Page 35 of Wilder

Glancing at him, she said, “Can you tell me what the different dishes are?”

“Sure.” He came to her side and pointed out each dish, giving a brief description of it.

In the end, she took some rice, curry, and butter chicken. Then, at Wilder’s insistence, she added a piece of naan bread to her plate.

“We’re sitting in the dining room,” Charli said, pointing at the doorway the girls had gone through once they’d filled their plates. “Do you want anything special to drink?”

“Water is just fine.”

“Perfect.”

Rori had her plate filled by then and smiled at Lexi as she tipped her head in the direction Charli had indicated. “We can go sit down, if you’d like.”

She would have been most comfortable with Wilder, but Rori seemed nice enough, so Lexi followed her into the dining room.

“You can sit by me,” Layla said when she spotted her.

The room was large with big windows. It was probably a sunny space during the day. But that wasn’t the case right then, since the sun had already disappeared.

“We don’t have assigned seating,” Rori said as they approached the large rectangular table surrounded by chairs. “So, you can sit wherever you want.”

Lexi appreciated Rori telling her that because she wouldn’t have wanted to sit in someone’s seat. Since Layla had requested to sit beside her, Lexi went to the chair next to the girl.

When Wilder appeared a few minutes later, he headed directly to where Lexi was and sat down beside her. It wasn’t long before the table was full, and people were eating.

“How are you finding the food?” Wilder asked. “I know spicy isn’t for everyone.”

“I really like the butter chicken,” Lexi said. “The curry is probably right at the top end of what I enjoy spice-wise, but the naan is delicious.”

“I’m glad you’re enjoying it.”

Lexi still wasn’t sure it was her favorite type of food, but it was something she wouldn’t mind eating again. Part of the reason she enjoyed it so much was because she hadn’t had to cook it.

She continued to struggle with making meals for herself, and a lot of days, the meal she ate at the resort was the only one she had. She had the money for groceries or even take out, but she just couldn’t be bothered. It was easier to just eat at the resort, then have fruit, yoghurt, raw veggies, and protein bars the rest of the time.

When she’d been training, her meals had all been fairly basic. They’d been flavorful, but they hadn’t had a lot of unique ingredients in them. Whoever her dad had hired to cook her meals had done a good job operating within the limited parameters they’d been given.

“So, I suppose we need to discuss the Christmas skating program,” Kayleigh said after they’d been eating for a few minutes. “We should do that now, so no one has to stay late. Also, we don’t want to keep Charli and Blake from being able to do their nighttime routine with the girls.”

“I appreciate that,” Charli said as she spooned some pureed food into the baby’s mouth.

“If it’s okay with Alexandra, I’ll give you a brief overview of what we need.”

When Wilder glanced at her, Lexi nodded, more than happy to let Wilder take the lead, since she still wasn’t entirely sure what they were doing.

“I called around yesterday and determined that we can rent bleachers that would actually fit the area around the ice at the rink. That would save us from having to set up a rink outdoors. Plus, it means we won’t be at the mercy of the weather for this event.”

“That’s good,” Kayleigh said. “I’m sure Alexander would rather see the program performed in the rink that he spent so much money on.”

“So with that settled, what we need next is skaters.”

“How good do the skaters have to be?” Charli asked. “Are you going to want auditions?”

“I don’t know about official auditions,” Lexi said. “But we’ll need to make sure that the kids—and adults—who want to participate can at least stay up on the skates to move about the ice.”

“Would you want them to know jumps and spins?”

Lexi shook her head. “It would be too much with that many skaters on the ice. If we want to have some skaters do spins and jumps, we’ll choreograph it so that it’s just a small group of two or three doing that part.”

---