Edge of Glory Page 3

  “She’ll be back,” Corey said.

  Holly shook her head. “She thinks you dissed her hard with the near-miss comment.”

  “Why?”

  “She missed the podium in Sochi by like a sliver of a second . . . twice.”

  Her chest tightened, but she flashed another bravado-laced smile. “Almost four years ago. Who even remembers stuff like that?”

  “I remember it,” Holly said. “I’m pretty sure she still does. And I’m also pretty sure she kind of hates you now.”

  “No one hates me. I’m freaking adorable. You watch, she’ll be back.”

  “Dude,” Nate sighed. “It’s so over.”

  “You’re wrong. She likes me.” She grinned and stuffed the rest of her sandwich into her mouth while they both laughed. Okay, maybe “like” wasn’t the right word, but something had shifted in Elise for a few seconds. This wasn’t over. She didn’t know what it was, or why, but she recognized the spark of something powerful in those translucent eyes, and for whatever reason, the spark had been pointed at her.

  When it came to Elise Brandeis, she was just getting started.

  • • •

  “Two medals.” Elise mumbled as she rocked a steady rhythm on the elliptical machine. A bronze and a gold. She picked up her speed another notch. “Freakin’ snowboarders.”

  “Pace,” Paolo called from across the room. He probably hadn’t even looked up from the weight machines he’d been inspecting the whole time. He could tell from the sound if she was working too hard too soon. She’d been cleared to return to a full training regimen two days ago, but he wanted to ease her back in. She found the caution frustrating. It wasn’t as if she’d spent the last year sitting on the couch with her leg up. They’d begun rehabbing less than twenty-four hours after her last surgery, but she couldn’t say so to him. He knew. He’d been there. He’d been the only one. She reined in her motions once more.

  “I thought you’d be in a better mood after going to bed early,” he called.

  She grunted.

  “You did go to sleep early, yes?”

  “Early enough.”

  “You don’t like the bed here?”

  “It’s fine.” She’d actually found the bed much more comfortable than expected. Despite the smaller size, the mattress was high quality and couldn’t be blamed for keeping her awake. No, that honor went to Corey LaCroix and her goofy smile. Though maybe if she had two Olympic medals and a couple of world championships in her pocket, she’d smile all the time, too. Then again, if she’d chosen a sport like snowboarding instead of the more technical discipline of Alpine skiing, she would probably have some medals by now.

  “What were you researching this time?” Paolo walked over and checked the screen tracking her heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen levels.

  “Just going over some video,” she said noncommittally.

  “Videos of you?”

  “No, some random competitions.”

  “Snowboarding competitions, maybe?”

  Her rhythm faltered, only for a second, but he caught it.

  “Do you have a tracker on my computer?”

  He laughed softly. “I don’t have to spy. You have mumbled ‘freakin’ snowboarders’ three times since you started your run.”

  This was one of many reasons she didn’t play poker despite Paolo’s constant invitations to do so.

  “Corey left an impression last night, no?”

  “I didn’t even know who she was.”

  “She’s a freakin’ snowboarder,” he said with a grin, “one with two Olympic medals and a pocket full of world championships.”

  “In snowboarding,” Elise qualified.

  “Do you think that makes her lesser than any world-class athlete?”

  She did, which probably made her a snob, which she hated, but it didn’t change the way she felt. The sports couldn’t be compared. Corey wasn’t even a freestyle or half-pipe snowboarder. Boardercross was a cross between BMX and a mountainside bar fight. She’d met a few boarders over the years, and they always reminded her of pot-smoking skateboarders in teen movies. They said things like “dude,” and “bro,” and “wicked” or “sick,” or some other term du jour for people crashing into each other. She’d admit the sport required a certain set of talents, but none of them had anything in common with her skill set. She imagined Corey spent as much time working on her keg stands as she did working out.

  “She can help us here, Elise,” Paolo said seriously. “This is her hometown. She knows everyone. She grew up with these trainers, these doctors, these officials. They like her.”

  “And they don’t like me.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “You didn’t have to. I know I’ve never gotten any votes for Miss Congeniality. I’m not here to win a popularity contest. I’m a serious athlete.”

  “Corey proves you can be likable and win. You can have friends and world championships.”

  The comment stung, but she didn’t break her stride.

  “Besides,” Paolo continued, “if you’re serious about getting back on the team, you’ll take any edge you can get, and Corey knows this facility like her own playground.”

  “I bet she treats it like a playground, too.”

  He laughed. “Probably, but a little bit of play wouldn’t hurt you right now, either. You’ve had less appealing playmates.”

  The comment finally broke her focus completely, and she slowed enough to give him a disapproving stare.

  “The glare doesn’t work on me anymore. I’m the only person who’s not afraid of you.”

  True, but she didn’t have to agree with everything he said, and her personal life was the place where she usually took her stand. She fought for her privacy with a tenacity almost on par with her fight for a world championship. She wouldn’t risk her reputation for anyone, especially for the likes of Corey LaCroix. “She’s not my type.”

  “Uh-huh,” Paolo said, barely hiding a grin behind his clipboard.

