Chapter Seven

Whatever apprehensions she had about working with Natalie, Darcy needed her to do well enough for Raquel to say yes to the segment. Without her, Darcy would be stuck in New York while the rest of the team flew to Switzerland for the Games. Three years of working her ass off for an opportunity and it all came down to how a woman who hated her guts did in her screen test.

Darcy felt sick.

If Natalie got the job, it would mean Darcy would be stuck working with Carpenter for weeks. They hadn’t been on the same team for more than a decade and the last time they were...she didn’t want to think about it. Not that it had been bad, mostly. But the ending was a different story.

Darcy shook her head at the thought. Making it onto the show was all that mattered. She could deal with Carpenter’s mouth if it meant being on camera.

Darcy hurried through the hallway, snagged an apple from the break room, and slipped into the back of the room where Carpenter was doing her test. Natalie stood in front of the camera while a couple of hair and makeup folks fussed with her appearance. Natalie looked relaxed and confident as she spoke to them. She laughed, sending the sound across the room to where Darcy was trying to stay out of sight.

Darcy hadn’t heard Nat laugh like that in a long time. There wasn’t much joking around when they were on the ice screaming at each other. The happy sound reminded her of college. It reminded her of before everything went to shit. She liked the reminder of how she used to feel. Not that she’d ever tell Natalie that.

Once the flock of stylists disappeared, Raquel gave Natalie a short pep talk before stepping out of the frame.

For a moment after the camera went on, Natalie looked like she was going to choke. She stared at the camera, eyes unblinking, body stiff as a corpse.

Oh my god, she’s going to pass out.

Darcy took half a step forward in case Natalie needed help.

Natalie blinked once more before finally reading the teleprompter. “Good morning and welcome to Wake Up, USA ! I’m your host, Natalie Carpenter, coming to you from St. Moritz where today I’m getting a lesson in curling from members of Team USA. I can’t wait to get back onto the ice. Even if it’s not the way I’m used to.” Her gaze shifted to Raquel. “So, how’d I do?”

Darcy stepped into the light where Natalie could see her.

Unable to resist, Darcy called from the back of the studio. “You were great after you finished doing your statue impression.” She took a giant, loud bite of her apple and grinned.

Even from across the studio, Darcy could see the way Nat’s jaw bulged as she gritted her teeth.

“Nice to see you too, LaCroix. I certainly didn’t expect a warmer welcome than that.” Natalie gave her a grin. The exact kind of grin Darcy had been trying to wipe off her cocky face every time they stepped on the ice together for the last decade.

God, she was an arrogant little shit. Not even getting cut from Team USA dimmed her confidence. Must be nice, Darcy’s subconscious whispered at her.

Raquel stood next to Darcy. “I’m glad you’re here. I was hoping you would give Natalie a tour before the two of you do your test segment together.”

Darcy tried to decide if Raquel was seriously fine with the performance Natalie gave or if she was trying to provoke Darcy to see what she would do around Natalie. Darcy wasn’t going to take the bait. “I’d be happy to. Let me know when you are done here and I’ll come pick her up for the tour.”

“Aw, stick around, LaCroix. I know you’re dying to see the show. Don’t you want to see what I can do?” Natalie asked with another infuriating grin.

Darcy was going to wipe that thing off her face one way or another. But not with her boss watching, and not before she got the chance to be on-screen at the Olympics. She swallowed the words she wanted to say and stepped back to watch the rest of Natalie’s rehearsal.

Darcy wouldn’t have admitted it to anyone, but Natalie improved a lot each time she ran through the sample script. Her manner relaxed and she was charming on camera. The fact that she was a complete natural pissed Darcy off more than anything.

People saw the LaCroix last name and assumed she’d gotten everything she had because of her dad. But the truth was, for all her inherited talent, she worked her ass off. Once, when she was a kid, she’d been cut from a team and was so hurt, so humiliated that she vowed that no one would ever work harder than she did. That way, if she ever failed to make a team or achieve a goal, it wouldn’t be because of a lack of effort.

The idea of someone, especially Natalie, being a fucking natural at something she’d spent hours working at pissed her off almost as much as Natalie’s smug expression.

After the fourth time through, Raquel stopped the rehearsal. “I think we’ve seen enough to know you can handle reading.”

“Yes, Nat can read,” Natalie said in a mock caveman voice.

Raquel smiled. “We like funny people around here. We’ll keep that in mind for your pieces. You two should be able to play off each other. Natalie, you may be the comedian and Darcy here can be the straight man, so to speak.”

Something like a cloud passed over Natalie’s eyes but she didn’t say anything. Relief flooded Darcy’s chest. She wasn’t in the closet, but at work she wasn’t the type to make jokes about how not straight she was. Those were the kinds of jokes she would have shared with her friends and her teammates. Including Natalie.

But that was a long time ago.

“You going to show me around or what, Princess?” Natalie asked, her hands shoved deep in her pockets. She lowered her voice. “Or did you just come to gloat about me getting cut?”

“What are you talking about?”

Natalie’s eyes blazed, her anger barely contained. “I saw you the other day. You looked pretty fucking pleased to tell the world about how I was the last one cut from the team.”

“Un-fucking-believable,” Darcy said before heading for the door, not slowing her pace for Natalie in spite of their four-inch height difference. If she wanted to be an asshole, fine, but Darcy didn’t have to wait for her slow ass.

Natalie’s shoes clacked against the tile floor. She caught up to Darcy only when she had to wait for a group of people blocking the way. Darcy took another bored bite of her apple.

“You can’t be seriously pissed right now.” She followed until they got to the end of the hallway. “Still eating ten apples a day?”

Darcy cocked one eyebrow but didn’t respond, as she walked to the end of the hallway. “This is the break room. If you need coffee or a snack, you can usually find it here. Careful you don’t spill on your clothes, the costume folks hate that and if you do it too often they will give you ugly shit to wear.”

Natalie nodded. “Do they keep the apples stocked for you?”

Darcy made a face but Natalie nodded at the core dangling from her hand. She rolled her eyes and chucked the core in the trash. She forced herself not to remember their first meeting.

Natalie grinned. “Nice to see some things never change.”

Darcy strode down the hallway until they got to Raquel’s office and the space outside it where Jamal and Darcy had their desks. “I sit over here. I assume they’re going to give you a desk, although I can’t imagine they’re going to expect you to do much.”

“Why not?” Natalie asked, scowling.

“They brought you in to see if we would work well together doing a bunch of goofy shit. They didn’t bring you in because you have a ton of TV experience. Why, were you hoping to write stories? Book guests? Chase down sources?” Darcy crossed her arms over her chest. “What hidden talents do you have to share with us?”

Natalie rolled her eyes. “I’m not stupid, even if you’re treating me like an overexcited Labrador. We graduated from the same college, remember?”

Darcy rolled her eyes and walked Natalie over to Jamal. After she introduced them, she continued the tour for fifteen more minutes before giving up. The bickering was giving her a headache. She had to be sharp for their paired demonstration if she had any hope of this stupid experiment working well enough to get her on a plane to Switzerland with the rest of the Wake Up, USA team.