Chapter Thirteen

A flicker of anger ignited in Darcy’s chest when she heard Natalie talking shit about her. But never one to represent herself or Canada poorly, she pasted on a smile and stuck out her hand. “Darcy LaCroix, nice to meet you. You must be Liz?”

Liz shook her hand. “I know who you are. I was just telling Natalie that I’m a bit of a hockey junkie. I can’t believe I’m meeting both of you! Your penalty shot in the gold medal game was a thing of beauty.”

We still lost.

Darcy’s smile faltered for an instant, but she recovered. “Thank you. I wish it could have won the gold for us, but complaining about not having four golds seems a bit obnoxious, don’t you think?” If Natalie was going to talk shit about her one gold medal, Darcy sure as hell would remind her that she had three times as many.

“Oh man, you all are going to be fun, I can feel it.” Liz leaned closer to them. “It’ll be nice to have some athletes around the place instead of the tourists we usually get.”

Darcy smiled. “I’ve been retired for a few years, but Carpenter here is still in top shape.”

Natalie glowered. “Yeah, that’s the perk of being the last one cut.”

Darcy’s eyes widened. “That’s not—”

“Save it, LaCroix.” She snatched her backpack out of the van and slammed the door. “Lead the way, Liz.”

Darcy was stunned. She hadn’t meant it as a dig, she’d meant it to be self-deprecating about her own less-than-world-class fitness. She was still in shape, but since she’d retired from the national team she didn’t have to worry about trying to increase her strength or passing the fucking beep test anymore. She worked out because it made her feel good. She lifted because she liked being strong, but she didn’t have to run sprints or stadiums anymore. And she didn’t miss any of that shit for a second.

When she looked at Natalie, she saw how fit she used to be and for a moment there was a twinge of sadness. She’d worked for decades for the strength and speed she had on the ice. She’d earned every bit of it, and she’d also let it go, along with the ice baths, trips to the training room, and long road trips. There were trade-offs, and one of them was a certain lack of definition to her muscles she had always taken for granted when she was playing.

Natalie hadn’t lost that yet.

Darcy frowned. She really hadn’t meant to piss Natalie off but understood how her remark had felt like a dig. Not that she’d admit it.

Josh and Manny had already set up their equipment inside the little room off the track. Josh had the camera on his shoulder and a vest of equipment attached to his torso, while Manny was clipping mics on Natalie and Liz.

Darcy stripped off her winter coat and put on the one with the show logo on it. It wasn’t as warm, but the instructions said not to wear puffy coats, presumably so they fit in the sled. Manny clipped a mic to her lapel, next to her zipper, and handed her the mic pack to go around her waist.

“I don’t know what you did, but Natalie seems real pissed off,” Manny said as he adjusted the mic.

Darcy shook her head. “I complimented her for being in good shape.” She rolled her eyes. “So, I’m definitely an asshole.”

Manny chuckled. “You guys always at each other’s throats?”

Darcy shrugged. “Have you seen any video of us on the ice together?”

Manny shook his head.

“Google it sometime. I think there are compilations of us on YouTube. People loved to watch us mix it up on the ice.”

“So, why the hell put you two on a show together?” Manny asked.

Darcy shrugged. “They liked the idea of the conflict. I don’t think they’ll like it if we actually drop the gloves, though.”

Manny laughed. “I’ll warn Josh if you think we’re going to have to jump between you two.”

Darcy shook her head. “I’m a journalist now. I’ve given up getting into scuffles with yappy Americans.”

Manny didn’t look convinced, but he moved on to testing the mic levels and helping Josh set up the shots.

They had to do the setup twice before they got it to work right, but then the intro segment went smoothly. Liz was a former bobsled driver who missed out on the Olympics, twice, by virtue of terribly timed injuries. Darcy couldn’t imagine the heartache of missing out on the once-every-four-years opportunity due to an injury one time, but to have both chances ruined seemed exceptionally cruel.

Darcy felt greedy for the disappointment she’d felt when her last Olympics ended with a silver medal. How fucking selfish of her to be anything less than grateful for every chance she had to fight for gold. She didn’t say any of that, of course, but she felt it like a slap shot off her shin.

