Page 130 of Wilder

“I don’t know. No one will give us details because we’re not his family.”

“Did they take him to the hospital in Coeur d’Alene?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“I know my brother has contacts there and could probably find out how he is, but I don’t think he’d do it because he’s constrained by privacy laws. Is Mik’s family coming?”

“Irina said they were on their way, which makes me think it might be serious.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that.”

“I probably shouldn’t have called,” she said with a sigh. “I’m just worried and needed to talk to someone.”

“I’m glad you decided that someone was me,” Wilder assured her, his voice gentle. “I told you if you ever needed something to call me.”

“I thought that was for things like a flat tire or getting stuck in a snowbank.”

“Well, it was definitely for those things, but also for other things too. Like this situation.”

Lexi sighed. “Mik and I had a fight earlier today.”

“What about?”

“He doesn’t want to retire after Worlds, and he’s trying to get me to continue competing next season.”

“And you don’t want to?” Wilder asked. “You did so well at the Olympics. I thought you might want to.”

“It’s different now.” Lexi plucked at the fabric of her comforter where it was bunched in her lap. “Whatever connection Mik and I had that made skating with him easy, is now gone. There’s a lot of anger and tension between us.”

“It’s not showing when you skate.”

“That’s good. I work hard to not let it show, and I’m sure Mik does as well.”

“So he didn’t want to take no for an answer?”

Lexi shook her head, even though he couldn’t see the movement. “He said that I owed him.”

“What?” The outrage in Wilder’s voice validated Lexi’s own feelings about Mik’s assumption. “That is ridiculous.”

“His family lost a good chunk of their savings because of my dad,” Lexi told him. “So he says I owe him and need to continue to skate with him because of that.”

“Like I said… ridiculous.”

“I know what my dad did to them wasn’t right, but for the majority of our skating career, my dad covered all the expenses. We had a private rink. Devoted coaches. Tutors, so we didn’t have to attend school. So, in their case at least, the money my dad took was actually going to support their son’s career.”

“So you told him no, and he got mad?”

“Yeah. He was really ticked off at me. I think Irina was hoping that he’d succeed in convincing me because she didn’t tell him to back off.”

“It might all be a moot point now,” Wilder said.

“That’s true. Depending on how injured he is, he might not be able to skate at Worlds.”

“I hope that’s not the case.”

“You think I should skate at Worlds?”

“The thing is, Lexi, I think you belong on the ice. Your skating is absolutely breathtaking. So if you want to go to Worlds, and Mik is okay to skate, then I think you should. Beyond that? I think you should choreograph a singles program and let me video it and put it up on your YouTube channel.”

---