  She slowed all the way to a stop and grabbed a towel to mop the sweat off her neck. She didn’t like whatever he’d insinuated. She’d never let a personal relationship get in the way of her goals, and the times she had allowed herself any sort of personal release, she’d always chosen like-minded women. Classy women. Driven women. Women with similar levels of tact and discretion. Perhaps she could be physically attracted to Corey’s golden quality, from her amber and honey hair to her hazel eyes that hinted at a mischievousness she lacked in her own life. If she were the type of woman who had extra time, or was prone to flings or misadventures, she might have to worry about distractions.

  Annoyance mixed with something unsettling deep in her stomach as her mind wandered to more specific images of exactly what those distractions might entail. She’d never come anywhere near the level of distraction someone like Corey could present, and she didn’t intend to start now.

  Shaking her head, she hopped off the elliptical. She wouldn’t even go there in her mind. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to get back on the team. If that means making nice with locals and snowboarders, then I will, but it’s all a means to the same end.”

  “Okay.” Paolo relented. “Whatever you say.”

  “I say it’s time to get back to work.”

  • • •

  Corey broke into a massive grin as she swung wide the door to the yoga studio. There, rolling out an electric blue mat, in all her stretchy-pants glory, was Elise Brandeis, and damned if she didn’t have some junk in her trunk. In her regular clothes she’d appeared lithe and fit, but the curve-hugging getup revealed thighs so muscular they could probably crack a walnut . . . or someone’s neck.

  “Whoa,” Nate said from behind her, alerting Elise to their presence.

  “What?” Holly asked, craning her neck around them both to get a better view as Elise straightened up and glanced over her shoulder. Her polite smile twitched into something tighter as she recognized them. Corey’s grin never fal
tered, though. How could it in the face of such good fortune?

  “Move along, dirtbags.” Holly shoved Corey more fully into the room. “Good morning, Elise.”

  “Hello, Holly? Right?”

  Holly nodded, giving no indication how she felt about Elise remembering her name, then her voice dropped into the more personal register that made Corey marvel. “Hi, Paolo.”

  Paolo? Corey hadn’t even noticed his presence in the room.

  “Hi, Holly.” He beamed at her. “I’ve been hoping we’d run into you all again.”

  “Really?” Corey asked, recovering from the spike in hormones Elise’s backside had caused. “When I didn’t see you for almost a week, I thought you guys might be avoiding us.”

  “Never,” Paolo said cheerfully and scooted his mat over to make space for them.

  Holly took the opening between him and Elise, but Corey never set up in the front row even when the view from the back wasn’t as appealing as today.

  She grabbed one of the community mats from a wall rack and unfurled it behind Elise. “What about you, Ms. Brandeis? Had you been hoping to run into me again?”

  Elise raised one arm above her head before catching the elbow in her other hand and pulling it down behind her as she seemed to ponder the question. “I can’t say as I’d given the prospect much thought.”

  Nate fake-coughed to cover his mumbled, “Burn.”

  Corey had felt worse, though. “I’ll assume you’re pleasantly surprised.”

  A few more people she didn’t recognize filtered in as she flopped onto her back and tried to simultaneously inventory her aching muscles while watching Elise stretch. She did an admirable job of conveying disinterest, but every time the door opened, her eyes flicked up as she did a quick scan of the new arrivals. Was she expecting someone? Hoping for a specific mat buddy? Or did she merely keep her guard up at all times?

  The instructor started up some soothing music and assumed his place in front of them.

  “Morning, Mikael,” Corey called. “How’s the new baby?”

  “She’s not a fan of sleeping,” he said, even as he smiled widely.

  “Good. Maybe you’ll doze during class and we’ll get the day off.”

  “When have you ever needed a day off?”

  She tried not to frown at the question. When had she started hoping for days off? “You’re right. I was trying to go easy on Nate. You know he’s getting kind of old.”

  Nate didn’t argue, but Mikael laughed. “I doubt it. Maybe you should come over and babysit some time.”

  “Sure, next time your wife is at one of those bigwig USSA meetings, I’ll come over and we’ll teach the baby a few tricks.” She’d only been making conversation, but she caught Paolo and Elise exchange an indecipherable expression. What had she said? Something about babysitting? No, something about the USSA. The topic tripped triggers for those two.

  The door swung open once more, and a few adolescents strolled in. Elise did her quick scan, her expression neutral except for a brief furrow of her brow.

  “They’re archers,” Corey whispered as the teens moved to the opposite corner of the studio. “Juniors. Three years out from their first Olympic bid.”

  Elise nodded once as if letting the info sink in.

  “They’re here for a two-week camp. Quiet bunch, always travel in packs. For fifteen-year-olds, they’re strung pretty tight.” She waited a couple of beats before adding, “Get it? Strung tight? They’re archers.”

  Elise kept her gaze pinned to the front of her mat, but the corners of her mouth twitched up.

  “Yeah.” Corey grinned. “You see what I did there.”

  “All right, everybody.” Mikael called their attention to the front of the room. “Let’s start the class in child’s pose. Feet together, knees apart, settle your body into the open space.”

