Page 27 of The Favorites
Bella laughed. I heaved some water at her head, and she ducked under the surface, so she was a shimmering shape drifting among the pool lights.
Of course the swimming pool was heated. Only the best for the Lins.
She emerged again, and we floated in silence for a few moments. The pool was relatively shallow, so the tips of my toes skimmed the bottom.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” I asked. “Before tonight?”
“No offense, but you’re not the most approachable. You’ve barely said a word to anyone besides Heath since you got here.”
I wanted to argue, but she was right. We were so used to only having each other.
“How long have you two been together?” Bella asked.
I wasn’t sure whether she meant our skating partnership or our relationship. We met when we were ten, and started skating together shortly thereafter, but as far as our romance…there wasn’t a clear demarcation, an obvious before and after. Even our first kiss had been on the ice: a brush of the lips during a choreographed position change, the contact so fleeting I thought it might have been accidental—until we did it again during the next run-through, lingering long enough that we botched the beginning of a diagonal step sequence. I loved Heath Rocha before I knew what love was.
“We’ve been skating together for about six years.” That seemed like the simplest answer. Six years. It felt like forever, and like no time at all.
Our coach Nicole thought I was oblivious to Heath’s presence when he’d started staying after hockey practice. But from the first day, I’d felt his eyes on me and a pull between us, even if I didn’t understand what it meant.
I kept expecting him to come talk to me—to say hello, at the very least. Finally, I got impatient. The next afternoon, I waited by the doors, intercepting him before he had a chance to retreat to his usual seat at the back of the stands.
“Why are you always sitting up there watching me?” I demanded.
He didn’t answer right away. He looked a bit frightened of me. We were about the same height even then, but in my skates and blade guards I had a couple of inches on him.
“Your music,” he said finally. “It sounds like…like a thunderstorm or something.”
I shrugged. “I guess.”
The piece was a section of “Summer” fromThe Four Seasons—chosen by Nicole, after she’d rejected my suggestion of skating to Paula Abdul. Despite my father’s attempts to educate me, all classical sounded the same to my young ears. Heath was the one who eventually taughtme to appreciate the endless shades and textures of emotion an orchestra could evoke. I liked how fast I got to skate, though, my footwork timed to match Vivaldi’s vigorous strings.
“Well,” Heath said, “you’re really good.”
I tossed my hair—which must have looked ridiculous. I used to wear it in pigtails for practice, one always bigger than the other, pieces falling out.
“Yeah, I know,” I told him. “So if you’re gonna watch me, at least get a better seat.”
Heath had smiled—and then sat down in the front row.
“You two are super cute together,” Bella said. “But a word of advice? You might want to be a little more discreet.”
I opened my mouth to protest, but Bella stopped me with an arch of her eyebrow.
“Your room is right next to Gemma’s. And Gemma’s best friends with Josie.”
Well, shit. “So everyone knows?”
Bella nodded.
“Does your mother know?”
“I find it best to assume my mother knows everything.”
“Do you think…” I didn’t even want to say it.
“Oh, don’t worry. She’s not going to kick you out. Not for that. If it were to start affecting your skating, though—”
“It won’t.” At the time, I couldn’t see how our connection could be anything other than an asset on the ice.
