Page 19 of Side By Side

“Shit,” Chandler said, glancing at the clock, too. “Yeah, my sister is going to kill me.”

“Sister?”

“You met her last night.”

“I thought she was your coach.”

“She’s both.” Chandler stood up and held out her hands for Belle to take. “Not a trick.”

“I’ll get up myself, just to be safe.”

“Suit yourself.” Chandler skated backward and added, “I have to get some sleep, but this was fun.”

“Yeah, it was.”

“Will you be around?” she asked.

Belle joined her in skating back to the door and said, “I work here, so, yeah.”

“I mean to watch.”

“I’ll be working the event, so I’ll see some of it.”

Chandler nodded and sat down to change out of her skates. Belle did the same, and again, they were silent until they had their skates in their bags.

“I’ll walk you out. I assume your driver is waiting for you?”

“Yeah, he’ll be there. Are you good to drive home?”

“I think almost being flattened by plexiglass took any chance of me getting drunk away. And I only live a few minutes away.”

“Close to the ice,” Chandler said softly.

“Yeah,” she replied.

“Okay. Well, we should go.”

Belle nodded, and she led Chandler back down the hallway and out the side door, which she locked behind them.

“See you tomorrow, Belle?”

Belle nodded once more and climbed into her truck, watching Chandler’s driver open the back door of the SUV for her before she drove off.

CHAPTER 6

Chandler spun and spun and spun until the music slowed and died down completely. She spun once more for good measure and stopped. Then, she held up her arms, and that was the end – she’d finished her free skate. She still had her long program, but at least one performance was over, and she could go sit down, wait for her scores, and finally breathe. Yes, Chandler technically breathed throughout her performance, but she hadn’t gone on the ice solo in years, so she needed one really deep breath the moment she was off the ice. She covered her blades before she sat down and accepted her jacket from her sister.

“Not great,” Catalina said.

Chandler kept smiling, though, because, despite the fact that there were no cameras there and she wouldn’t have to do any interviews, she’d learned from an early age that smiling was important, even if the performance hadn’t been the best.

“Thanks, Cat,” she said sarcastically. “Maybe give me at least something positive before you tear me apart next time. That’s my first solo in years.”

“I can’t exactly be happy when you turned down the reason we’re actually here.”

“I thought we were here to keep me on the ice.”

“You know that’s part of it, but we’re really here for you to find a new partner. Even Walker wanted you to be with Justin after he watched the videos I sent him.”