Page 71 of Wilder

And if she did, was there a way to bring their lives into alignment?

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Lexi wasn’t sure why she was so focused on Wilder’s safety when she was aware that her own sport also had the potential for injury. But the very idea of something happening to him didn’t sit well with her.

She tried to tell herself it was just because it would mess up their plans for the Christmas program if he ended up with a broken arm or leg. However, deep down, she knew it was more than that.

After he’d left, she returned to the ice to do a bit more skating before Talya showed up for her shift on the ice with the guests. These quiet moments in the rink were her favorite—second to when Wilder was there with her. Somewhere during these past few weeks, she’d found her joy in skating once again.

Joy, and something more. There was a lightheartedness present in what she was doing now that hadn’t been there when she’d been so intently focused on perfection and gaining medals and recognition. Still, she wasn’t going to slack on keeping up with her training, even if her approach to it was a little different than it used to be.

As she usually did, Lexi worked her way through her jumps and her more difficult spins. There was no reason to, since she wasn’t utilizing those skills right then, but it would feel like a failure if she stopped being able to do the things she’d worked so hard to achieve.

Hours and hours and hours of her life had gone into perfecting those skills. She couldn’t let it all slip away like her career and engagement had. She wasn’t responsible for losingthose two things. But if she lost her skills, it would be her own fault.

When Talya arrived, Lexi skated off the ice, then spent a few minutes talking to her before she went to the office. She put her skates in her bag, then said goodbye to Talya and left the rink.

She didn’t need to take her skates home every day, but there was no way she would ever leave them where they could be stolen. The boots had been broken in just perfectly, and it would hurt and be incredibly frustrating to lose them and have to start over with a new pair. These ones still had some wear left, so she took special care of them.

Once home, she made herself a cup of tea, then sat down at her laptop to check her email and social media. She’d protected that address closely, so unlike her social media, she hadn’t had to abandon it. It was rare that she had email of any importance in her inbox these days, but she checked it once a day, just in case.

When her inbox loaded, she stared at the message buried between junk emails.

Help!

The email address showed it was from Mik, which made Lexi wonder if he’d been hacked. There was no other reason he would be contacting her.

Curiosity got the better of her, however, and she clicked on the subject line to open the email.

Lexi ~ I know I’m probably the last person you want to hear from, but I’m desperate, and you’re the only one who can help me. I want to ask you to please consider partnering with me again for the Olympics. If you’ve watched any of the footage from recent competitions, I’m sure you’ve seen that I’mstruggling. My current partnership just isn’t working, and I know there’s only one person available who can perform at a level to match mine, and that’s you.

Lexi laughed as she read his words. He’d dropped her like a burning coal and now he wanted her to save him? He had to be out of his ever loving mind.

Lev and Irina agree that if I want a chance at a medal at the Olympics, it’s going to have to be with you. Even though we’ve not skated together for the past year and a half, I believe we’ll still rank better than I have recently.

I don’t have your number, or I would have called, since I’d rather talk to you about this over the phone. Please, give me another chance. I promise I’ll make it up to you.

Make it up to her? There was nothing he could do to make up for the hurt he’d inflicted on her.

And yet… she found herself contemplating calling him. Which was absolutely ludicrous. She owed him nothing.

And yet… there was a part of her that wanted to compete again. To prove to the world that she was still great at her sport. That they had tried to shoot her down, but she was strong enough to rise again.

But did she want to do that with Mikhail?

Curiosity got the better of her, so she picked up her phone and after figuring out how to hide her number, she tapped *67 and then the number Mikhail had included in his email. She doubted he’d answer an unknown number, but he might take a chance since he was hoping to hear from her and obviously knew she’d changed her number.

It rang three times before he picked it up.

“Hello?”

The familiar sound of his voice took away her breath for a moment. She was thrown back in time, leaving her torn between starting the conversation and ending the call.

“It’s Alexandra,” she finally said, forcing the words out through tight vocal cords.

“Hey! I’m so glad you called. I assume you got my email?”

“Yes. I did,” she said, relaxing just a bit. “It was a surprise.”

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