by Diana Palmer
“But of course you have,” he corrected. “We are going to do a couple of ice shows to keep us going financially, then I’m going to teach adult education and you’re going to finish your degree.”
“Well, I’ve talked to you and Gerda about it,” she agreed. “But I haven’t said anything to Micah. He seems to think that you and I will go on in competition for years yet, especially if, God forbid, we don’t win at the Olympics.”
“Either way, I have no such plans. Neither do you. Why don’t you tell him?”
“I’m not so confident. I mean, he wants to go out with me when we’re back from Pyeongchang, but he hasn’t really mentioned anything more than that. Well, except for wanting more children than Janey...”
His eyebrows met his hairline. “C’est vrai?” he asked, laughing.
She flushed. “Actually, I’d like children, too. A lot of them.”
“But he thinks you want to continue skating.”
She nodded. “I can’t think of a way to tell him how I feel without coming off, well, brassy.”
“Chérie,” he said softly, “it won’t sound ‘brassy’ coming from you.”
“After we get back from Pyeongchang,” she said. “I’ll think of something.”
His eyes twinkled. He imagined that Micah would think of something a lot sooner than that. But he didn’t say so.
* * *
JANEY CONTINUED HER LESSONS, and Chad thought she was ready for the next test. He and Micah spoke while Janey practiced on the ice at Catelow.
“She’s very good,” Chad told her father. “I’ve very rarely seen such dedication in a child so young.”
Micah smiled. “She’s inspired. Having a world-famous skater for a friend has kept her focused,” he chuckled.
“Yes, Karina is unique. So was her mother,” he added. He shook his head. “I never had the honor of watching her skate, but there are videos of her on YouTube. She was amazing. Two-time gold Olympic champion in singles. You know, Karina started out to follow in her footsteps.” He made a face. “Then there was the assault in New York at sectionals competition.” He shook his head. “That was why she and Paul teamed up. Paul protected her.”
“I mistook that relationship for something worse,” Micah confided. “I gave her a hard time over it. I should have known better. She isn’t the type to help a man commit adultery.”
“Not her. Karina’s parents were both deeply religious. She doesn’t speak of it much, but she’s like that, too.”
He smiled slowly. “I noticed.”
“So. Do you want to take Janey down to Jackson for the test Saturday?”
“Do I ever!” Micah exclaimed. “Karina and Paul will be at their last practice before they fly to Pyeongchang. I wouldn’t miss that for the world. Even if I need an excuse to barge in on them.”
Chad’s eyes twinkled. “Trust me, you wouldn’t need an excuse.”
Micah’s eyebrows arched in a question.
“I text Karina about Janey’s progress. Every other text, she asks if I’ve seen you and how you are.”
Micah grinned. “Well!” he said.
* * *
PAUL AND KARINA were just finishing their last practice when Micah and Janey walked down to the barrier. Chad was waiting beyond it, on the ice, having preceded them to Jackson.
Karina spotted Janey and her father, and she raced to the barrier to hug Janey. “I’m so happy to see you!” she exclaimed, her eyes going helplessly to Micah’s face.
“We’re happy to see you, too!” Janey exclaimed. She waved at Paul and blew him a kiss, which he returned. He was headed to another part of the rink, where Gerda and the boys were waiting for him.
“Janey’s here for her test. Which she’s going to pass,” Micah said with easy confidence.
Janey reached up to hug him. “Of course I am! I’ll never get to the Olympics if I don’t pass all my tests, so I work hard. I want to follow in my inspiration’s footsteps,” she added with a grin at Karina, who laughed.
“Okay, it’s time,” Chad called.
“Wish me luck!” Janey said, pulling off her skate guards and handing them to her dad, along with her coat.
“You won’t need luck,” he replied.
She grinned and skated off toward the small group of skaters also waiting to be tested.
“She watches videos of you and Paul on YouTube all the time,” Micah told her. He shrugged. “Me, too.”
She flushed. “Gerda filmed us and uploaded it.”
“Good for Gerda. It makes up for not being able to see you,” he said huskily.
“You could come down here...” she began.
He shook his head. “Not while you’re training,” he said. “No distractions. I want you to win. Even if winning takes you far away,” he added with a resigned sigh.
She looked up, searching his eyes. “It will only take me to Pyeongchang.”
“I mean after that,” he corrected. He stared at her almost hungrily. The feel of her body so close was making him uncomfortable. He wanted more. Much more. “You’ll go on in competition, won’t you?”
The way he said it, he sounded as if he expected her to do that. Her self-confidence took a nose dive. “Well, if we lose, I suppose we’ll keep trying,” she confided. “If we win...” She hesitated. “Well, there would be public appearances and exhibitions, and there’s an ice show that a lot of amateur skaters take part in, after they finish competing.”
“That would mean a lot of travel,” he said.
She sighed. “I’m afraid so. I’ve lived out of a suitcase most of my life,” she added. “Going from one competition to another.”
He stuck his hands in his slacks pockets and looked past her at Janey. “I’m sure that the medals are worth it,” he said and smiled.
