(rivals to lovers, small town, sports) [WATTYS 2024 SHORTLIST] (Season 3 coming soon) After a devastating Olympic loss puts her career in a downward spiral, an aging skier returns to her laid-back mountain hometown to rediscover her love of her spor...
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Juniper squeezed the bean bag in her mittened hand as she lined up the shot. Then she lobbed it onto the slanted board opposite. The bag slid up the board, losing speed, until it toppled slowly into a round hole near the top.
The little boy beside her gave a loud whoop and danced around in a circle, waving his arms in the air. "We win! We win!"
With a laugh, Juniper held out her hand for a high five. "Great job."
He tapped his thick woollen mitt against hers. "I picked the best team."
"I bet you would have won if you'd picked Summer, too. You had some super throws."
But the boy had already moved on. "My dad says you went to the Olympics. Is that true? Can I see your medal?"
Juniper fought to keep her smile bright. "Sorry, bud. I don't have a medal."
"Oh." He looked puzzled for a moment, but then his brow cleared. "That's okay. Maybe you'll get one next year."
"Yeah. Maybe," she said. This was not the time to examine how she could want that so desperately and still find the thought agonizing.
As the boy ran back to his parents, Juniper glanced up at the other team, expecting to see Summer consoling her little partner. Instead, she was crouched down to pose for the girl's parents to take a photo, both of them holding up their hands with their forefinger and thumb crossed to make a small X. When they finished, the little girl said something, and they both laughed, as though sharing an inside joke.
Another thing that was agonizing: how fucking cute that was.
With a final fist bump, Summer straightened and looked right at Juniper. "Good game," she called, her golden-brown eyes still warm and her smile lingering as though yesterday's harsh words hadn't happened.
To be honest, Juniper wasn't sure what had happened yesterday. The two of them were dry tinder and any spark was enough to make the flames roar. All she knew was that apparently, her uncharitable feelings about Summer were a lot more obvious than she realized.
That was bad enough, though. Like, yeah, she did blame Summer for knocking her off the podium at the Olympics, but that wasn't the kind of thing she told people. It made her seem jealous and bitter.
Which she was. She just kept it to herself. Or thought she did. Especially because the truth of those feelings had started to feel a little fuzzy.
"You almost had us," she said as Summer circled the cornhole boards towards her.
After all her talk about not coming, Summer had stuck close to Juniper all day. In their red and white Team Canada jackets and maple leaf toques, they looked like a matched pair. And if Summer wasn't going to make a big deal out of yesterday, then Juniper wouldn't, either.
"What was that thing you two were doing with your hands in the photo?" She took off her mitt and tried to mimic the forefinger-thumb cross, with poor results.
