Page 83 of Ice Rebel

“Maybe. I don’t know. But did they win?”

“Yes! The two games were amazing. They were on fire.”

“No fights?”

Samantha shook her head. “No fights. In fact, it would appear Jagger and Cole were a real team. Someone called them the Dynamic Duo. Maybe the trip was good for them. Maybe your pep talk was good for Cole.”

Maybe the fact I’d broken it off with Cole was the reason. While my stomach churned, I could tell I’d done the right thing. “I’m glad. Both deserve their time in the spotlight.”

I meant that about my brother. He could be a jerk, but he deserved happiness.

“Alright, people,” the stage coordinator barked. “Get your places.”

With her usual dramatic flair, she sighed. “I guess I better get my seat. I can’t wait to see you dance.”

Now I felt the weight of the dance, peering through the crack in the curtains toward the audience. With the lights beginning to dim, I couldn’t see more than a handful of figures.

“Did the scout arrive?”

“If our artistic director has any idea when they’re coming, he’s not sharing the information. He’s a sadist that way.”

She squeezed my arm. “Well, no matter. You’re already the star of the show.”

“I wish I had your confidence.”

“My mother always told us if we ever got nervous over a presentation, a speech, or a performance to envision the people in front of us as members of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

I burst into laughter. “Your family and your love of movies.”

“Oh, we were an eclectic bunch. There was a time my parents encouraged us to dress up like the characters. Can you imagine our neighbors and what they would have thought? First, terrified about us being shifters but even worse, when we dressed up like Night of the Living Dead.”

She had a way of putting me at ease, acting as if it was no big deal she was a shifter. Wolves. I still couldn’t get over the realization I knew a couple of wolves. Maybe I’d just been in a fairly protected environment or simply hadn’t paying close enough attention, but until now, I truly didn’t believe I’d spent any time with one.

Naysayers, and I’d learned there were still plenty of them, liked to point out implausible activities or horrors attributed to the vicious beasts. In fact, ninety-nine percent of the insane stories had been debunked.

They were no more dangerous than anyone else. Unless they were provoked.

Cole’s fight caught on camera came to mind. Until I’d watched portions of several games. He’d been right. Hockey was a violent sport, almost every game complete with one or more players being tossed into the plexiglass partitions surrounding the rink. That almost always led to a fight between teams.

I’d even found myself cheering a couple of the fights on in the privacy of my own bedroom. Silly. Right?

Part of me was embarrassed I’d allowed myself to imbed into my brain what the press had said about shifters without checking facts. That’s something else I’d done during long, sleepless nights.

Why? Because I missed him and hated the way we’d left things. Left things? I’d torched our budding relationship.

“I would love to see your family during one of these festive evenings,” I told her. And I would. My parents would never be caught dead dressing up for anything, unless it was some fabulous masquerade ball in which only the rich and famous had been invited.

“Maybe you can come to my parents’ house for dinner one night. It’ll be a hoot.”

“That would be cool.” She noticed I was twisting my hands together.

“Breathe, Chelsea. As I’ve always told my brothers. You’ve got this.”

“Yeah, I know. I just…” What was it about being unable to finish full sentences when I thought about Cole? What was wrong with me?

“You just wish Cole was sitting in the audience. Right?”

“I didn’t say that!”