Chapter 18
LEONORA
Willow and I step onto the ice carefully, testing the surface before pushing off into long, easy strides. The ice sings beneath our blades - that specific sound I’ve known since childhood.
“You needed this,” Willow says, gliding beside me.
She spins, arms outstretched, her edges carving a perfect circle into the surface. She’s been doing figure skating since she was six, and it shows in every movement - graceful where I’m efficient, fluid where I’m sharp.
“You’ve been emanating stress for two days,” she adds.
“I have not.”
“You absolutely have.” She loops around me in a lazy circle. “Ever since the game. Ever since Showcase became an actual possibility.”
I push harder into the ice, letting the cold air rush past my face.
The lake is empty - just us, the grey winter sky and the trees lining the shore. No crowds. No scouts. No Zane Blake watching me from across the ice.
Just this.
“I am excited,” I admit.
“But?”
“But I’m also terrified.”
Willow slows until we’re gliding side by side. “Of getting caught?”
“Of everything.” I gesture vaguely at the world beyond the lake. “The scouts. The media. The other teams watching. The longer this goes on, the more attention there is. And the more attention we get…”
“The harder it is to hide.”
“Yeah.”
The only sounds are our blades and the distant call of a bird somewhere in the trees.
Then Willow says, “You know Zane will be there for the weekend too.”
I groan. “Please don’t.”
“I’m just saying.” She grins. “Your first weekend away together. Very romantic.”
“It’s a hockey tournament.”
“Same thing.”
“Absolutely not.”
She laughs and pushes ahead, spinning backward so she can watch my face. “Have you talked to him since Halloween? As yourself, I mean. Not as Lee.”
“No.”
“Have you seen him around campus?”
“Only that time at the coffee shop. When I hid in the bathroom.”
Willow’s laugh echoes across the frozen lake. “Yeah, that was hilarious.”
“What was I supposed to do? Walk up and introduce my dual personas?”
“That would be one way to do it.”
“You’re not helping.”
She skates backward in a slow curve, arms still outstretched like she’s performing for an invisible audience. “I’m helping in my own way.”
“And what way is that?”
“By reminding you that this situation is actually kind of like a movie storyline.”
I shake my head, but I’m smiling. “It’s my actual life!”
“And it makes me want to grab the popcorn!”
We reach the far edge of the lake where the ice meets the snowy bank. Willow stops, breathing hard, her cheeks flushed pink from the cold.
“So, what’s the plan?” she asks.
“For what?”
“For everything. Grant is supposed to come back eventually, right? Then what?”
“I don’t know.”
“Have you thought about it?”
“Every day.”
“And?”
“And I still don’t know.”
“Do you want to keep playing? Even after Grant comes back? Even if it means-”
“The risk?” I shrug. “Yes, more than anything. But I don’t see how that would be possible.”
“Even though there’s no future in it? I mean, it’s not like you can go pro as Lee Shaw.”
“I know.”
“So why?”
I think about it. Really think about it.
“Because when I’m on the ice,” I say slowly, “I’m not Leonora whose dad died. Or the girl whose brother is famous.”
I look at Willow. “I’m just a player. And I’m really fucking good at it.”
Willow holds my gaze for a long moment.
Then she skates forward and pulls me into a hug, right there on the frozen lake.
“Okay,” she says quietly. “Then we figure it out.”