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Wilder shrugged. “I have no clue. And I don’t think she does either. She seems quite… unmoored, for lack of a better word. From the few conversations we’ve had about her career, I think she doesn’t know what to do with her future.”

“I imagine losing everything the way she did must be very hard to deal with,” Janessa said. “I mean, she’s lost her dad, and because of him, she’s also lost her career.”

“Learning her father wasn’t who she thought he was has probably also caused her some trust issues.”

Janessa and Lee exchanged a glance that Wilder didn’t understand, but before he could ask about it, Will said, “Maybe she’ll find a future in Serenity. For whatever reason, she’s ended up at the resort. Perhaps God has a purpose for her here.”

Wilder had a hard time envisioning what that future might be. If she wanted to coach, the resort probably wasn’t the best place for her. And if she returned to competing, it was unlikely that Serenity would be a good base for her training.

“I hope she finds what she needs,” Janessa said. “She seems to be a very uptight and… controlled person.”

“Of course she’s controlled,” Wilder said, feeling the need to defend Lexi. “When she competes, she has to be able to keep her emotions under control no matter how her skate goes. And she has to leave anything she might be struggling with behind when she steps on the ice so she’s not distracted.”

“That does make sense. I’ve just never met anyone like her before.”

“Rori isn’t super open with everyone,” Lee said. “But you’re not saying that about her.”

“Rori can be reserved, but I’ve always had the sense that she was willing to open up if someone expressed an interest in truly knowing her. I don’t get the feeling that Lexi is that way.”

“You have to understand, though,” Wilder began. “Her trust has been betrayed by people who were supposed to have had her best interests at heart. Who were supposed to love and support her. She lost her dad. Her coaches dropped her. And her fiancé not only broke off their engagement, he dropped her as his partner. Her ability to trust is going to be very low for the time being.”

“She seems to trust you,” Janessa said. “At least enough to spend time with you.”

Wilder didn’t know how much Lexi trusted him, but he had a feeling that she was spending time with him because she didn’t have any other options. Plus, they needed to work together for the program. He sincerely doubted that she viewed him as a confidante or anything beyond an acquaintance.

He’d know that they’d officially moved from being acquaintances and co-workers to friends when she initiated contact with him without it being work related. Wilder didn’t plan to hold his breath waiting for that to happen.

If they could get through this Christmas program without her cutting him with her skate blade, he’d count it as a win. And if they managed to forge a solid friendship in the process, that would just be a cool bonus.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Lexi listened as Kayleigh outlined what she had proposed to Alexander for the Christmas fundraising event. She wasn’t sure if she was surprised or not that he’d agreed without requesting any changes.

Granted, she didn’t know the man well—or at all, really—but Kayleigh and Hudson seemed to have a good relationship with him, so perhaps he was deferring to their judgement.

“There are lots of moving parts for this, but only some of it will fall on your shoulders,” Kayleigh said. “Basically anything that involves the ice will be what you need to plan.”

Lexi nodded. “The costumes and decorating, too?”

“We can discuss the costumes and where to get them. The decorating will be done by whoever we get to decorate the resort. I think you should have just a short program for the skating with the Santa thing. You, Wilder, and whoever you choose as elves.”

“I think I can do that.”

“Oh, and if you want, you can set up a playlist of Christmas songs that would be fun for people to skate to.”

That shouldn’t be too hard. “How long will the fundraiser last?”

“I think we’re going to run it for a few hours. Probably from one until six. That way, we will hopefully not get a huge rush of people trying to get here for just a couple of hours.”

“And what else will the time entail?” Lots of ideas had been tossed around, so she was curious about what they’d ended up with.

“We’ll have an auction to raise money for the orphanages. We’re also going to have a bake sale.”

“A bake sale?” Rori had mentioned that, but Lexi hadn’t asked her for further details.

Kayleigh gave her a curious look, then said, “People will bake things and donate them to us to sell. We have some really great home bakers in the church who will be happy to help.”

“I’ve never heard of that before.”

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