CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Wilder was up early the next morning and dressed in a pair of joggers instead of his normal jeans, thinking they might be better for the practice with Lexi. He’d gone to his parents’ place the night before to find a hockey stick since they didn’t have one at Charli and Janessa’s.
When he walked into the kitchen, he was greeted by a room full of activity as people got ready to leave for school and work. Wilder made himself some instant oatmeal, then stood next to the counter eating it, while Layla and Amelia sat hunched over bowls of cereal.
“Okay, I’m off,” Blake said as he picked up Shiloh’s car seat.
Charli gave him a kiss, then bent to press a kiss to Shiloh’s forehead. Blake would be dropping the baby off with his and Charli’s parents before he went to work, while Charli took Layla to the middle school, then went with Amelia to the elementary school.
After he finished his oatmeal, Wilder rinsed the bowl and put it into the dishwasher. He filled a travel mug with coffee, then said goodbye to the people still there and headed for the rink.
Wilder was excited to see what Lexi had come up with. He hadn’t been sure how she’d approach a program that had no real significance to it. This one wouldn’t have any of the intricacies or difficulty of a competitive program. Or at least he hoped it wouldn’t. There was no way he’d trust himself to throw—let alone catch—Lexi.
There was only one car in the parking lot at the rink. It was the Audi he’d seen before, which seemed to confirm that it was Lexi’s car.
Grabbing the hockey stick from the back seat, he locked the car, then headed for the rink. Christmas music was playing as he walked inside, making him smile. The music of the season was just one of many things he liked about Christmas.
He spotted Lexi on the ice already, and as he neared the boards, he stopped to watch as she glided on her skates, then popped up into a jump that looked absolutely flawless. Wilder couldn’t help but admire how she took something that was so challenging for the average person and performed it effortlessly.
Except he knew that even though the jump looked flawless and effortless, a lot of work had gone into making it appear that way.
“Good morning,” he said, making his voice loud enough to be heard over the music as he leaned against the boards.
Lexi turned toward him with a smile, then skated to where he stood. “Good morning.”
It seemed she had a uniform for when she was on the ice. The dark blue workout pants and jacket skimmed her figure, allowing him to see the lines and positions she’d focused on with Amelia and Layla. He could see the elegance that resulted from her paying attention to those things, though he had a feeling it came naturally to Lexi.
For the first time, it seemed her expression was open and relaxed. There was even a spark of excitement in her eyes.
“Ready for the program?” she asked.
“Ready as I’ll ever be. I just hope you’re going to take it easy on me.”
“It’s not super complex,” she said. “And if we need to change stuff, we can do that. Nothing is set in stone with this. We don’t have to worry about maximum point value for anything.”
“I’m glad to hear that.”
“Well, get your skates on and let’s get going.”
Wilder grinned as he went to the bench to swap his boots for his skates.
“I got us costumes,” Lexi said as she rested her arms on the top of the boards. “They should be here tomorrow.”
“You didn’t have any trouble finding good ones?”
“I don’t think so, but we’ll only know for sure once we get them and try them on.”
With his skate laces tightened comfortably, Wilder made his way to the entrance to the rink, then removed his guards before stepping out onto the ice, hockey stick in hand.
Lexi skated backwards away from him, hands on her hips. “I see you brought your prop.”
“I certainly did.” Wilder put the blade of the stick on the ice, then pretended to skate with a puck, dashing around Lexi and taking off down the rink. When he circled back to where Lexi stood watching him, he said, “I couldn’t trust you to bring one for me.”
“Rightfully so,” she said with a grin. “Ready to get to work?”
Wilder nodded, leaning on the stick. “What do you want me to do?”
“I’m going to walk you through the whole thing, then we can figure out if it works for you.”
Wilder moved off to the side, watching her as she turned on the music, then began to skate. He’d watched some of her competition programs on YouTube, but this was different.
This program was lively and fun. And he could see on her face that she was enjoying herself. Smiling, she went through different steps, but nothing too difficult. Wilder thought he could do it.
When the music ended, she skated to a stop in front of him. “So, what do you think?”
“Amazing! That was great.”
“Now your turn,” she said. “And I’ll add in my parts as we go along.”
