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Three years ago

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"I can't do it." Maddie cried out in frustration, putting her hands over her face as she laid flat on the ice.

She's been slowly making the transition back into skating since her surgery a few months ago. Physical therapy took a while after, but last week was her first time back on ice. Now today, I watched her practice on her jumps.

I don't know anything about ice dancing, but since the moment I met her, I learned as much as I could and watched as many videos as I could - including hers.

Seeing her happy I actually made that effort, she invited me to come watch her today. I stood at the side a few feet away from her coach, watching the two of them carefully and making sure Maddie doesn't hurt herself.

"Yes you can." Nick tells her, helping her up from the ice.

"Did you not just see me fall on my ass four times?" She huffed, brushing the ice off of her leggings and skating towards the exit.

"Oh no, I did. I got it on video." He winked at her, waving his phone in her face. I held in a laugh, and Maddie noticed, which earned myself a flick on the forehead.

"Laugh at me again and you'll be single." She threatened, but I smiled at how she tried to be mad at me. The corner of her lifting lips gave it away.

"I love you." I pressed a kiss to her cheek, but she rolled her eyes and pushed my head away playfully.

"Yeah, yeah."

My eyebrows raise in amusement as I reached for her hand, pretending to be offended. "Excuse me?"

"What?" She asked, acting as if she didn't know what I was talking about.

"I love you." I repeated, wrapping my arms around her waist and pulling her to my chest.

"I heard you." She replied, her arms sliding around my shoulders as she looked up at me with a smile.

"Wrong answer." I whispered.

"You didn't ask me a question." She looked pretty confident in her response, teasing me.

"I'm not letting you go until I hear it." I threatened, fighting my arms around her back and pressing her body against mine.

She didn't seem fazed by my threat, so I did the only thing I could think of: I tickled her sides.

She squealed and reached to push my hands off of her. "Fine! I love you too!" She says through laughter, and I took my hands from her sides in satisfaction.

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" I smirked, pressing a kiss to her lips before stepping away from her and sitting down on the bleachers while she huffed and walked back in the direction she was heading in, disappearing when she reached the locker room.

"I don't think I've ever seen her smile this much since we got silver at the Olympics this year." I hear Nick approach, sitting down next to me.

His comment made my face flush, forgetting that he and their coach were still here.

"Really?" I asked, hiding my hopefulness with curiosity.

"Mhm. She rarely ever smiles like that." Nick patted the back of my shoulder before following the trail Maddie left towards the locker rooms, going on the opposite side to the men's.

The grin didn't leave my face all day, knowing that I was part of the reason for Maddie's beautiful smile.

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Present

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"You're not coming?"

I look up from my phone and at Zayn, who was walking towards the front door as I was sat on the couch.

"Where?" I asked in confusion.

"Riley's to watch the Olympics again. Today is the free dance portion. Whatever that means." He mumbled the last part to himself.

"Oh. Yeah, I'm coming." I respond, jumping up from the couch.

I had no idea how the Olympics worked, but I tried to make sure I didn't miss Madison and Nick whenever they went on.

I slid on a pair of shoes and followed Zayn out of our apartment. Within a few seconds, we made it to Riley's apartment.

"Finally! They are almost up next." Louis exclaimed, answered the door and letting us inside.

What I didn't expect to see was Maddie's brother sitting on the couch, along with some other man who was very well-built.

"How in the hell did this couple even make it past Grand Prix finals? What a joke." The man says, scoffing at the couple who were skating on the tv hanging on the wall in front of them.

"The Shibutani siblings are a better representation of America than Donohue and Hubbell." Brandon says, agreeing with the man.

"Who is that?" I asked Louis, following him towards the living room.

"Maddie's dad."

I stopped in my tracks. I wanted to panic because it was my ex's father I was looking at, but he never met me, so he doesn't know Maddie and I used to date. Or does he?

"Holy shit. Harry?" Brandon asked in shock, standing up from the couch and walking over to me before I could approach him.

"That's my name." I joked awkwardly.

"So Maddie is gonna have to come home and find you here. That should be interesting." He chuckled, unexpectedly pulling me into a hug. "Nice to see you again. Welcome back."

