by Magan Vernon
“Hey, look who showed up, the man whose now twenty-five grand richer,” Erik said, clapping Liam on the shoulder who turned around to look at me as I sauntered toward the rail the guys were leaning on. There was an area all along the slopes for spectators to watch the preliminaries for slopestyle and another area for the athletes. Though, us snowboarders and skier’s kind of took over the athlete area since there were a ton of us and most spectators with tickets waited until the actual events.
“Not yet,” I mumbled, before stuffing my mouth full of burrito. I wasn’t even sure why I said it. I could have lied. I mean I did technically sleep in the same room with her, just not screw her.
Liam raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest, his puffy coat crinkling with each movement. “Then what were you doing last night? Playing chess?”
I blew out a breath and shrugged. “I don’t know, man. I guess I was too drunk and passed out. But we still have two more weeks, and a lot can happen in that time.”
“For your sake, I hope you’re right,” Erik said, clasping his hand on my shoulder.
I could have said something smart back, but instead, I watched the American guy take his turn down the slope. I’d been immersed in snowboarding culture for so long I couldn’t remember a life that wasn’t surrounded by freshly fallen snow and a bunch of guys drinking energy drinks and trying to outdo each other.
I may have been pretty laid back with most things in life, but when it came to the sport, I was competitive as hell. I was always pushing myself to outscore the previous guy and anyone else at the top. I could blame my Olympic parents on that one, I guess.
But now that the score was a person, it was a different kind of competitiveness.
I couldn’t deny that I wanted Kelly, the ice princess. The girl may have been tightly wound up. I thought she was nothing more than a snob when she turned her nose up at me. Then after a few drinks, I got to see the real girl. The shy and innocent one. The girl who took a drunk snowboarder home and didn’t think twice about it. These douchebags didn’t deserve her time, and I probably didn’t either. But that didn’t stop me from wanting a few more stolen moments with her. Bet or not, Kelly Johnson had me captivated.
“So, you seeing her tonight?” Erik bumped my shoulder and wiggled his eyebrows.
“Probably. It is the opening ceremonies,” I replied.
Erik laughed and put his arm around my shoulder and the other around Liam’s. “And The Games are just beginning!”
***
I didn’t even have time to shower after a run down the slopes before my parents were messaging me to see when I’d be at the village for Opening Ceremonies. It wasn’t even close to time, and I was planning on downing a few energy drinks and napping before I even thought about heading over.
I swiped my messenger app open, seeing a bunch of missed messages. I guess they must have been trying to get in touch with me when I was out the night before and that morning when my phone died, so I left it to charge while watching slopestyle then heading for practice.
I typed in a quick message and agreed to meet them at the village for dinner before the opening ceremonies, briefly wondering what Kelly would be doing for dinner and how soon I would see her again.
Stepping into the shower, my thoughts flew to Kelly with her long blonde hair and that tiny hint of cleavage as she leaned over, giggling and sipping her drink. The girl could get me hard just thinking about her, which wasn’t uncommon. She was gorgeous, sexy as all get out, and I was a man, so, of course, those thoughts brought my hands to my dick to release the pressure the thoughts of her bringing.
When I’d cleaned up and put on my opening ceremonies outfit and stepped out of the bathroom, Erik and Liam were already dressed and waiting in the living room, flipping through random shows on the TV.
“Dude, how long were you jacking it in there? Your parents have been blowing up your phone,” Liam said, tossing me the device.
I caught it and saw their messages, questioning where I was. I didn’t even think of the time passing. Their messages got more urgent saying they had someone “important for me to meet.” Which probably meant one of their old colleagues or something that they wanted to use to brag about their glory days.
“You guys ready to go,” I grumbled, putting my phone in my pocket.
“Yeah, man, let’s do this shit,” Erik said with a laugh.
***
The village was even more crowded than when we first got there, but like I had a GPS tracker on me, my mom found me within a few minutes of stepping onto the soil.