Without turning the song back on, she had him mirror her steps. It was slow going, but thankfully, she was very patient with him and didn’t get upset with him when he made mistakes.
His natural inclination was to joke around, but it only took one look from Lexi to get him back in line. She was definitely all business, even though the program itself was fun.
He hadn’t put much thought into how difficult figure skating could be, even on the simplest level, like their Santa program. Hockey was more about speed and adaptability—both of which he was pretty good at—but not a whole lot of finesse. Lexi was alllllll about finesse, however. Even for the simple steps.
The first part of the program, he skated alone with the hockey stick, moving down the ice like someone had passed Santa the puck. Then Lexi joined him, taking the stick from him and leaving it against the boards as she circled around him, though the actual plan was for one of the elves to take it from him.
At her instruction, he reached out and took her hand. She wore thin gloves, but they didn’t interfere with her grip.
At her direction, he lifted their joined hands above her head so that she could spin in circles. Then they moved into the waltz position, with his hand resting lightly on her waist and hers on his shoulder. They kept several inches of space between them as they skated around the ice, which was good because he didn’t want to get his skates tangled up with hers.
The song wasn’t really a waltz song, but they kept to the rhythm of it as Lexi skated backwards, letting Wilder guide her around the ice. They did some more twirls and simple spins, then she had him go down on one knee while she sat on the other, both of them lifting opposite arms in the air.
It was the perfect ending pose for Santa, who was known for having people sit on his knee. So it was only natural that he’d have his wife do that.
It was nice to have Lexi close, but he tried not to focus on that. It was just part of the program. It was all an act.
When Wilder heard clapping, he looked over and saw Kayleigh and Hudson standing at the boards. Helping Lexi onto her feet, Wilder got up and gave his sister and her husband a bow.
“That looked like a lot of fun,” Kayleigh said as Wilder and Lexi skated to the boards.
“I’m impressed that you managed to get a skier to do so well on skates, Alexandra,” Hudson said.
“Hey, I’m multi-talented,” Wilder said. “I can ski. I can skate. I can do a lot of things.”
“Are you going to skate the program just once on the day?” Kayleigh asked.
“I wasn’t sure about that.” Lexi rested her arms on top of the boards. “Maybe we could skate it once every hour? Like at the top of the hour?”
“That could work,” Kayleigh agreed. “I think it would be a shame for you to only perform the program once after all the work you guys are putting into it.”
“I was thinking we could skate and then have the kids join Wilder on the ice. Somewhere in there, we’ll need to figure out how to do pictures with Santa.”
Kayleigh nodded. “Are you going to utilize Layla and Amelia?”
“Yep. I have a few little steps and spins for them to do during our program.”
“We need to get their costumes,” Kayleigh said.
“I’ve ordered mine and Wilder’s.” Lexi picked up her phone and tapped the screen a few times, then held it out to Kayleigh. “These are the ones I got.”
Kayleigh looked down at the phone, then smiled. “Those look great. I thought you might not be able to find a pretty but non-sexy Mrs. Claus.”
Wilder held out his hand for the phone so he could see what they were going to wear.
“There were a lot of those, but I found that one, and I actually liked it.”
“We need to send those pictures to Charli so she can find elf costumes that match.”
“Remember to turn in your receipts for this,” Hudson said. “Since Alexander initiated this idea and has approved the direction we’ve taken, the resort will cover all costs.”
“That’s great,” Wilder said, though he would have covered the costs of their costumes himself.
“Well, we need to get back to work, but I just wanted to check in and see how things were going,” Kayleigh said. “Wilder let me know you’d be rehearsing this morning, so I thought we’d come by.”
“You’re doing a great job,” Hudson said as he held out his fist.
Wilder bumped it with a grin. “Sure you don’t want to be an elf?”
“Oh, I’m quite certain I don’t want that.”
Laughing, the couple headed for the door.
Once they were gone, Lexi turned to him and said, “So, what do you think?”
“We definitely need more practice, but I think it’s going to turn out really well. I like it.”
Lexi smiled at his words. “Thanks for going along with this.”
