The Hockey Star and the Ice Princess (Complete)

Ch. 7 - The Announcement

After Rachel left Coach's office and shut his door behind her she stood there stunned. She couldn't believe she really just agreed to train for the Olympics again with him. Competitive figure skating was a part of her life that had been over so long that she thought she had permanently closed the book on it. She had moved on and put that chapter behind her and started a new life in Texas. It almost seemed like a different person had won Nationals and gone to the Olympics, yet here she was trying to re-open that book and start over from scratch, from Chapter 1. 

She had gone to the local ice skating rink in Dallas every once in a while during open skate and put in her earbuds and skated laps for exercise, but she hadn't done any figure skating in almost three years. She had no idea how this was going to go. She didn't know if she was even capable of doing all those tricks any more that used to come so easy to her. 

She walked past the hockey practice on her way out and noticed Cain was running a drill demonstrating to the guys how to fake out a defender and get past him to pop up the puck into the net. He was so good and made it look so easy. She watched as the guys tried it and failed but Cain gave them some pointers and on the next attempt they did it perfectly and he gave them a high five and patted them on the back with a smile. He looked up and saw her walking by and gave her a head nod and she smiled as she walked down the stairs and out of the rink. 

When she got back home, her brother was still at hockey practice but she told her Mom she had an important announcement to make at dinner tonight. 

That night when the four of them were gathered around the table in front of the fried chicken and mashed potatoes her Mom had brought home from Maggie's diner, Rachel stood up and said, "Soooo, I've got an announcement to make. I met with Rick at the rink earlier and he's convinced I've still got a shot at getting gold at the Olympics. He said he wants to coach me for the next year and he's positive I can be ready in time if I work really hard."

Rachel looked around the table at the faces on the three of them and they all looked really stunned. It wasn't the happy reaction she had expected. The only one that looked even slightly happy was her brother.

"Ummmm. Can you guys say something? What do you think?" Rachel asked. 

Laney looked down at her plate, pushing her food around with her fork and her Mom put her napkin on her lap and looked down, clearing her throat before finally saying, "Honey ....... it's just," she hesitated. 

Rachel scrunched her eyebrows. "It's just what Mom? What is it? I thought maybe you would actually be excited about me moving back since I've been gone so long." 

"Of course we want you to move back, but as you, NOT as an ice skater." 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Rachel asked. 

Her Mom lifted her head and looked at her. "Rachel your skating career took up our entire lives. ALL our free time. ALL our money. And that was when we were a TWO parent household with two incomes and two people to pick up the slack," she said, sounding exhausted. "There was no time left for your brother or sister because your Dad was so laser focused on you. After what happened at the Olympics, when I realized your skating career was over," she said, looking down and staring at her plate for a second. She hesitated before finally saying, "I have to confess, I was actually relieved. It felt like I could finally breathe." 

Rachel felt like she had been punched in the stomach. "You were relieved that I had failed? That my career was over?" she asked in disbelief, feeling completely betrayed. 

Even though her Mom had always been pretty horrible she had always thought she was happy for her success and at least a little bit proud of her accomplishments. Tears stung at her eyes and she slowly sat back down in her seat.