Chapter Twenty

She must have been out of her mind to agree to this. Natalie had taken a car to the hotel, thrown everything in a bag, raced to the airport in time to catch her flight home, and now was standing in her living room staring at the mess of clothes she’d spread on literally every available surface. What the fuck do you take to the Olympics if you’re not playing?

In the midst of shoving all of her clothes into the washer, her Mom called her.

“Hi, Mom, you’re on speaker.”

“You are, too. I have your father here with me.”

Natalie picked up an escaping sock and threw it in before starting the load. “Hi, Dad, what’s up?”

“Well, we hadn’t heard from you in a few days and we were worried.”

Natalie rolled her eyes. “I had an interview, I’m fine.”

“For a job?”

Natalie trudged down the hallway. “No, it was an interview series about failed athletes.” Her parents didn’t deserve her biting sarcasm but she was tired and stressed out and she did not need this shit right now.

“You aren’t a failed anything, Natalie,” her mom said with a mixture of pity and anger in her voice.

Natalie slumped onto the floor next to her bed to pick through the clothes spilling out of her bag. “Thanks, Mom. But I do have some news. I’m going to the Olympics.”

Her parents started cheering before she could explain. “We thought they chose someone else, what happened?”

Natalie kicked herself for not choosing her words more carefully. “Not like that. I’m not going to play. I’m going to work.” She explained about the job. “I’ll be working with Darcy LaCroix.”

Silence.

“Hello?”

Her father’s voice came through the phone. “Darcy? The one you always fight with?”

Natalie sighed. “I don’t always fight with her. We were teammates once.” When her parents didn’t respond, she could picture them looking at each other with raised eyebrows. “Guys, it’s fine. The network likes the fact that we played against each other. They’re using it in the segments. We’re going to be learning how to do all this stuff and then competing with each other. I think they might be keeping score or something.”

Her parents didn’t speak for long enough that she was worried the call dropped and she’d just spent five minutes talking to no one. “Hello?

“It sounds like a good opportunity.” Her mom couldn’t keep the skepticism out of her voice.

“When do you leave?” her dad asked.

Natalie crawled across the floor to fetch her water bottle that had somehow rolled under her dresser. “Tomorrow morning. I’m home long enough to pack and then they’re sending us to the Games. The timing is bananas but they want us to start filming segments right away so we can have access to all the venues.”

“Tomorrow? But that’s so soon! We haven’t even seen you since you got back from Colorado.”

Natalie flopped onto her bed. “Do you guys want to try to have dinner tonight? I don’t have a single thing in my fridge but we could get pizza or something.”

Her parents were silent for a minute. “We actually have plans tonight.” Her mom sounded sheepish.

Natalie laughed. “Of course you do. I’ll see you when I get back from Switzerland. Until then we can FaceTime if the time difference isn’t too brutal.”

“Are you sure you’re going to be okay with this? Didn’t you and Darcy have a huge falling-out?” Nat’s mom really wasn’t going to let this go.

“Mom, college was forever ago. I don’t have to be her best friend to work with her. We’ll be fine.” She said it without knowing if it was true. She had to believe it, though. She had to believe that she and Darcy could work together and not flame out on national TV or kill each other over a curling match or whatever else the network planned for them. Of course, it could all go sideways, but Natalie had no choice but to hope for the best and fight like hell to make it happen.

Her parents didn’t know the story of what happened with Darcy. They didn’t know anything other than they had a falling-out and spent the next ten years beating the shit out of each other in every international tournament they played in. Her parents assumed it was just a USA-Canada thing. And it was, but there was so much more. There was also the kind of hurt that festers the longer you let it sit undiscussed. And she and Darcy had never talked about it.

Finally, her dad cut in. “We’re proud of you. A little surprised that all this happened so quickly but really proud.”

“Thanks, Dad. I have to finish packing if I’m going to be getting on a plane tomorrow. I love you and I’ll let you know when I arrive, okay?”

“Love you, honey. We’ll be watching!”

“Try not to swear on live TV!”

Natalie laughed. “It was one time!” Her parents hung up.

She stared at her suitcase. How had she only come home from camp a week and a half ago? One second, she was getting dumped from the team and now she was packing to go to the Games to be on TV. None of it made any sense. But that was part of the adventure.

She made sure she packed all her favorite things, comfortable pajamas, sweats, and workout gear. If they were going to have her learn to play a bunch of random sports, she sure as hell was going to do it wearing a sports bra that fit, and her favorite leggings.

Her phone dinged.

Pack your skates.

A second later it dinged again. It’s Darcy. Unless you want to have to borrow when we’re over there, bring your own.

