Page 79 of Wilder

“I was wondering if there was someone in the area that did meal prep.”

Wilder hadn’t heard of anyone specifically, but he could probably check around. “Let me ask Charli and Janessa if they’re aware of anyone.”

“I’d need someone who will cook to my specifications.”

“It’s possible there’s someone who could do that for you,” Wilder said. “We just have to find them. I know Denise loves to cook, and she probably would do meal prep for you. The only downside is that her specialty is comfort food. It is all yummy, but probably contains more calories than you’d want.”

“I might have attempted it myself, but I just don’t have the time.”

“How did it go yesterday?” Wilder asked after he said a quick prayer for his food.

“It went about as well as I expected it to. We’re rusty, but I don’t think it’s anything a little practice won’t clear up.”

“It looked really good to me, but I realize coaches and judges look at things differently than I do.”

“Irina seemed satisfied with what we were able to do, given we haven’t skated together in over a year and a half.”

“She yelled a lot.”

Lexi smiled. “That’s just how she is. She and her husband have been my coaches since I was five years old, so I’m very used to how she communicates.”

“It was a little surprising to me, but then I’m not used to being around people yelling like that.”

“I imagine that’s true for a lot of people.”

“So you’ve decided to go ahead with it?”

Lexi nodded. “Do you know if there is a place in town that they could rent for the next few months?”

“I don’t, but I could ask a couple of people who might be able to help.” He knew that Jackson’s parents owned rentals, but he didn’t know if any were available and would work for this situation.

“How was it training with them again?” Wilder asked as they continued to eat.

Lexi shrugged. “It was fine. We didn’t discuss the past. Just focused on the present and the future.”

“Do you see this turning into a long-term thing?”

She stared down at her salad, stabbing at a piece of lettuce. “I don’t know.”

For some reason, Wilder didn’t like the uncertainty. He wanted her to say that she was only training for the Olympics, and that she wasn’t going to go back to training and competing full time. But he knew that was completely selfish of him.

He shouldn’t be selfish about something like that. Not wanting her to leave Serenity to go back to training wasn’t fair when he was going to be leaving in April.

He had no idea why he felt that way, except that he really enjoyed being around her. Even more so now that she’d begun to warm up to him. Her smiles were more genuine these days, and they came more easily, which was also something new. And something he really liked.

“I told my mom this morning that I’m going to be skating with Mik again.”

Wilder looked up from his burger to see Lexi frowning at her salad. “How did she take that?”

“About as well as I expected.”

“Not happy, huh?”

“Not at all,” Lexi said with a sigh, her shoulders slumping. “She really doesn’t like Mik and the coaches.”

“From what you’ve said, perhaps she has good reason to feel that way.”

“I know. I don’t really like them myself, but this is a chance to write another more positive chapter to the story of my competitive skating career.”

---