“Blake! Where have you been?” Mom’s eyes widened, standing on the sidewalk with her hands on her hips. Even in her giant puffy coat and white knit cap, she still looked tiny.
“Sorry, Mom. I got caught up,” I muttered.
“Well, hurry up, your father and I have someone important for you to meet,” she said, looping her arm through mine and guiding me toward a small café.
“You aren’t trying to set me up with someone again, are you? Alexis Cote was one thing, but if you’re trying to find another athlete or even some socialite here for The Games, I’m not interested.” Unless of course the athlete or socialite was Kelly Johnson, but I had a feeling my parents wouldn’t be searching out American girls when they were our number one rivalry at The Games.
“Speaking of Alexis…” Mom’s words trailed.
I stopped and looked down at my mother who wouldn’t look in my direction. “Seriously? You blew up my phone, so you could set up a meeting with Alexis and me?”
Mom huffed as if I just said the most ridiculous thing. “Your father and I ended up sitting next to Alexis’ parents on the plane ride, and they told us about this shampoo sponsor Alexis has. Paid for most of her trip and then some. They were able to set up a meeting with one of the company’s PR people for you. It wouldn’t hurt for you to have some additional sponsors, Blake.”
I sighed. I wanted to object to that, but she was right. All the big sponsors had their guys. I had one energy drink company that only took a chance on me because of some YouTube spots I did. I even had to buy my own board, and my parents fronted the money for the trip. As much as I hated to admit it, it couldn’t hurt to meet with a sponsor, even if I had to deal with Alexis Cote.
And it couldn’t hurt if the bitchy brunette did make Kelly a little jealous. I saw the way she looked at the picture of two of us that I even forgot I had on my phone. She and Alexis had some skating rivalry I guess and what better motivation to have a girl spark some jealousy and want payback on another girl than seeing me with the ex?
I stepped into the warm air of the café, and like an icy cold beacon, Alexis turned in her seat, giving me a tight-lipped smile. Shit, this was probably a bad idea. Even if it would make Kelly jealous or I’d have a chance at a sponsor, I forgot about the fact I’d have to stare at Alexis’ bitchy face for however long this lasted.
While Kelly was petite and looked like a porcelain doll, Alexis was the hard to Kelly’s soft with her dark brown hair pulled into a tight bun and extenuating those cheek bones I was pretty sure could cut glass.
Dad stood up from across the table and so did a gentleman with slicked back hair and a five-o’clock shadow. “Blake. I’d like you to meet Ben Broderick,” Dad said, putting his hand on the guy’s back like they were old friends.
Ben put his hand out, and I shook it, even though Ben slightly sneered his upper lip as if he just caught the smell of something nasty. “Nice to meet you, Blake, your father didn’t tell me you kept the dreadlocks. I saw those on one of your YouTube videos from X-Games and thought those were just a fun little thing. Not something you actually kept for The Games.”
I looked down at the blonde dreads that fell just below my shoulder blades. “Yeah, kind of a trademark and they work better under my helmet than the Mohawk.”
“At least the mohawk was clean,” Alexis muttered.
“Cleaner than your pussy,” I muttered under my breath so on
ly she could hear as I took a seat at the table across from Ben.
She rolled her eyes. “Real mature.”
“I guess we’ll make this quick since you two have somewhere to be,” Ben said with a nervous laugh, opening a leather folder.
“Okay,” I said, not sure exactly what we were going to make quick or what the details would be.
“We’ll have to get some contracts sorted out, and there is something that the guys in legal will want to add, and it’ll have to deal with those dreadlocks,” Ben said, glancing up at me.
“What about the dreads?”
“You’re going to have to cut them. Can’t exactly sell hair products when you aren’t using them, and we don’t have any kind of product hair style,” Ben said, folding his hands on the open folder.
