Page 7 of Side By Side
That was the last customer of the night for Belle, at least.
“Hey, I’m going to get in some ice time. Are you good back here?” she asked Steph, who worked the concession stand part-time and who was already cleaning the grill since they had enough hot dogs on the spinning rack to get through the rest of the night.
“Yeah, I’m good.”
“Okay. I’ll be back to help you close up.”
“No problem,” Steph said.
Belle went out through the back door that led to a hallway and the behind-the-scenes operations for the Ice Park, which was the not-so-clever name her dad had given the place when he’d bought it. She got to the locker room, changed into her skating clothes, and carried her bag with her skates in it out to the ice, where she found her dad trying to tighten a bolt on some old, rickety metal bleachers.
“Hey, honey,” he said and grunted.
“Hey. Need help?”
“No, I’ve almost got it. We need to get new bleachers so that I don’t have to keep fixing these.”
“I’m surprised they let you run a competition here this weekend, with this one set of bleachers requiring you to replace a bolt, but instead of doing that, you just keep twisting it back in.”
Her dad finished what he was doing, looked up, and gave her a glare.
“It’s a perfectly good bolt.”
“No, it’s not, which is why you have to tighten it once a week.”
“Well,” he said as if that would explain anything. Then, he wiped his brow, looked around, and added, “This place isn’t so bad.”
“No, it’s not, Dad. It’s great, actually.”
“So great, they’re letting us host that big competition you just mocked me for a second ago.”
“Don’t get carried away. It’s not US Nationals; it’s a regional figure skating competition.”
“With some real talent. You should be skating out there with them.”
“I haven’t done any serious figure skating in about a decade now, so I don’t think I belong out there with the professionals.”
Her dad sat down on the very bleacher he’d just repaired and asked, “Is it going to bother you, them all being here?”
“No. We need the business. Little kids figure skating with their parents helps, but you make real money on the hockey games and events.”
“Hockey games that my kid plays in,” he added. “There is women’s hockey. You know that, right?”
Belle chuckled as she sat down next to him. They’d had this conversation so many times before, and it always went the same way.
“Dad, I haven’t gotten injured yet. I play in goal, so I’m not getting roughed up against the glass. The guys are nice, and there’s no women’s league around here. I’d have to travel two hours away to join one, and I can’t do that. I work here, and you know I need my time on the ice for just me.”
“I know. But those guys are huge…”
“They are not.” She laughed and patted him on the knee. “They’re normal-sized dudes who play recreational hockey and take it way too seriously before they go have a few beers and then go home to their wives.”
“And when will that be you?”
“Sorry?” she asked, not expecting that question.
“When will you have a wife that you can go home to?”
“Oh,” she said and laughed a little. “Um… It’s going to be a while, considering I’m here all the time, and this place tends to be occupied by figure skating and hockey moms who all have rings on their fingers, so…”