give her what she wanted. That just wasn’t Lexi’s personality.
From a young age, Lexi had learned that if she wanted to reach her goal of winning gold medals for her skating, she was going to have to work hard. No coy smiles or pouty looks were going to get her what she wanted.
It was a weird way for her mom to operate, considering she was also a Christian. Her dad had claimed to be a Christian, too, but that admission hadn’t been borne out by his actions. It was probably because of that claim that he’d been able to swindle so many people behind the scenes.
“You and Leland can always come visit me here,” Lexi said. “The resort would definitely meet your standards as a vacation destination. Lots of luxuries. Great views.”
Her mom wrinkled her nose. “You know I don’t want to go back to the US just yet.”
Lexi did know that, and part of her understood her mom’s reasoning, but she wished she’d still be willing to come back in order to see her only child.
“We’ll just have to see how things go for now,” Lexi said.
“You better be here for Christmas.”
“I make no promises, Momma. But I’ll try.”
Another pout told Lexi that her mom wasn’t happy with that response, but there was no other one that she could give her.
“Are you going to skate this morning?”
“Yep. Want to watch for a bit?”
Her mom had been at most of her practices over the years. Since her dad had built a practice rink on their property in Maine, it had been convenient for her mom to attend the practices.
“Of course, darling.”
Lexi set up her phone, carefully situating the tripod for her mom’s optimal viewing of the ice. Bending over into the frame, she said, “If you need to go before I’m done, I’ll talk to you later. Love you, Momma.”
“Love you too, darling.” She blew Lexi a kiss. “Now off you go.”
Lexi used the Bluetooth connection on her tablet to bring up her playlist and start it. She went to the entrance of the ice and slipped the guards off her blades. Setting them aside, she stepped onto the ice and took a few strokes toward the center of the ice.
She closed her eyes for a moment, relishing the feeling of gliding across the ice.
This was her home. Her special place. Her source of joy and comfort. Her past, her present, and, at one time, her future.
It had been her everything… until her life had imploded thanks to her dad.
Opening her eyes, Lexi clenched her hands, then shook them out. She was trying to keep her anger off the ice. Especially when she was alone, able to do all her favorite jumps and spins.
If she’d been a singles skater, she would have had programs she could skate through. Unfortunately, she was a pairs skater without a partner.
That was okay, though. She had adapted some of the programs, and she’d also developed her own choreography to some of her favorite songs.
She’d done some stretches when she’d first arrived at the arena, but now she stretched some more as she moved across the ice.
Soon, the last vestiges of her anger evaporated, and she forgot where the ice she skated on was located. She forgot that her mom was watching from her phone.
Lexi forgot everything and let herself become one with the ice.
Calm flowed over her as she completed jump after jump. The spins took her apart and put her back together again.
Halfway through the length of time she usually skated in the morning, she took a break to drink some water and catch her breath. When she skated over to her phone, she saw that her mom had gone, which was fine and not out of the ordinary.
When her playlist ended, Lexi stroked to the edge of the ice and stepped off. She bent over to put her guards on her blades, then once again leaned against the boards, staring out at the ice.
Though she’d skated to other music that she and Mikhail had used in previous years, she still hadn’t been able to listen to the compilation of Ed Sheeran songs that they’d been preparing to use at the Olympics, which was now just months away.
It had been her favorite program to date, and the romance of the music had reflected their off-ice relationship. After seriously dating for a couple of years, they’d gotten engaged in the off-season.
Pushing away from the boards, Lexi sat down on a nearby padded bench and unlaced her skates. Once off, she removed the guards to make sure the blades were dry before putting them back in place.
She slid her feet into her favorite pair of sneakers, then picked up the skates and carried them to the small office she’d been assigned. Since she’d only been there a couple of weeks, she hadn’t really personalized the space yet.
Lexi was still trying to figure out her position there. When he’d hired her, Alexander had been sort of vague in what he wanted her to do, which seemed out of the ordinary for a businessman of his stature.
The rink was open from one until seven on weekdays and eleven to nine on weekends. Her current schedule was from Thursday to Monday. Although, if they’d asked her to work seven days a week, she would have happily done that.
In addition to her time spent at the rink for her job, Alexander had also told her she could take on private students if she wanted. Lexi wasn’t sure yet if she wanted to do that, beyond the two girls she was meeting with the next morning.
At one time, her focus had been on her future. Every win she and Mikhail had achieved was another step up the staircase of coaching respectability. Every win gave them the ability to command more exclusivity and pay. They would be able to choose who they wanted to coach.
A career as a figure skater had to be as much about the present as the future. People couldn’t maintain a highly competitive level of performance until the conventional retirement age.
Some people went on to perform in skating shows, and while Lexi hadn’t been opposed to that, eventually, even that would end. So she and Mikhail had been looking past even that.
It was why they’d both worked so hard on their craft. They’d been known for being great pairs skaters, but beyond that, they’d been great singles skaters too. They’d practiced their singles elements almost as much as their pairs ones. And when they weren’t on the ice, they were working out and taking ballet lessons.
They’d been very involved in the choosing of their music and choreography, while Lexi had also focused on their costumes, working with designers to create the perfect outfits that reflected them and the music they skated to.
Now it was all gone.
The early morning practices. The workouts. The hectic travel schedules. The fierce competitions. The injuries. The recoveries.
None of it was left except for the practices and workouts that she’d continued with, even a year and a half after she’d last competed. But they were without real purpose now.
Still, she couldn’t get away from the habits of a lifetime. Which was why she was headed home to spend time working out in the gym at her apartment building before returning for the staff meeting a little later and her shift at one.