Willow Barton is phenomenally talented—that much was made abundantly clear to me the moment I saw her on the ice this morning.
Not only does she skate with such a sense of agility and poise that would make any skater in their right mind jealous, but for someone so young, she carries herself with an experienced suave that immediately drew me to her.
I expected our first lesson to be a bit awkward, like most first meetings are, but it’s been the opposite. She’s more mature than most girls her age and shows that with her calm reactions to criticism and suggestions and excitement to step out of her box to try something new. And if she was at all nervous to meet me, she hid it exceptionally well.
Her bright, excited attitude also did wonders to help with my discomfort with being here. Standing on this ice, training—albeit someone other than myself—is unsettling.
It’s different than it was on the ice with Adam. It feels much more daunting, like I could fail at any given moment. This isn’t testing or a simple demonstration of what I can and can’t do. It isn’t even about me at all.
This is about Willow—her career and future. There’s no window for mistakes, and I feel that pressure like a weight on my back.
“Good!” I shout, clicking the stop button on the stopwatch in my palm. Willow immediately drops her stick to the ice and bends over to rest her hands on her knees. “That was better.”
“My mouth tastes like a welder’s hand,” she grumbles as I make my way over to her.
I chew on my bottom lip to stifle my laugh and pick the heavy black stick up off the ice, placing it at my side. Slipping the stopwatch back into my sweater pocket, I make a mental note of her time.
“It should. You worked your ass off today.”
She leans back, her hands gripping her hips. “Yeah, I did.”
“I’ve made a couple of changes to the original training plan,” I begin. Hopefully she won’t have an issue with what I have in mind. Nerves buzz below my skin as I reach up and toy with one of the strings on my sweater.
Adam’s lesson plans were a great place to start, but after spending this session studying Willow and slotting her strengths and weaknesses into their little boxes in my mind, I don’t think it’s best for her growth.
“You’re fast, Willow. Like really fast. I think we would be doing you a disservice here if we didn’t focus on making you even faster. You’re excelling in every other aspect, with no obvious weaknesses. So until I can spot something that needs to be improved, I think we need to be focusing on speed and conditioning.”
Her eyes widen, but she doesn’t look put off by the suggestion. That’s a good sign.
“Ultimately, it’s your decision. We work for you—I work for you. But I really do think this would be the best route for right now,” I finish on a breath.
I flinch, startled when another pair of skates cuts across the ice behind me. Did he really not think I could handle this on my own? The thought has me grinding my teeth.
Spinning around, I scowl at Adam. “Mr. White.”
Amusement flickers in his eyes. “Hello, Ms. Carter.” He turns to the skater beside me. “Willow.”
My grip on Willow’s stick turns punishing as I try my best to pretend I don’t want to swat my boss on the back of the head. But if his smug grin is anything to go by, he already knows that’s exactly what I’m thinking. Maybe that means I can do it—
“Hi, Adam. I didn’t know you were watching,” Willow says.
Me either.
Adam shakes his head. His twinkling eyes catch mine and hold as he says, “Just the past couple minutes. I was heading out for lunch and wanted to stop by and see how everything was going.” Oh. “It looked like Scarlett was doing a great job.”
“She was,” Willow confirms proudly.
A warm feeling fills my chest. “Thank you, Willow.”
“We were actually talking about changing my training plan,” she adds, and the warmth drops a few degrees, leaving a cold ache behind. Little traitor.
Adam lifts a brow. “Yeah? And what are we changing?”
I clear my throat. “She’s too fast and skilled to be spending her days on accuracy shooting and stick-handling drills. Those are things she can work on with her current team.”
“You’re right,” he replies without preamble. I don’t pick up anything but pure agreement in his tone.
I double blink. “I’m right?”
His lips tug into a smile before growing into a full-blown grin. “Yes. It’s a good call, Scarlett. My lesson plans didn’t fit her specific skill set.”
Willow starts cracking up, and I look at her, confused. My scowl will be permanently etched on my face at this rate.
“He was testing you, Scarlett. Come on.” She laughs.
I consider that and feel like an idiot when I realize she’s right. My eyes narrow on Adam.
“I take it I passed, then?” I ask, fighting back the snark that’s desperate to taint my words.
He smirks. “With flying colours.”
Willow’s eyes bulge when she looks at the time on the scoreboard. She pales. “Is that the time? Crap.”
Adam’s smile falls. “Everything okay?”
“We’re done now if you need to go, Willow,” I add cautiously.
“Yeah, I do. I’ll see you guys Friday. Thank you, Scarlett.” She sucks in a long breath before tightening the tie in her hair and rushing away from us, off the ice.
“That was weird, right?” I lift the stick in my hand toward Adam. I’m sure I look just as confused as he does.
“Definitely.” He takes the stick from me, tucking it under his arm. “I’ll keep this in my office tonight. Just get her to grab it Friday morning.”
I hum my agreement and start skating to the exit. When I sense Adam following after me, I say, “She never did tell me if she was okay with changing her training plan.”
“Write it up tonight. She didn’t seem opposed to it at all, so I would say that’s an approval.”
He settles beside me, and his arm brushes mine. Even through the thick fabric of my sweater and his jacket, my skin tingles at the contact. I tense my jaw.
“Do you have to be so close to me?” I snap when his knuckles brush the top of my hand.
A burst of laughter escapes him, but he lets himself hang back a hair. “My apologies, Scarlett.”
With a roll of my eyes, I shuffle in front of him, push the swinging door in the boards open, and step off the ice. There’s a clang as the door shuts, and Adam sidles up beside me, our skates digging into the squishy rubber flooring.
My steps don’t falter as I leave him standing by the boards and make my way to the stands to collect my clipboard and water bottle. It’s been a very long morning between physiotherapy and training, and I’m not sure I can make it much longer without scarfing down some sort of sustenance.
“You’re being a creeper right now,” I mutter when I turn back around and find him already staring at me.
He makes a sound that sounds like a mix between a laugh and a cough before sputtering, “A creeper?”
“Yes. Don’t you know that it isn’t polite to stare?” My stomach grumbles, making me wince.
Adam tilts his head, amused with me. “I wasn’t staring.”
“Sure. Okay.” Another unnecessary noise comes from my stomach that makes me want to shrivel up and die.
“Do you want to keep arguing with me or go get some food?” he asks, nodding to the exit.
“Like, with you?” I inwardly cringe at the stupid question. It’s unlikely he would want to get lunch together. I don’t know if we’re even technically friends.
“Sure. Why not? We’re both hungry, and Brielle is already back from her lunch break. My favourite sub shop is right on the edge of town.”
I chew on my bottom lip. Is it appropriate to go for lunch with your boss? I guess we’re not really going for lunch; we’re just going to get lunch. Ugh. Is there even a difference? I should say no.
“Fine. But I’m paying.” I give in after a few seconds and shoot him a look that says don’t test me, releasing a breath when he doesn’t.
“Awesome. Let me just go put Willow’s stick away in my office, and I’ll meet you by the front doors in a few?” he asks. I nod, and he heads for the exit, sending me an easygoing grin over his shoulder before disappearing through the door.
There’s a knot in my stomach, and I hate that I can’t tell if it’s from nerves or excitement.
I’m being ridiculous. It doesn’t matter. The only thing that does is filling my stomach before these hunger pains send me falling to my ass on the ice.
Adam would love seeing that, I bet. It would give him something else to tease me about.
