Page 12 of My Best Bet

I’d take Lucy to a new rink and I’d never run into her again.

I’d neverthinkof her again.

My eyes slammed shut and I clenched my jaw so hard my teeth could crack.

Because I knew I was lying to myself.

The reason I was even fuckingherewas because of a memory of her.

And now she worked at my fucking practice rink.

Since when?

Nope. No questioning her presence, dude. Only focus on what you can control,I told myself.

I scrubbed a hand down my face and adjusted my hat.

I couldn’t do anything right now. My hands were tied.

They’d have the lesson, then I’d ask the front office about other figure skating coaches in the area. And if Lucy got alongwith the other two girls, I’d talk to their mothers and convince them to take their little girls wherever we went.

This would all work out for the best.

Because Meredith Bennett was dangerous.

And I’d do anything to protect that smile on my little girl’s face.

3.Meredith -Him -present day

The group lesson went well.Reallywell. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but this was the best lesson I’d had since I started here two weeks ago.

As a new coach here, I had to give free trial lessons in order to gain students. It was a great way to make sure it was the right fit for both the students and the coach. But honestly, I’d take on anyone as a student these days because I needed to be able to pay my rent at the end of the month.

And I really wanted this to work out.

No, Ineededthis to work out.

I was desperate to avoid having to move back in with my parents at 31. Sure, they would welcome me back with open arms, which I was extremely grateful for, but… Having to do that would just make it feel like… like I failed. Which, I guess I did in some ways. But I made peace with those shortcomings. Besides, my parents were now living in a retirement complex near the beach in Florida– not exactly a hub for competitive figure skating.

I had to keep moving forward.

To bigger and brighter things.

This was my fresh start in Chicago.

I just needed a couple students to take a chance on me– maybe these three girls would.

Two of the girls, Charlotte and Sophia, were seemingly already friends, but they included the other girl, Lucy, very quickly and with such kindness that I wanted to tell their parents they should be proud.

Lucy was quieter, and she was absolutely adorable with her short dark hair worn in tiny pigtails. Something about her warm brown eyes and the smattering of little freckles across the bridge of her nose seemed so damn familiar, but I couldn’t quite place why.

All three girls were extremely excited to work on spins, which was a great sign. You could weed out kids who weren’t interested in the sport pretty quickly, but not these three. They weren’t looking at the clock and counting down the minutes until they could get off the ice or complaining about how cold they were. No, they were actually enjoying their time out here, carefully listening to my instructions, and cheering each other on. And the way they were high-fiving and complimenting each other completely warmed my heart.

I knew I’d have to try to talk the parents into taking private lessons after this session, but maybe group lessons would be a good idea for this trio.

When the rink’s buzzer went off, I skated with the girls to the boards, then tracked each girl as she ran to a parent.

With shaky hands, I adjusted my scarf to hide my itchy neck and straightened my jacket. I hated this part– talking with parents. I fully knew what I was talking about when it came to figure skating– hell, I’d been a professional skater touring with different groups for almost a decade– but nerves made me freeze up and sound like a bumbling idiot.

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