Page 48 of Crashing into Love

“Congrats! That’s amazing!”

“When do you find out?”

“Supposedly, tomorrow. I’m not as optimistic about my chances, though. Either way, it’s not about me right now. Selma, congratulations! You need to celebrate somehow.”

“I have a nine-year-old that I need to finish making dinner for and then get her through the rest of the night.”

“Then, something tomorrow.”

“Maybe,” she said. “It hasn’t sunk in yet.”

“Well, enjoy it when it does. Want me to let you go so that you can have dinner?”

“Have dinner with us,” Selma suggested.

“Huh?”

“She loves talking to you; I can tell. And she eats fast. You’ve seen her. If you can spare another fifteen minutes, I could put the computer on the table, and you two could chat. If not, though, that’s totally okay.”

“I can spare fifteen minutes for her.”

Selma smiled and felt a blush creep up her cheeks.

CHAPTER 15

“It’s sticking,” Drew said as she unclipped from her board. “That first turn was rough. I had to practically twist myself out of it. The rest weren’t bad. How much time did I lose up top, though?”

“Not much,” her coach replied. “But let’s take a look at the waxing and see what we can fix.”

“It’s a slow track, yeah?” she asked. “I felt like I was molasses up there. I’m used to going a lot faster. Was it me, the board, or–”

“It’s the course. I think they’re going to have to make some changes to it before the competition. I’ve watched others go down it around your practice times, too. Let’s get the board taken care of now and talk about how to take it if it stays slow. On the third jump, you weren’t in the air long enough and landed too early.”

“I know. And it’s slow – I couldn’t get up to speed anywhere. It’s like they didn’t pack the snow at all and just said, ‘Fuck it. It’s just training today.’”

“I don’t think they said that, but I’ll talk to someone to find out what’s going on,” he replied.

Drew took a drink from her water bottle and said, “I almost don’t want to go again until they fix it. I don’t want to get used to going slow.”

“Then, let’s focus on something else I noticed,” her coach suggested.

Drew nodded, and they both moved out of the way of the other boarders who would be training on this course today. It wasn’t her usual one. She’d been too optimistic about making the team – or, rather, hadn’t been optimistic at all – so her coach had suggested a change of scenery to help her with that. There weren’t that many boardercross courses in the world, though, and obviously, most of them were only available to train on during certain times of the year. Drew had been lucky enough to have been born to two skiers who loved the mountains, and when snowboarding picked up in popularity, a half-pipe, a slopestyle course, and a boardercross course were constructed nearby, so she had the chance to grow up in her sport and not have to go far.

Team USA didn’t use her course to train, though. They were using Woodward Copper, Colorado, as their training facility for these games, and that was where Drew’s coach suggested she do some training today to make sure her face was very much on the selection committee’s mind when they made their choice. Drew wasn’t sure whether that was a good idea or a bad one, or if it would even do anything for her cause, but she’d already seen several people from the team’s administration out on the course and meandering about inside the buildings where the athletes trained, changed, and worked out. Today was the day Drew would find out whether or not she’d gotten a call-up to train with the team, and she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t nervous.

If she didn’t make it, she’d clearly be embarrassed for coming all this way, but if she did, she could stick around for the first US event, which would be more of an exhibition event, primarily for the newly selected team to continue to compete for a spot on the final Olympic roster. It was the first chance they’d have to show everyone post-selection that they had what it took to compete at the most well-known sporting event in the world for their country. Since they always selected more boarders than they needed – to allow for injuries, people removing themselves, and a myriad of other reasons – there was still a chance that even if Drew got selected, she wouldn’t make the team or would end up as an alternate. She wasn’t sure what would be worse: sitting on the sidelines waiting and maybe hoping – even though that was bad – that someone got hurt or would otherwise pull out so she could have another chance, or sitting at home and not having that chance at all because she wasn’t even an alternate.

After training, Drew changed and walked out of the locker room, finding Chris Marcum, the director of the ski and snowboarding teams, standing there, looking down at his phone. She thought about walking right by him, but that would be rude. On the other hand, if she said hello and she hadn’t been selected for the team, she would be able to see it on his face, and that would end her hope.

“Hey, Drew,” he greeted when she looked up. “I was hoping to grab you for a minute since you’re here anyway. Is that okay?”

“Uh… Yeah. Sure,” she replied and swallowed because he’d been waiting for her.

She couldn’t read his face how she’d hoped she would be able to, though, so she was left with following him down the hall and into his office, having no idea if she was about to have her heart broken or be given some really amazing news.

“You decided to get some training in here,” he noted. “Your coach called and asked if it was okay, and I thought it was a great idea.”

Drew placed her bag on the floor and sat down in the chair opposite his desk.

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