Page 154 of Oh, Flutz!

I take her by the shoulders, maneuvering so I can sit against the counter and face her. “Look at me,” I say gently, tilting her chin up with a finger, and she does, worry lines etched deep, grey eyes cloudy.

Then I reach into my back pocket, pulling out one of those disgusting protein bars of hers she’s been talking about all year, and I watch as the anxiety melts into shocked delight.

“Where the hell did you get that?”

I can’t help but grin. “I have my ways.” Actually, I’ve been trying to get my hands on a box ever since she first mentioned missing them, but even I couldn’t figure it out. It’s extremely convenient that we’re only a couple of hours away from the Russian border right now. I may or may not have ordered a delivery before we even made it out of the airport.

“God, I love you,” she says, laughing slightly, then snatches it from me, unwrapping it and taking a big bite, looking exactly like a crying toddler given a lollipop.

“That make you feel better?’

She nods, chewing, leaning forward and resting her head on my chest. “Yes.”

I take a deep breath, taking her hands. “We’ll do it together. Alright? I promise. I’ll make this happen for you. You’ll have the skate of your life, sunshine. We both will.”

Katya smiles up at me, raising her brows. “Oh, we will?”

I squeeze her hands. Determination’s flooding through me, and I know it. I know we can do this. For once in my life, I have no doubt about my capabilities. As long as she’s there with me, I know I can do anything—and together, we’ll be unstoppable.

So there’s no doubt in my mind when I say it. “Hell yes we will.”

Chapter Fifty-Five

KATYA

It's Thursday. The dayof the free skate. The biggest day of our lives.

“Grab me tighter,” Bryan says into my ear as we stand around in front of about fifty news crews and maybe fifty times as many people, waiting for the Japanese team to get their scores back.

It takes me a second to process what he’s saying over the screaming in my head, the sound of Tatyana’s threats threatening to tear my skull apart.You’re nothing, suka. Nothing!So he does it for me, taking my hand and squeezing it so tightly between his that I have no choice but to focus on the circulation being cut off in my fingers.

“Is this how you used to feel?” I ask, trying my best to get the words out despite the crushing lack of oxygen in my chest, to keep my smile plastered on.

“I used to throw up before every competition until Lee started shoving antacids down my throat,” Bryan tells me, still with a death grip on my hand that would earn anyone else a swift kick in the knees but, coming from him, is indescribably comforting. “Then I stopped, just because that chalky crap was way worse than the nerves.”

I choke out a laugh. “I did that too. Tatyana encouraged it.”

“I hate her,” Bryan spits. Then his eyes go wide at the same time as mine do. “Oh. Uh. I’m sorry, I know it’s still—”

“I hate her too,” I blurt out, and Bryan lights up, a huge grin splitting his face.

“Wehateher!” he yells, shaking our hands in celebration, and I burst out laughing as he cheers and hollers and forces me to jump along with him, and I don’t even notice the weird looks of everyone around us.

“For the record, you and your psycho ex-coach are completely different types of psycho,” Bryan says after we’ve both calmed down, and I raise an eyebrow.

“Um, explain.”

“Hear me out. So, like, everyone used to think you were crazy, right?”

“Um, thank you?”

He snaps a finger in front of my face. “Exactly.”

I roll my eyes, snaking an arm around his waist and leaning into him. “I think you’ve lost your mind,solnishko.”

“Old news, sunshine. Really, though. People call you names because you’re good and you know it. Kinda. We’re still working on the self-appreciation part, but progress. They callhernames, because she’s a supervillain and doesn’t bother hiding it.” He slides me a smirk. “Trust me, alright? You’re nothing like her. And you definitely don’t need her. So we’re going to prove that to everyone tonight.”

I exhale heavily. “Thank you. I needed that.”

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