Page 132 of Oh, Flutz!

That almost gets a smile out of him. Almost. “She’s not the only one. Alex almost whacked me with a gigantic pencil yesterday.”

That sounds about right. I suppress a laugh. “I missed her. I’d almost forgotten what it was like to have a friend who had nothing to do with skating.”

He glares at me, so viciously it could probably make a small child cry, but I find myself suddenly so gleeful I could burst into song or something equally ridiculous. I’ll take a death stare over nothing. This way, he has to at least acknowledge me instead of shutting me out.

So I push a little further. “How is she?”

“Why don’t you ask her yourself?” he says bluntly.

I have to fight to hold my ground. “I’m just asking you how she’s doing.”

“She’s fine.”

He’s making a point. That, among other things, I lost my right to know how they’re doing the second I stepped foot on that plane.

“Katya?”

I turn around. Sure enough, the girl herself is standing right there in the doorway.So that’s what he meant by ask her.

“Hi,” I say.

Bryan walks out.

“Bry—” Alexandra starts, reaching for him, but he shrugs her off, pushing through the doors she just came in through.

Her gaze slides back over to me as the doors swing shut.

Neither of us speak, and for a terrifying moment, I think I might’ve lost her, too. But then she sighs and walks over to me, pulling me into a hug.

“I’m just glad you’re okay.”

I have the urge to cry, but I just smile and hug her back. “I’m home now. Everything is better.” But then the ache rises up again. “Mostly everything.”

Alexandra pulls away, smiling warily. “Yeah, well. And I meant your head. We saw the fall on TV.”

I wave a hand, remembering thethunkof my head hitting the ice. “That was nothing. I’ve had far worse.”

“It didn’t look like nothing. Everyone freaked out.”

I shrug. “I could’ve cracked my head open, that didn’t happen.”

Alexandra frowns. “You weren’t moving. There was blood.”

“It still could’ve been worse.”Just ask Irina.

“Thankfully. We all got so scared. Bry….he was so scared, Katya. He was freaking out.”

I swallow hard. “Somehow I doubt that.”

“Well, he was. But whatever. You’re here, you’re okay, and it’s over. I don’t know about you, but I think we should try to forget it ever happened. I’d much rather ask your opinion on the stunt that creep bastard pulled on the season finale. Did you see that shit?”

I wish it were that easy, I think to myself, and snort at the second half of her sentence. “Are you kidding? I’m surprised the girl didn’t immediately get a restraining order. I called it from the beginning, remember?”

“Same.” She grins, albeit a little sadly. “We missed you. Bachelor night hasn’t been the same without you cussing the screen out in Russian.”

I try to laugh, otherwise I might burst into tears. It doesn’t do much good. “We?”

She smiles. “Well, I don’t know, butIdefinitely missed your crazy ass.”

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