“You say that like it’s a hardship for me,” Wilder said. “It really, really isn’t. I’m up for any adventure, and this feels a bit like an adventure.”
“I’m still getting used to that mindset. I haven’t met anyone quite like you before.”
“I am one of a kind,” Wilder said with a laugh. “God broke the mold after He made me.”
“Aren’t we all one of a kind?”
“I suppose. My mom always said she was glad God only gave her one of me.”
“Did you give her a run for her money?”
“I think I’m responsible for every gray hair on her head.” Wilder pushed back away from the boards, then stroked forward again. “I did all kinds of things when I was younger that scared my mom.”
“Like what?”
“I jumped off the first-floor roof onto the trampoline when I was ten. I built a five-foot bike ramp. Broke my collarbone on that one. I think I’ve climbed every tree on our property. When my dad got us a dirt bike, I was the one who was banned from driving it because I always went too fast.”
“Your poor mom.”
“Are you telling me that your mom didn’t have any thoughts about you being flung into the air for jumps and twists? Or hanging upside down for a lift?”
“She didn’t have a problem once we had them perfected,” Lexi said. “But when we were learning a new high-flying skill, she was nowhere to be found.”
“I think my mom would have been the same.”
The door to the rink opened, and the guy that worked in the skate rental walked in.
“Hey, Alexandra,” George said with a lift of his hand. “Wilder.”
The middle-aged man handled several parts of the rink. From taking care of the ice, to sharpening skates, to renting them out, he was a bit of a jack of all trades.
“How’s the ice?” he asked as he joined them at the boards.
“I have no complaints,” Wilder said with a grin. “But then, I’m not the pro.”
“I think it’s still fine,” Lexi said. “These are the slow days of the week, so it’ll probably be okay until Thursday.”
George looked out over the ice, then nodded. “I’ll keep an eye on it.”
He headed back to the rental area, flipping on the lights of the room behind the pass-through. His arrival meant it wasn’t long until the rink opened, so they needed to wrap up their practice.
“I guess our practice time is over,” Wilder said. “I need to get going anyway. I promised my dad I was going to help him out with some stuff around their house. Today and tomorrow are probably the last days for a little while that I can help him.”
“Do you want to practice again tomorrow?”
Wilder nodded. “I’ll be here. Same time.”
“I’ll be here too. And then maybe on Saturday, I’ll do a little work with the girls on their part in the program.”
“Unfortunately, I won’t be able to come for their practices anymore,” Wilder said with a frown. “If we’re all going to practice together, I might have to see if Charli would be willing to get the girls up early on Saturday so we can do it before I have to go to work.”
“I have to say it’s taken a little to get used to working weekends and having my days off during the week.”
“Did you take weekends off when you trained?” Wilder asked as he slipped his guards on, then walked across the carpet to the bench to take his skates off.
Lexi sat down next to him and bent over to untie her skates. “Nope. We trained pretty much every day, though Sundays were less intense, just to give our bodies a bit of a break. It probably wasn’t what would be recommended, but it worked for us.”
“So all you had to juggle was your training?”
“Yes. Here, I’m also coaching, along with working, and now I have the fundraiser program. There’s a lot of different things on my plate.”
“If you need to offload anything, just let me know. We’ll work around what you need.”
“I’ll be fine. I’ve never had a problem with a busy schedule.”
“I’ll chat with you later,” Wilder said once he’d gathered up his things. “I’m going to head over to the slopes now and take a test run to see how things are before going to my folks’ place.”
“Try not to get hurt,” Lexi said as she walked with him to the door.
Wilder flashed her a grin. “That’s always the goal, but sometimes things happen.”
“Well, try not to let it.”
“For you, I’ll try harder than normal.”
Wrapping her arms across her waist, Lexi smiled at him. Though it was small, it reached her eyes, and Wilder knew it was genuine, as most smiles she gave him these days seemed to be. Things between them had progressed enough that Lexi appeared willing to let down some of her walls, and Wilder couldn’t be happier.
It also warmed him that she was concerned for his safety. Each time they were together, his emotional reaction to her got more and more tangled. He found himself wondering if she felt anything like he did.
And if she did, was there a way to bring their lives into alignment?