Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 99921 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99921 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 500(@200wpm)___ 400(@250wpm)___ 333(@300wpm)
I stayed quiet, curious what she’d do next. The pretty redhead seemed lost in her own world as she skated to one corner of the rink. She took a deep breath, stood tall staring straight ahead for a long time, and then began to skate backward with determination. When she got three quarters of the way to my side of the ice, she looped forward and leaped into the air. Her body twisted and rotated so fast, I lost count of how many turns she’d done. As she descended, we locked eyes and her focus broke. She landed hard on her ass.
Shit.
I bolted out onto the ice. Luckily I was already laced up. I leaned down to help her, but she pushed my hands away.
“What the hell were you doing, just standing there?” she demanded.
“I didn’t want to interrupt.”
She brushed ice from her ass and climbed to her feet. She was going to have a nice bruise later.
“That was some move you did there.”
“It would’ve been, if you hadn’t scared the crap out of me. How did you get in here, anyway?”
“I have a key.”
“Oh. Well, can you give me another fifteen minutes before you start resurfacing? I really need to nail this move.”
“Resurfacing?”
“You’re the maintenance guy, right?”
I smiled. It had been a few years since I’d walked anywhere near a rink and someone didn’t recognize me. Especially a few miles from my hometown, no less. But I decided to play along. “Yeah, I can give you another fifteen.”
“Thanks.”
She skated back to the other side of the rink, leaned over with her hands on her knees, and shut her eyes for a while before getting into position again. Then she did the same move, except this time it didn’t seem like she got in as many rotations as she had on the last pass. Though at least she stuck the landing. I was impressed, but she looked annoyed with herself. I’d watched figure skating on TV before, and this woman seemed as good as any of them. She repeated the trick once more and landed looking unhappy again.
Taking a deep breath, she glared over at me. “Do you have to watch me like that?”
“Are you training for a competition?”
“I’m training for the Olympic qualifiers.”
“Won’t you have people watching you when you try out?”
“Yes, but I’ll have things down by then. You’re making me nervous.”
I liked watching her, and it was also past the time I’d blocked off the rink to do my workout, but I appreciated her determination. “No problem.”
Though when I went into the office, I turned on the security monitor and pressed the button to bring up the interior cameras. Kicking my feet up on the desk, I clasped my hands behind my head and watched the woman do her trick five more times before nailing it on the sixth. Her turns were so fast, I couldn’t always count, but the fist pump and smile on her face told me she’d done it. I zoomed in the camera and found myself smiling back at her, though she obviously couldn’t see me. Damn, she’s gorgeous. She started to jump around on the ice, doing some sort of quirky celebratory dance with her arms flailing all around. When she was done, she skated off and stepped into the penalty box. She glanced around the arena, probably to see if I was still lurking, then bent and grabbed something. I couldn’t see behind the boards, but the way she was wiggling around, I was pretty certain she was changing her underwear again. Strange. But show me an athlete who didn’t do weird shit.
A few minutes later, she appeared in the doorway of the office. I hadn’t yet turned off the monitor. She leaned in and looked at the screen.
“You were watching me?”
“You nailed your move. Congratulations.”
“I told you that you watching me made me nervous.”
“You knowing I was watching you made you nervous. Can’t be nervous about something you don’t know about.” I shrugged. “Also, if you skate a little faster, you’ll be able to get more height on your jump and you probably won’t cut it so close when you come down.”
“I was skating as fast as I can.”
“No, you weren’t. You start out that way but then back off because your nerves get to you. You gotta go balls out.”
She squinted at me. “Does the boss know you sit around watching people instead of working?”
I smiled. “I think he’d be okay with it.”
She tilted her head. “Maybe I should ask him?”
“Maybe you should.” I held her stare. “By the way, what’s with the underwear change?”
Her eyes widened. “You watched me do that?”
“It’s not like I was peeking through your bedroom window. You did it center ice.”
“I thought I was alone.”
“Were the other ones too restricting for all those flips or something?”