The Favorites
by Layne Fargo
Contents
Chapter 67
Overview
Katarina’s first training session with Heath proves that their skating connection is still immediate and extraordinary, making a comeback feel not just possible but dangerous in its emotional intensity. After the ice session, a fan encounter and a motorcycle ride to the beach ease their awkwardness and reopen personal conversation.
Heath confirms that he missed Katarina and begins apologizing for Vancouver, but paparazzi interrupt before they can fully confront the past. The chapter shows that their professional reunion is inseparable from unresolved intimacy and from the public attention that once helped destroy them.
Summary
Katarina arrives at the Lin Ice Academy for her first real reunion with Heath, bracing for anything from hostility to melodrama. Instead, Heath greets her calmly while he and Bella finish coaching a junior team. Once the rink clears, Bella immediately puts Katarina and Heath to work together.
On the ice, Katarina and Heath fall back into partnership with startling ease. Their timing, breathing, and movement sync almost instantly, and they improvise fluidly with Bella’s guidance, blending old habits with new possibilities. Because skating together feels natural rather than strained, Katarina is more shaken than reassured: the connection is still there, and it is powerful.
When the session ends after more than an hour, the emotional intensity gives way to awkward silence. Outside, a young skater named Madison stops Katarina to ask for an autograph on an old Stars on Ice program featuring Katarina and Heath. Madison explains that watching them skate inspired her to become an ice dancer, and the encounter softens the mood between the former partners.
Heath offers Katarina a ride home on his motorcycle, and she accepts. Instead of going straight back, they stop at the beach and walk together, talking more personally. Katarina learns Heath is living in the Palisades with Bella nearby in the same house, which revives her awareness of how close Heath and Bella have become during her absence, even if Bella insists they are only friends.
On the beach, Heath asks what Bella told Katarina, and Katarina admits Bella said that Heath missed her. Heath confirms it and starts apologizing for what happened in Vancouver, moving physically and emotionally closer. Before he can finish, paparazzi appear and begin taking photos, instantly recalling the pressure of their old public life.
Rather than retreat, Heath reacts with a knowing smile and asks Katarina whether they should give the photographers a show. The interruption turns a private moment into a public test, underscoring that any reunion between them will unfold under scrutiny as well as lingering desire and unresolved history.
Who Appears
- Katarina ShawReturns to skate with Heath, feels their instant connection, and cautiously reopens personal contact.
- Heath RochaReunites with Katarina on the ice, offers her a ride, and begins apologizing for Vancouver.
- Bella LinOversees the reunion practice and helps reveal how smoothly Katarina and Heath still work together.
- Madison CastroYoung ice dancer inspired by Katarina and Heath, whose autograph request breaks their post-practice tension.