Page 3 of Shining Through

Fiona’s mouth pinched with worry. “I haven’t seen her. ‘Course I’m not exactly her favorite person right now.” Fiona and Samara had been arguing for days over her sister’s loser, wanna-be rock star boyfriend. That Danté was the mirror image of Fiona’s loser, wanna-be rock star boyfriends wasn’t lost on Tabitha. “She could be anywhere,” said Fiona. “She’d better not have gone far, or else she’s grounded ‘til she’s thirty. If you see her, tell her I said so!”

“You can tell me yourself, though twenty-one’s a little old for grounding.” Samara strolled in, munching a cinnamon-sugar doughnut from the craft service table out in the hall. In a thrift-shop schoolgirl skirt, holey fishnets and crimson motorcycle boots, she was the polar opposite of Tabitha. “Mmmm, yummy. Too bad you can’t have one,” she said with a teasing smirk.

“Yeah too bad,” Tabitha said, though she could take or leave doughnuts. Chocolate however, was another story.

“Where the hell were you?” With Samara safe and sound, Fiona could return to being mad.

“One of the show runners heard I was in film school, so she took me upstairs to watch from the director’s booth.”

That was hopeful news. As much as Fiona disliked Danté, Tabitha was more concerned about her sister’s inability to focus on anything. Part of it was the Attention Deficit Disorder, which remained undiagnosed until Samara’s junior year of high school. After graduation, she dabbled as a student hairstylist, a barista and movie extra, until finally, she had pursued her dream of becoming a filmmaker. Last year, she’d been accepted into the University of Southern California’s prestigious cinema studies program. But lackluster grades were putting the dream in jeopardy.

Tabitha couldn’t shake the fear that if her figure skating hadn’t demanded so much of her family’s time, money and attention, Samara’s problems would have been noticed much earlier. Her sister might be almost through with college by now and making contacts in the industry, rather than struggling with sophomore classes and a bad boyfriend. “Did you learn anything?” Tabitha asked.

Samara brushed the heavy fringe of blue-black bangs from her eyes. “I learned I never want to work in TV. And I couldn’t believe it when Celeste brought up Peter’s ex, or he’s never had a skater win at the Winter Games. Who expects gotcha questions on a show like this? Talk about low.”

Tabitha couldn’t agree more. “I promise you, Peter’s bad luck at the Games ends this season.”

Though there were countless things that could go wrong between now and February, the words brought certainty. She would win gold in Grenoble. She had to. Peter deserved it. And he wasn’t the only one. Samara had grown up as an afterthought. Fiona had worked two jobs so they could live in Beverly Hills near Tabitha’s training rink, rather than move back to her hometown in Missouri.

Her mom and her sister deserved a victory and Tabitha would not let them down.

She turned back to Samara, who was savoring the last of her donut, a blissful expression on her face as she chewed. “How do you think I did on the show?”

Her sister brushed cinnamon sugar from her hands, and headed back to the food table, in search of her next delicacy. “Perfect. How else?”

Outside, the real sky was considerably grayer than the fake one onGood Day U.S.A’sbackdrop. Peter flagged down a taxi. Tabitha, Samara, and Fiona climbed in the back, while Peter took the front seat. Fiona’s phone had chimed earlier, now, she was scrolling through a message. “Son of a bitch,” she said under her breath.

That could only mean man troubles. Ken, Fiona’s current boyfriend, and also their landlord, seemed to cause more than his share.

“Is the Ken-ster having issues?” Samara asked with knowing sympathy.

Fiona gave an exasperated sigh and shut off her phone. “He’s still pissed because I didn’t invite him along to Chicago. But it’ll all blow over by the time we’re home on Monday. He’s an Aries. What do you expect?”

What did Tabitha expect? Heartbreak and disappointment, which seemed to come with every guy, regardless of his zodiac sign.

If she’d learned anything from Fiona’s and Samara’s chaotic love lives, it was that following your heart after a troubled bad boy was a recipe for disaster. Tabitha had sworn off romance. If the day ever came when she let a man into her life, he would be neither troubled, nor would he have issues. But with the Winter Games coming up, it wasn’t something she thought about.

Not much, anyway.

Peter glanced back over his shoulder. “I thought that went well.”

“Really? Even though they brought up Claudia? And Harvard? I didn’t know they would ask about that.”

Peter flicked his hand, brushing off her concern. “Things come out of left field. As this is my last season coaching, and Claudia coaches your closest rival, someone was bound to ask eventually. But next time someone mentions Harvard, don’t correct them.”

This again. Tabitha sighed and crossed her arms. “You know I don’t like lying about it.”

“You aren’t lying. Technically, you were enrolled.”

“Online, and for no credit. That’s a lot different from what you implied.”

“Trust me, dear. It’s best this way.”

Samara was intent on her phone, scrolling through pages as if the rest of them weren’t even there. Her black polished fingernails made a tapping sound on the glass. “I didn’t know Catwoman was a lesbian.”

“Not true.” Fiona shook her head. “Julie Newmar wasn’t a lesbian.”

Samara scowled. “Who’s Julie Newmar?”

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