Off camera, Liz walked them through all the safety stuff. They had to sign waivers and promise to follow all the rules.

“How many times do we get to race?” Natalie asked, her voice tinged with giddiness.

Liz shrugged. “I assumed you two would want to go together and be done with it.”

Natalie shook her head. “No way. I want a shot at winning. What do you say, LaCroix? You up for a challenge?”

“Whoa. No way. We’re supposed to shoot the two of you going down the track together. Raquel wants video of the two of you, smashed together in that thing, preferably scared out of your minds. That’s what she wants,” said Manny.

Darcy caught Natalie’s eye. “Okay, so we give her what she wants.”

“Suck-up,” Natalie growled.

“Would you shut up for five seconds? Liz, any chance we can each do a second run? Slowest one buys lunch.”

Nat’s eyes sparkled. “You’re so fucking on.”

Liz laughed. “How can I deny you two? Hell, I’ll even drive the sled for both of you to make it fair.”

Josh followed them with the camera out to the track, where they awkwardly shuffled toward the sled behind Liz.

“How does this work?” Natalie asked, trying to figure out how she was going to run after the sled and throw herself onto it without dying.

Darcy raised one eyebrow. “You see, we get in the sled and then it zooms down the mountain.”

Natalie rolled her eyes. “I mean, in the Olympics they do the whole running start and hop in one after another. Are we going to do that?”

Liz laughed. “Uh, no. There’s not enough liability insurance to cover that. I’ll be in the front and then you two will wedge in behind me.” She pointed to two men the size of football linemen. “They’ll push the sled and then we get our asses down the hill as fast as possible.”

“Bummer, I was hoping for those shoes with the spikes on them.”

Darcy gave her a look. “Oh yeah, so you could nail me in the ass with them. No thanks.”

Liz got into the sled and coached Darcy on how to sit behind her with Natalie in the back. “Natalie, wrap your arms around Darcy’s middle. I don’t want you flying off when we take turn two.”

Natalie leaned forward. “You okay with this?”

Darcy nodded and pulled Natalie’s arms forward until they hooked around her waist.

Darcy’s heart grave a traitorous jolt. Whatever, this was work. She could smash herself against Natalie without it being weird. This was part of the job, nothing more.

They gave Josh a wave and a thumbs-up before being shoved down the track. They hurtled faster and faster down the track, g-forces slamming them from side to side. Natalie was in the rear of the sled and her arms squeezed Darcy in each turn.

Thank god Darcy wasn’t the only one feeling alarmed by how fast they were going. At the bottom, the track leveled off and they glided to a stop, Darcy’s heart hammering in her chest.

When they reached the bottom, Darcy turned but couldn’t see into Natalie’s helmet, it was so fogged up from her breath. “You okay?” she yelled, hoping Nat could hear her.

After a pause, Nat unhooked her arms from around Darcy and scooted out of the sled. “Yeah. Fine. That was great.”

“For someone who doesn’t get motion sick, you don’t look so good,” Darcy said when Natalie flipped up the visor on her helmet, revealing her sickly green-gray skin. “You’re not going to puke are you?”

Natalie shook her head and forced herself to swallow. Her face betrayed panic before she ripped the helmet off her head and took huge gulping breaths. For an instant she looked better. But when she turned to give Darcy a look, her face betrayed the wave of nausea overtaking her. Natalie lurched toward the side of the track and leaned over half a second before barfing.

Liz looked over at Darcy. “First round goes to Team Canada, I think.”

Darcy took off her helmet, being careful not to hit the GoPro Josh had mounted on it. “With any luck, we got every second of it for the show.”

Natalie stood up. “You wouldn’t dare.”

Darcy laughed. “We can talk about this after you’re done tossing your breakfast all over the ground.” She walked away from the track, singing at the top of her lungs “O, Canada, our home and native land.” It wasn’t a gold medal but seeing Natalie puking her guts out after talking so much shit felt pretty fucking great.