She’d hoped for something more than that from him. But she forced a smile. Had she been reading too much into those casual text messages? She’d thought they were on the brink of a new relationship, but he was backing away.
She drew in a breath. “Well, we sacrifice quite a lot for the medals,” she said finally. “We’re obsessed with them, I suppose.”
“It’s understandable, when you’ve trained for so many years toward a goal like that.”
“Do you still have goals?” she asked hesitantly.
He shrugged. “Not so many as I did,” he confessed. “I want to have enough time to spend with Janey, while she’s growing up. I’ve been remiss, there. Business has consumed me. I’m just beginning to realize how much time I’ve spent on the road, on business.”
“Janey knows that you love her.”
“She does. But it takes more than an occasional visit to make the point,” he replied. He looked down at her with a guarded expression. “You’re doing it as much for your parents as for yourself, aren’t you?”
She nodded slowly. “They were so proud of me, so happy when Paul and I were chosen to go to Sochi, in the last Olympics. Everything went wrong. I know they were disappointed. They hid it very well...” Her voice trailed away as she recalled bitterly the day the plane had crashed. “Even then, they were looking forward to the next Olympics. They had such faith in Paul and me.” She shifted restlessly. “I wanted to justify their faith in me, all the sacrifices they made so I could compete.”
“You’ll make them proud, at this Olympic Games,” he said with certainty. “You’ll win. I know you will.”
She looked up at him with sad gray eyes. “We’ll do our best,” she said. “That’s all any of us can do.”
He started to say something else, but Janey came skating toward them like a streak of light.
“I did it, I passed!” she exclaimed. “I flubbed up on one jump, but I still passed!”
Karina laughed. “The judges are tolerant of little mistakes,” she said, hugging the child. “I shou
ld know. I made my share when I was your age!”
Micah looked at his watch. “I hate it, but we have to go. I’m on a plane to New York tonight. I know,” he said when Janey made a face. “I promised there would be less travel. I’m working on that. I have to make sure I delegate efficiently, so that I can step back and let the company earn its keep. Okay?”
She smiled. “Okay, Daddy.”
“That’s my girl.” He looked back at Karina. “I’d wish you luck. But you won’t need it,” he said quietly. “This is your year.”
“Thanks,” she said huskily.
“And we’ll be there to cheer for you!” Janey added. “I can’t wait!”
“Neither can I,” Karina lied. She could wait. It had just dawned on her that, more than winning an Olympic gold, she wanted Micah. It was almost physically painful to smile at him as he followed Janey up into the stands to take off her skates.
She didn’t watch them leave. Her heart would have broken right in two, in her chest, to see Micah’s broad back walking out of her life. She’d had such hopes. Then, in the space of a few minutes, everything had changed.
Paul skated over to her. He frowned. “Is everything all right?”
She forced a smile. “Certainly! Now where were we...?”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
SO SOON, PRACTICE was over and Paul and his family and Karina flew to Pyeongchang.
The city was fascinating to all of them. This was one of the few places on earth Karina and Paul had never been. They discovered some of the most delicious food they’d ever eaten, after the excitement of the opening ceremony with its parade of athletes and music.
They mingled with the other skaters and wished each other luck. Many of them had been in competition for years, just like Karina and Paul, and they’d become casual friends. One of the things Karina loved about the international competition was the sense of family, even when competing. They all had the same goal, the same hope, the same sense of history in the making. But only one gold medal got awarded. So there was also the obsession to win, to be the best.
“What if we lose?” Karina asked Paul nervously.
They were waiting their turn to skate. It was the short program. The arena was full. It was noisy. The skaters before Paul and Karina had just received their marks, to wild applause. Their bouquets and stuffed animals were scooped off the ice. Everything was ready for them.
* * *
“WE DO THE best we can, and that will be all we need to do,” he whispered. “Now smile! And don’t worry! Janey’s up there somewhere watching. We skate just for her, and for Gerda and the boys and Hilde. Right?”
She took a deep breath and forced a big smile. “Right!”
They skated onto the ice, took their positions, and went into their routine. It was a fast-paced, saucy skit, much different from the one they used in the free skate. But during one of the throws, Karina landed a little awkwardly. She recovered quickly and grimaced as she and Paul came back together.
“Don’t sweat it,” he whispered. “Smile! Everybody fumbles!”
“Not everybody,” she chided.
“Skate!”
She laughed and continued to the end. Then she and Paul waited nervously for their marks, sucking at bottles of water while Hilde sat on tenterhooks with them.
The marks came through. Even considering the fumble, they were very good. Just not good enough for first place.
“Wait,” Hilde told them patiently. “Just wait. After the free skate, you will pick up. You’ll see.”
Karina sighed. “Oh, I hope so!” She looked around the stands. “Are Micah and Janey here?” she asked.
“I haven’t seen them,” Hilde said.
Karina’s spirits fell. Micah had promised. Had something happened at the ranch? Was one of them sick, injured? There was another possibility as well. What if Micah had only been appeasing Janey? What if he’d never meant to come to the Olympics in the first place?
