Crossing the Ice Read Free Page A

sunglasses higher on my nose. The sidewalk next to our table had heavy traffic of skaters and fans walking from the hotel to Staples Center. This wasn’t the ideal place to start crying.
    “Coco!” a little girl’s voice squeaked behind me.
    I turned to see Em, Sergei, Em’s Aunt Debbie, and the twins approaching us. Neither Quinn nor her brother Alex could say my name when they’d first started talking, so I’d been Coco to them ever since. I took a deep breath to push down the ache in my chest before I reached over the low railing and ruffled Quinn’s curly blond hair.
    “Hey, Cutie.”
    She and Alex were the two most adorable toddlers I’d ever seen with their matching golden locks and big blue eyes. But I’d expected no less with the gorgeous parents they had.
    “Court, why aren’t you at the men’s small medal ceremony?” Em asked as she shifted Alex on her hip. “Isn’t it going on outside Staples?”
    The ache flared again, and I lowered my head. “Oh… um… Kyle and I broke up,” I mumbled.
    “Oh no. What happened?” she asked.
    “I don’t really wanna talk about it right now.”
    “He screwed around on her,” Mark announced.
    Em covered Alex’s ears, albeit too late. I gaped at Mark and kicked his shin under the table.
    “Ow! I was just trying to save you from telling the story again.”
    “Screwed around.” Quinn giggled.
    I cringed while Sergei just shook his head.
    “I’m so sorry, Court,” Em said. “If you want to talk later, call me. We can go do something, just you and me.”
    I gave her a little smile. “Thanks.”
    “Scre-e-e-wed!” Quinn continued to laugh as she arched her neck to look up at Sergei. “What screwed, Daddy?”
    Sergei crouched to her level. “When we get to the arena, would you rather have ice cream or a chocolate chip cookie?”
    Her eyes grew even bigger, and her smile did the same. “Cookie!”
    Oh, to be a kid again and be so easily distracted. Life was so much simpler then.
    “There’s actually something else we need to talk to you guys about,” Mark said. “We ran into the Tuckers last night.”
    The weight on my chest grew even heavier. I’d pushed the issue of our new training mates to the back of my mind after the other earth-shattering news I’d received.
    Em and Sergei exchanged concerned glances, and Sergei turned to Em’s aunt. “Can you take the kids ahead? We’ll be there in a few minutes.”
    “Sure. We’ll go look for those cookies.” She took Quinn’s hand and did the same with Alex once Em set his little sneaker-clad feet on the sidewalk. She traveled with them to almost every competition to help out with the twins, so she was used to babysitting in a pinch.
    “Thanks, Aunt Deb.” Em bent and kissed the tops of the twins’ heads. “Be good.”
    She and Sergei came around the railing and borrowed two empty chairs from a nearby table. They both looked nervous about starting the conversation.
    “So, Stephanie said she and Josh are moving to the Cape,” Mark said.
    Em sighed and pushed a few strands of dark blond hair from her face. “We asked them not to tell anyone before we had a chance to talk to you next week.”
    “I don’t think Stephanie really cares about our feelings,” I said.
    Sergei’s mouth pressed into a line. “I’m sorry you had to find out that way.”
    “How’d they talk you into coaching them? Are they paying double your rates?” Mark asked.
    “No, it’s nothing like that,” Em said. “When they asked us, our first instinct was of course to say no. We value our relationship with you so much, and we don’t want you to ever question your trust in us. You guys are so special to me — you were the first team I ever coached.”
    I flashed back to our first lesson with Em, when Sergei told us he’d asked his then-student to help him coach us. Working together was one of the things that had brought them closer off the ice and had led to their romantic relationship. I’d wanted them to be