(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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It wasn't nothing.
Of course it wasn't nothing. Eddie hadn't heard from Danica in over a year. Their breakup had been so abrupt she hadn't thought to block her number, but why would Danica ever want to talk to her again? Danica had Cass. She had their mutual friends. She had all the pieces of a life that had never added up for Eddie.
But there it was. A text from Danica.
Missing you tonight, Kennedy, it read. The olympic village isn't the same without you.
It was like she'd taken her skate blade and torn it right through the scar she'd left on Eddie's heart. The tender, raw tissue that had healed over with such painful slowness. But it had healed.
Hadn't it? Hadn't falling in love with Holly meant that she was over Danica?
It would be easier to think if today wasn't a bad pain day.
Holly hadn't sat down. Their wine glass rested at the place beside Eddie's, a single lip print on the rim, and they were up by the podium, talking to their boss, checking the microphone.
She wished they were closer. She wanted to hold their hand and put her face in the crook of their shoulder and tell them how much it hurt that she'd given four years of her life to someone so manipulative and cruel.
But she couldn't. Not now. Not on the most important night of Holly's life.
She sipped her beer and tried to focus on Malcolm and Gia's conversation. Holly hadn't told her they were dating, but the looks they gave each other were louder than Eddie's voice. They made a cute couple. Malcolm's wild, greying curls had the same energy as Gia's enormous, beaded earrings.
They were talking about flight plans for next week. It sounded like Juniper, or one of Juniper's sponsors, had paid for them, and Holly and Carla, to go to the Olympics to watch her race.
Malcolm turned to Eddie. "Did Holly ask if you wanted to come along? We've been, but not the way you have. It's always more fun to travel with an insider."
Eddie rubbed a thumb against the stone on her necklace. Holly had mentioned the trip in passing, but they hadn't asked her to come. She was glad they hadn't. She'd been to the Olympics four times. She knew what a small place they could be. And Danica was there, the star of the women's hockey team.
When Eddie was on her snowboard she could drop twenty feet off a blind cliff without a sliver of fear, but the idea of seeing her ex-girlfriend again made her want to curl up under a blanket and never come out.
"Maybe Eddie was planning to go anyway," Gia suggested. "For work?"
From her other side, Levi leaned in with a grin. "I tried. So did the networks who wanted her commentary. Eddie turned them down, but if she shows her face, they might bully her into it."