Natalie walked into her living room, where her Team USA bag was still taking up most of the floor space. She couldn’t bring herself to unpack it when she got home. What was she going to do, sell her stuff? Put it in storage? All of that felt too final. So, she’d left it sitting in the middle of her floor.

She unzipped the bag, revealing red, white, and blue equipment that reminded her that she wasn’t going to be there with her team this time. She pushed everything aside until she found her skates and grabbed her gloves, too.

They were going to take up half her suitcase, but Darcy was right, if she had to go on the ice on national TV it was going to be in her own skates, not some shitty rentals.

She finished her laundry and shoved more clothes into the suitcase than she probably needed but she had no idea what the next month was going to bring; at least she would have her favorite clothes.

It was after nine that night that she remembered to eat dinner and almost 1 AM by the time she crawled into bed, clutching her phone to keep from missing the alarm she set.

Natalie wandered through Logan Airport feeling like someone had dropped a bag of gravel in her eyes. What was it about this airport and feeling terrible? It felt like yesterday that she was here with her equipment bag slung over one shoulder and nursing a broken heart. When she reached the counter to check her bag, the attendant’s demeanor changed as soon as he saw her ticket.

“Ms. Carpenter, welcome. For your comfort, our lounge for our first-class passengers is located not far from your gate.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

The guy smiled. “Show your ticket at the door and they’ll let you in.”

“Did you say first class?”

He chuckled and pointed to the number on her ticket. “Did you not know you were in first class?”

She blushed, feeling sheepish. “Someone booked it for me.”

“Nice person,” the guy said, before turning to the next customer.

Natalie hitched her backpack over her shoulder and found the lounge as soon as she got through the security checkpoint. She could get used to this kind of treatment. Maybe this would be the only time she’d get a chance to enjoy it, and she was going to make the most of it. She grabbed a cup of coffee and a stack of pastries from a continental breakfast buffet. The coffee tasted amazing. She didn’t know if it was because it was an ungodly early hour or because the coffee was actually good.

When they called her row to the gate, she dumped her trash, grabbed a banana, and got onto the plane. The seat next to her stayed open even after the plane filled up around her. This had to be her lucky day.

When they landed in New York, the empty seat made much more sense. Darcy stopped next to their row. “Good morning.” She stared at Natalie’s backpack, currently taking up the space on her seat.

Natalie moved it and shoved it under the seat in front of her. “Good morning. You sitting here?”

Darcy nodded and slid into the seat. “Have you ever traveled like this?”

Natalie shook her head. “I didn’t know we had these seats until the guy at the gate told me I could go hang out in the fancy lounge. I thought he was fucking with me, honestly. What about you?”

Darcy chuckled. “Princesses travel in style, didn’t you know?”

“I expected you would take your private plane, honestly,” Natalie quipped. “But here you are slumming it in commercial with the rest of the riffraff.”

“I wanted a private plane. I got you instead.” Darcy shook her head. “Worst consolation prize ever.” She gave an exaggerated eye roll.

Natalie let her head rest against her seat and studied Darcy’s face. There was a hint of kindness under the words. “Seriously, are you happy I’m here?”

Darcy smiled. “And why would I be happy to have you here?” she teased. “All you do is give me shit. You’re a giant pain in my ass and have been since you arrived on campus.” Her laugh ended with a long sigh. “Jesus, was there ever a cockier freshman?”

Natalie tried to scowl but couldn’t fight the laugh bubbling inside her. “Good to know you bought my act.”

“What?”

Natalie paused, unsure if she really wanted to reveal this, or anything, to Darcy. “I was nervous about joining the team. You and the other seniors were players I’d watched and looked up to and I wasn’t sure whether you were going to like me or hate me.”

Darcy’s smile disappeared. Her face softened. “You were nervous about meeting me?”

Natalie laughed. “That’s what you took from my story? Such a princess.” Natalie looked at the seat in front of her. Her heart pinched at the memory of how nervous and scared she’d been when she first joined the team. It was so much easier to give Darcy shit for having a famous father than it was to tell the truth.

She was scared out of her mind that they’d find out she couldn’t keep up. She had been the best player on every team she’d been on since she was in elementary school, but this was a team full of players who had also been the best on their teams. What if they made her look like a fool on the ice? What if the coaches decided they’d made a terrible mistake?

It was easy to remember how that day felt because she felt it all over again in this job. She was a complete imposter. This wasn’t a case of imposter syndrome, not this time. She had zero experience being on TV. She had zero experience doing any of this and she kept waiting for the network to figure it out and send her packing. Instead, she was sitting on a plane on her way to the Olympics.