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REN

I heard the ten-thousand-strong crowd cheer the moment the lights came up, and had to catch and control the hitch in my breathing.

Cam stood across the vast ocean of pale, hard ice. Dressed all in black, speckled with stars.

Ice dance’s bad boy.

My beautiful dream.

The single piano note introduced the music. Smooth, deep vocals began, and I pushed into motion. My body remembered this as though the last two years hadn’t happened. As though we were back in Montreal, performing together on the ice as one. I knew the sequences without thinking them through. It had only taken a few hours to summon them back into my muscle memory.

Cam and I came together on the ice, in the center of the rink, telling our story. A new story. We danced close, pushed apart, glided and flew. His gaze caught mine, with open and obvious heat and passion.

All the emotion that had been missing from my free dance performance flowed through me now. No judges, no scores, just the ice and the music and what my body knew to do with both of those things. And Cam.

Ten thousand people watched from around the rink. Millions at home. But only one person mattered to me.

We came alive on the ice. Came together as the battle program took shape. The distance became the push and pull sequences, the clash, crisscrossing so close that the precision left the audience breathless. I knew exactly where he was, and where he’d be. I didn’t have to look for him, he was always there, at the outstretch of my hand, my hand at his waist, our skates gliding in perfect synchronicity. He made this easy. Made us effortless, made us beautiful.

He made me fall in love with the sport all over again, and love him even more. If that were even possible.

The drums kicked in, the vocals went deep, and so did our blades, carving up the ice together.

The guitar riffs joined it, and Cam and I swept in for the quad axels that defined our dance. Backward crossovers, pull strength, pushing through the thighs, step forward, free leg driving me through and up, into the jump spin.

We landed perfectly, blades touching down precisely together, exited with grace, and the audience’s roar told us everything we needed to know. This was our dance, our voice, a voice nobody could silence.

The song was about falling, about hitting rock bottom, about expectations weighing us down. And how we danced through it all, defiant and surviving. Together. Battling on as one.

This moment was ours, forever, and I had never been happier on the ice than dancing in that moment with Cam.

FORTY-FOUR

CAMDEN

The hiss of blades on ice, the pounding of my heart, every breath measured, every crossover timed to Ren’s perfection. And we’d nailed the quad axel together. The showstopping move that had almost taken Ren and ice dance from me.

The whole arena was on its feet. They knew our history, knew us, and knew what it had cost me to be able to perform this dance again.

But I only had eyes for Ren.

He moved across the ice as though it was nothing to him, as though he could make it bend under his blades. We swept apart, then came close for the cutting step sequence. Nailed it to a roar from the crowd. And then, as the music slowed, the drums stopped, revealing just the piano notes. The vocals faded, and so did we, coming together in elegance, then into a hold that had me arching over Ren’s arm, surrendering. He had me, body, heart, and soul. And now the world knew it for real.

The song ended.

A brief, heavy moment of silence, just the pounding of my heart.

The thunderous roar of applause rocked the arena.

That may have been better than both my Olympic dances.

I grinned, Ren propped me back onto my feet, and the audience went wild. Cameras flashed like stars in the sky brought down to earth to glitter all around us. Ren took my hand, raised it high, and we bowed. Then, because I could, I turned to him, wrapped him in my arms, and kissed him.

This couldn’t last, we were both breathing too hard and needed air, but it was enough.

He grinned, folding his arms around me on the ice.

“That may have been my best ever dance,” he said.