Free Breaking the Ice by Gail Nall Page A

opens, and in walks Addison and her mother. What in the world are they doing here? I shoot a glance at Mom, but she’s just watching them with her eyebrows raised.
    â€œSorry I’m late,” Addison says as she brushes past me to stand right in front of the giggling women.
    Mrs. Thomas perches on a chair at the end of the row, far away from Mom and the other woman. She pulls out her notebook and pen and her phone.
    Jill gives Addison a curt nod. “As I was saying, we will start with the tango hold.” She snaps her fingers at Fernando, who oozes across the floor to meet her. “The lady places her arms like this, and the man like Fernando.”
    I stand on my tiptoes to see. The women in front of me giggle again, and Addison’s already imitating Jill. I raise my arms and try to crook my left elbow the way Jill is.
    Jill and Fernando move through the group, adjusting everyone’s arms. Mine are starting to ache when Jill finally gets to me.
    â€œNo, no. Your left elbow needs to be down more. And your palm like this.” She pulls on my arm until I’m practically wincing.
    Okay, if I knew this was going to hurt, I wouldn’t have signed up for it. This is way worse than crashing to the ice on a jump.
    â€œAll right, now we’re going to partner up and work on the hold together. And since our ladies clearly outnumber our men, we’ll have to take turns playing each role.” Jill waits while everyone pairs off.
    The women in front of me all pair with one another. The older girl snags the red-faced boy in the baseball cap.
    Addison looks back at me and then says, “Can I partner with Fernando?”
    Jill shakes her head. “Why don’t you go with . . .” She points at me.
    â€œKaitlin,” I fill in. Great. Tangoing with Addison.
    Addison makes a face and slowly moves toward me. “No way am I being the guy.”
    â€œI think we’re supposed to switch off,” I say.
    â€œWhatever. I’m going first, then.” She flicks her hair over her shoulder and holds up her arms.
    I try to imitate Fernando, but I really wasn’t paying attention to what the guy is supposed to do.
    â€œYou’re doing it wrong.” Addison takes my left hand and moves it onto her back.
    â€œSorry.”
    We stand there for a minute waiting, while Jill helps the older women and Fernando demonstrates the correct hold for the boy in the baseball cap.
    â€œSo . . . um . . . why are you here?” I finally ask Addison.
    â€œI wanted to learn how to dance. You know, for my skating.”
    â€œBut your program is to Phantom of the Opera .” And last time I checked, there’s nothing tango-y about Phantom , but I don’t say that.
    Addison shrugs, which is kind of hard to do when you’re standing in an awkward tango hold. “Maybe I’ll do a tango program next year.”
    â€œOkay,” I say. But I’m pretty sure I’ve figured out the real reason she’s here—to make sure I’m not learning anything that’ll make me a better skater than she is. Her mom prob­ably overheard Greg talking about it, and immediately signed Addison up.
    Fernando finally glides over to us. He gives us a once-over and clucks his tongue.
    â€œNo, no. Like this.” He takes Addison’s hands and almost lifts her off the floor as he shows me exactly how it should look.
    Addison’s face goes a little red as Fernando stares her down with this super-intense expression.
    â€œExcuse me.” Mrs. Thomas nudges me aside and starts clicking away with the camera on her phone.
    â€œMom!” Addison drops her arms and clenches her hands into fists at her sides.
    â€œGood work, honey. You’re a natural.” Her mom pats her on the shoulder before she strolls back to the chairs.
    Addison looks like she wants the floor to swallow her whole. Fernando moves on to the next pair, and I glance back at Mom. She’s busy