“You want me to cut my hair?” I asked, even though I heard him perfectly fine. Absently I ran my fingers through my hair thinking about how Kelly had done the same thing the other night. She didn’t think of it as disgusting like Alexis or my parents. In fact, the way she bit her plump bottom lip when she looked at them made me think quite the opposite was true.
Mom let out a shrill laugh and put her hand on my back. “I think that’s what Ben is saying is that after The Games, you know, it could be a new look for you.
You’re almost twenty-seven, dear, don’t you think it’s time to give up the crazy hair?” Mom blinked slowly giving me a look that said; “Don’t’ fuck this up, this is your chance to do something.”
I licked my lips, thinking about my options. On the one hand, I loved my dreads. But they were just hair. Hair that Kelly was attracted to. Wait? When did my decisions become about a girl? Dammit, maybe all the time in the snow was getting to my head. I had to think about my future and my career.
“Yeah. I can think about that,” I finally said.
Ben smiled. “Good. We’ll get it all set up for you and Alexis to get some photos done during The Games and then a before and after with the dreads. You two are going to make one hell of a campaign.”
Mom and Dad beamed, and Alexis did her usual tight-lipped smile and I…well, I was just hoping I didn’t throw up on someone. It wasn’t going to be easy to win a bet, or to have any chance with Kelly if Alexis was involved during The Games. Getting her jealous was one thing, but if I had to spend time with Alexis for a campaign, between that, practice, and my events that left no time for Kelly. Time I wanted to make for her. Not just for a stupid bet. Now I just had to try and keep Alexis and Kelly as far away from each other as possible, which would be a problem since they were competing. I guess I would just have to make a bigger show of my feelings for Kelly, to get Alexis off my back, even though I had no idea what they were for sure. I guess I had two weeks to figure that out.
Chapter 4
Kelly
“AGAIN,” Coach Donahue spat after I landed another perfect throw jump executed by Logan.
Most of the other countries had left the rink to get ready for the opening ceremony, so it was just the three of us in the big arena that would soon be filled with hundreds of flashing lights watching us from the stands.
Logan wiped the sweat from his brow. “Coach. Really? We both need to shower before the opening ceremony, and we have this routine down. We had it down at nationals, and we’re going to execute the short program flawlessly. There’s no doubt about that.”
I didn’t want to bring up the half a second we were off on our first set of side-by-side Double Axels because that was my fault. My head wasn’t in practice today and more on thinking about a blond, dreadlocked snowboarder. But I wasn’t going to admit that out loud. Or ever. I was going to focus on The Games, which was what I came here for. At least that’s what I kept telling myself.
Coach smirked, crossing his arms over his barrel of a chest. He looked like every single coach I’d seen in a movie with his round shape, balding head, and a thick mustache. I think it was the reason I wanted to train with him so bad. That, and he’d trained three other gold medalist pair skaters.
Coach held up one pudgy finger. “One more and if it’s perfect, then you can shower.”
Logan sighed. “All right.”
***
After getting back to the room and showering, I emerged in just my towel to find Becca perched on the bed, sliding on her pants that I thought were cute yet not really practical for anything other than walking in an arena and I hoped I wouldn’t have to cut them off myself and Becca after the ceremonies.
“Hey,” I said, grabbing my brush and running it through my wet hair.
“Hey yourself Miss-brings-a-drunk-guy-home,” Becca said, standing and pulling her pants over her hips with a loud grunt.
When we were younger, no one believed we were sisters. We both had the athletic figures, but while my features were petite, hers was extra muscular. I swore she could kill a man with her thighs. It had gotten even more prominent as we grew up and when she would visit me in Lake Placid, our personalities clashed even more than our looks. It was our mother’s suggestion that we room together for the Olympics and get some sisterly bonding. I guess a few visits with me in New York where she used my ID to get into clubs wasn’t enough.
Not that I didn’t adore my sister, we were just completely different. Fire and ice as my dad used to say. I may have been in the spotlight as a skater, but I never tried to stand out amongst the crowd and avoided all conflict while Becca was the one you could pick out of a crowd, usually starting a fight.