She grew morose. He’d intimated that they were going out together after the Olympics. That had been before they’d discussed what lay ahead for her and Paul. Afterward, he’d been more hesitant. What if he was having second thoughts? What if he was missing Lindy?
“Stop brooding,” Paul said softly. “If he isn’t here, there’s a reason. Don’t let it matter. We’ve come so far. Let’s go all the way, yes?”
She looked up at her partner, her friend, and she smiled. “Yes.”
* * *
THEY ATE OUT, very late, and went to bed. Nobody had called. Karina didn’t sleep well, worrying whether Micah and Janey and Burt were even going to come. Twice she picked up her phone to try and text Micah, but twice she put it back down. He had her number. He could call her, after all, if he wanted to. It seemed brassy to chase after him.
She and Paul and Gerda and the boys did some sightseeing and shopping, and Karina tried to put the last competition out of her mind until it was upon them. She was all thumbs as they waited once again for their turn on the ice.
It seemed ages until they were ready to start the free skate. During that time, Karina’s eyes had glanced through the audience, hoping, praying, for a glimpse of familiar faces. But she hadn’t seen them.
Worse, she’d had no texts from Micah since she and Paul had left the States. That was worrying. But she couldn’t afford to dwell on it. She had to concentrate on her skating. She and Paul, her parents, Gerda and the boys, they’d all sacrificed so much to get to the Olympics, to compete here. They had supporters from all over the States, from the skating authority, the fans. They couldn’t let themselves, or all those people who believed in them, down. If Micah didn’t show up, he didn’t show up. There was nothing she could do about that.
In fact, she had a worse worry. Lindy could have been forgiven. She could be back in Micah’s life, wearing his ring again. After all, he’d taken her back before. All the things he’d said to Karina could have been forgotten if Lindy had come back and aimed her cap at him again. Men were susceptible to beauty, and Lindy was beautiful.
“You must stop brooding,” Paul said just before they went out onto the ice. “You must concentrate. This is it, kid.”
She laughed. “Yes. This is it, and I’m not brooding. I’m just nervous. I slipped last time...”
“You won’t slip this time,” he said with supreme confidence. He grinned. “The world is ours. I’ve never believed it more than now. We are going to win.”
She caught his enthusiasm. She smiled. “Yes. We are!”
* * *
THEIR NAMES WERE CALLED. They skated onto the ice, moved into position, waited for the music. The first strains of Rachmaninoff began to play, so beautiful that they were almost painful to hear. They lifted the heart, and the soul.
Karina looked at Paul. He was her anchor, her focus. She looked at nothing else. There was only the music and the program. There was nothing else.
They had little to lose. They were in third place. At least, they were likely to get the bronze. So even a slip wouldn’t matter anymore. They threw themselves into the program and skated as they’d never skated before, expecting nothing, hoping for nothing, just living in the moment and wringing the last ounce of joy out of their spectacular performance.
When they finished, the audience was on its feet. People were screaming. Digital cameras were flashing. There was thunderous applause. Karina looked at Paul and tears streamed down her cheeks.
“Perfect,” he whispered.
She smiled. “Perfect,” she replied.
She scanned the audience, not really looking for anyone as she and Paul took many bows. Her eyes lit on a Stetson. Next to it was a small girl. Micah and Janey! They were here! They’d seen!
“Micah’s here!” she whispered excitedly. “So is Janey!”
He chuckled. “I told you.”
She just laug
hed.
They skated off the ice. Hilde hugged them both. “We’re going all the way. I know we are!”
“Fingers crossed,” Karina whispered.
“No need,” Paul said as their scores were flashed on the big screen. “What did I tell you? First place!”
They hugged each other.
“Now if we can just hold the lead...” Karina whispered.
“Have faith,” Hilde said, hugging her. “It’s our night. I know it is.”
* * *
AND, SURE ENOUGH, at the end of the programs, after the scores were tallied, Paul and Karina were still in first place. They’d done it. Gold!
The ceremony was exhilarating. The three pairs skated onto the ice, one at a time, receiving their accolades from the audience as they took their places on the podium. Each pair hugged the other pairs, a show of grand sportsmanship that acknowledged the pain and glory of competition.
As the gold medals were looped over Paul and Karina’s necks, they looked at each other and then away, as tears rolled down their cheeks to the throbbing applause of the audience. First in the world. Amazing!
* * *
THERE WERE INTERVIEWS that seemed to go on forever, when all Karina wanted to do was get to Micah and Janey. But business came first, this time.
She and Paul smiled for the cameras, displayed their medals, congratulated the other skaters on their fine performances, and thanked all the people who’d helped them get to the Olympics. It was a long list.
Finally, there was a little free time. Karina went looking for Micah and Janey, but she didn’t see them anywhere.
In desperation, she sent a text to Micah. “Are you and Janey in one of the restaurants here?”
It was almost five minutes before she got a reply. “Sorry, only had time to watch you win. On our way back to the States. Congratulations.”
And that was all. She’d hoped that they might have time to sit and talk together, to discuss whatever had started him backing away from her. But he was already gone. She fought tears.
“I am so sorry,” Paul said when he saw her face and guessed what was wrong. “They didn’t stay?”