"Thank...you?" I reply confusedly. I would have expected him to be upset with me for leaving Maddie the way I did, but I guess I was wrong.

"This is my dad, Nadeen." Brandon introduced as he sat back down next to the man. Hesitantly, I shook his hand and he smiled up at me. I could see where Maddie got most of her looks from. Her dad was a good-looking man.

"Call me Dean. Nice to meet you."

"You as well. I'm Harry." I was a little scared to tell him my name, afraid he would recognize it or something, but he just shook my hand and went back to looking at the screen. I let out a deep breath before sitting down on the empty couch chair next to the giant sectional.

"How does the schedule even work with this sort of thing?" Louis asked Maddie's father, sitting down on the opposite side of the sectional.

"It's split into four days. The first two days they competed were for the team segment of the Olympics. So Maddie and Nick already did the short dance and free dance for Team Canada. Yesterday was the short dance again for just the ice dancers and now today is the free dance. It's the last competitive dance before they show the final scores." He explained in detail, knowing a lot more about skating than any of us did.

So that means I missed three days of Maddie skating already? How lovely. I can just watch them online later.

"Hubbell and Donohue got fourth! Ha! That's what they deserve." Brandon says in excitement. "That's fourteen competitors down already. Maddie and Nick are the last ones so if they get more then a hundred and twenty-two points for the free dance, they get first place."

That made no sense to me at all.

"They're up next. Oh my god." Riley sat herself between Louis and Zayn, leaning forward and keeping her eyes on the screen.

"Lastly, we have Madison Butera, and Nicholas Landon." The woman on the tv announced, gaining everyone's attention.

My eyes landed on Madison as she skated onto the ice besides Nick, holding his hand before they separated and stood still, waiting for music to start.

She looks so beautiful.

I couldn't take my eyes off of her the entire time she was skating, baffled by what I was watching.

When she did some sort of flip onto Nick's shoulders, her dad jumped out of his seat and shouted "that's my daughter! Let's go Maddie!" at the screen proudly.

As they came to their finish, everyone around me was clapping and whistling while I sat there with my eyes on her face, seeing her smile so wide as Nick hugged her.

"Everyone shut up! They are announcing their score!" Riley shouted, silencing everyone. They all lean forward in anticipation, Brandon and his dad looking more on edge than anyone else.

As soon as the score was shown on the screen, the two of them stood up and cheered, Brandon jumping into his dad's arms.

"They got first!" Brandon shouted, and that was when we finally heard on the tv that Nick and Maddie won gold.

It almost felt wrong of me to celebrate as openly as everyone else was, so that is why I stayed sitting and smiling. I just felt out of place, like I couldn't really be proud and happy for her until I actually got the chance to talk to her about me being back in Canada.

"The gala performance is tomorrow and then she gets to come home and celebrate." Brandon grinned, still holding his twenty-four year-old son in his arms.

"My baby got first at the Olympics. I can't believe it." Dean breathed in amazement. "That certainly beats the unfair silver they got at the last one."

"Hey, silver is still pretty good for their first time." Brandon shrugged, standing up straight and nudging his dad with his elbow.

"Fair point." He nodded before clapping his hands together and sighing. "Alright. I have to go call Faith and let her know the good news. I'll see you tomorrow."

Maddie's dad said goodbye to everyone and departed soon after, leaving us all not knowing what to do next.

"Now that my dad is gone..." Brandon trailed off, walking over to me with a threatening look in his eyes. "You're lucky I'm in a good mood. I'll let Maddie handle you when she gets back."

I cowered in my seat in intimidation, gulping nervously.

"I already talked to him, Brandon. Sit your ass down because we all know you would scream if a fly landed on your hand." Riley rolled her eyes, shoving him out of the way.

"That's not true." Brandon scoffed, folding his arms over his chest as he glared at Riley.

"Sure it's not. Go call your baby momma." She argued back casually before sitting next to Louis.

Brandon's mouth gaped but he didn't say anything else, deciding to pull his phone out and walk out of the apartment.

I take that back. Maybe Brandon is upset that I am back.

"Don't listen to him. He's just being a brother." Riley tried to reassure me, but I just stayed silent.

All I needed was to talk to Maddie, but instead I was going to ruin her mood the minute she returns.

Fuck my life.

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