I smirked, combing out a tangle. “He didn’t know where his room was and I didn’t want to just leave him outside.”
“That and you kind of like the bad boy,” Becca said with a wink before sliding her coat on.
I scoffed. “I do not. Why would you even think that? And he isn’t a ‘bad boy.' That sounds like a stupid cliché from a romance novel.”
“Because of the way you just smiled before trying to act offended. Admit that you like the rowdy snowboarder. Or bad boy. Or whatever you want to call him.”
My eyes widened. Did I just act offended? What was my face showing? I had the best competition face in the game. I could miss a turn and still smile like I was on top of the world. I guess that’s why Blake’s friends had no so eloquently called me the “ice queen.” I knew how to freeze my face and usually my feelings for anyone.
Becca laughed. “And your reaction to that, tells me you do. Come on; you haven’t talked about a guy, in well, ever. Your life has just been training, and it’s nice to see you even talking to someone that isn’t your coach or Logan.”
“I’ll have you know that I have tons of friends and gentlemen callers that I talk to in New York,” I said, adjusting my towel.
She raised an eyebrow. “Really? Name one.”
“I, uh.” Dangit. I had to have some friends. But now that I thought about it, there wasn’t anyone I hung out with other than Logan, and that was just during practice. If I wasn’t practicing, I was eating, sleeping, or watching reality TV.
Becca smiled. “It’s totally okay, dude. I get it. It’s hard when you’re so passionate about something to find time for anything else. I don’t remember the last time I had a date, let alone hung out with someone that wasn’t in hockey gear. And have you seen the hockey dudes? Sorry, but I can’t get down with a guy who has less teeth than me. Granted, a lot of them get falsies, and there was that hottie from Norway…but…” She shook her head then put her hand on my shoulder. “If you want to have fun with the snowboarder, I’m not going to judge you for it, just don’t bring his drunk ass to the room. Find an open family restroom or something.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Ew. That’s disgusting. Do you know how many germs are in there?”
“Not if you don’t let your naked bodies touch anything.”
I thought for a moment how that would work then my thoughts lingered to how Blake would look naked with his lean body. He probably had a ton of tattoos. All bad boys did, didn’t they? I wondered if he had the Olympic rings on him like al
l of those swimmers did, or maybe even a mountain that spread across his long back.
Then I started to think about what dipped below his V and my face heated up, so I had to stop thinking. “Okay. Enough talk about Blake. I need to get ready.”
“AKA, you need alone time in the bathroom,” Becca laughed as I grabbed my clothes.
I glared at her. “No!”
That would have to be done when I knew she was good and asleep.
***
This was my third Olympics, and the opening ceremonies never got old.
All of the athletes from around the world together in one stadium, and even better was walking along with all of the athletes from the United States, and for that moment we are all together as one team. There weren’t any politics or grievances; it was just all of us working for the common goal of the gold. Though, I assume there was more competition against people who had others from their country competing for the same medal. No one dared to try and compete against Logan and I. We were a powerhouse, and everyone knew it.
The only real competition we ever had was that bitch Alexis Cote and her haughty blond partner, Jacob Roy. The guy looked like a Disney prince, and with that stupid French accent, he had a way of making the judges swoon. I hated both of them. I never actually had a real conversation with either of them, but still hated the idea of the pair. We were always battling for gold at every competition, and I swore that neither of them ever smiled. They were the king and queen of resting bitch face. I wondered what Blake saw in her if it was really as a friend or something more. As soon as Blake entered my brain, I started to search the crowd. Canada was a ways away, but maybe in the sea of their athletes, I could spot his dreadlocked head.
“Looking for someone?” Logan asked, nudging my side as we walked to our seats to watch the performances.
“What? No, I was just admiring the beautiful atmosphere,” I said, half-lying. So, I may or may not have been looking. He didn’t need to know all of my secrets.