  Corey popped onto all fours, then eased back. Her right knee creaked audibly as she lowered herself down.

  “Extend those arms, but clear your shoulders away from your ears. Feel the stretch through your back.”

  She felt the stretch all right, and not just in her back, but also her arms, her shoulders, even her tailbone. She didn’t even remember busting her ass recently.

  “Now pushing up into downward-facing dog,” Mikael continued in his soothing voice. “Pedal out your feet. Do some knee bends. Feel those hamstrings lengthening.”

  Corey blew out a heavy exhale and flexed all the appropriate muscles, trying not to groan as a couple of them protested the shift. She only intended to check her arm positioning in the forward mirrors, but when she lifted her head, she caught a full-screen, high-def panoramic of Elise’s ass in the air. The view offered the best pain relief she’d ever experienced, as in—pain? What pain?

  “Lowering down into plank, hands shoulder-width apart. Keep your neck neutral.”

  Corey obeyed every cue except the neutral part. She couldn’t remain neutral about anything with Elise’s body, long and strong, directly ahead of her. Damn. Aside from Holly’s earlier assessment of her dirtbaggery, she didn’t often ogle women to the extent she seemed to have fixated on Elise. She’d done yoga for years, and while she’d given the occasional nod of respect to a fellow practitioner, no twinge of arousal had lasted for more than a second, and certainly not on this level.

  “On your next exhale, bring yourself to low plank, then transition into up dog.”

  Corey barely noticed the muscles in her abs screaming as she arched her back in a c-curve. The new pose gave her an unobstructed view of Elise’s full form. Her muscled shoulders rippled in the exposed cutout of her racerback T. Her blond ponytail fanned out across her back, which flowed in a graceful line down to her spectacular ass, where Corey paused only momentarily to entertain thoughts of bouncing quarters before visually tracing the lines of her powerful legs all the way down over the beautifully smooth curve of her calf muscle.

  “Once again pushing up, find your downward dog, trying to settle those heels a little lower this time.”

  Corey allowed herself another breath to watch in awe as Elise made the transition fluidly.

  “Lord, have mercy,” she mumbled, causing Elise to shoot her a look between her legs.

  She quickly popped up and faced the back wall, relieved she could at least summon some modicum of embarrassment at getting caught staring. What about this woman turned her into a puddle of ineptitude? It wasn’t like she was some reclusive computer geek with braces and acne. She generally did pretty well with women. Though she hadn’t tested her skills in a while. Maybe she was out of practice.

  “Either hop or step your feet to your hands now.”

  Everyone in the room hopped. Olympians hopped. It was an unwritten rule, but it didn’t go without notice that some of them did so more gracefully than others. Elise landed like a cat, without ever making a sound, while Paolo and Nate managed with a grunt and a thud. Corey hoped she fell somewhere in the middle, or that the guys made enough noise to drown out her own.

  “Landing in a forward fold, nod your head, then shake your head,” Mikael intoned melodically. “Stretch out the remaining tension in your neck.”

  It would take more than a few nods to release the tension building in her now, but she tried anyway. The weight of her skull pulled her down, torquing a tight muscle between her shoulder blades. She gritted her teeth and breathed through her nose until the sharp pulling sensation lessened.

  “Now rising up slowly one vertebrae at a time, chin last, roll your shoulders back, and prepare yourself to ease into chair pose,” Mikael said. “Corey, I know this is your favorite, so we’ll do an extra long one.”

  “Thanks, Core,” someone called, receiving a mix of laughter and grumbling.

  “I’ve got a bit of a history with this pose,” she whispered to Elise, who didn’t turn around. She bent her knees over ankles, straightened her back, and eased down as if searching for a tiny chair, one she’d never find. Her dreams would be haunted by the pain of the stu
pid, nonexistent chair.

  “I tend to give the hard poses nicknames.” She waited a few seconds as the burn spread through her thighs and hoped Elise would bite. When she didn’t, Corey tried the more direct approach. “Don’t you want to know what this one’s called?”

  “Not really,” Elise whispered, causing Corey to smile. A negative response was better than no response at all.

  “Come on, you’re not even a little curious?” Now her knees trembled, and she glanced at the clock, pretending she wanted to see how long Elise would last, and not because she was silently begging Mikael to cue a different pose. As her abs contracted and shook, she had to either find a more pleasant distraction or succumb to the pain. “I’m only thinking of you, you know? You’re going to lie awake at night, still aching from this pose, and be sad you don’t know what to call it in order to accurately describe its level of torture.”

  “Fine,” Elise finally whispered in a tone laced with resignation. “What do you call chair pose?”

  “Pig fucker.”

  Elise lost her balance and rose almost to standing before shooting Corey a glare that didn’t quite reach the freeze-ray level she’d employed in the cafeteria. Her brow furrowed, but she didn’t quite frown. “I can’t believe you said that.”

  “I know. It’s perfect, right?” Corey said, holding her chair a little easier now.

  Elise shook her head as if she couldn’t think of any way to respond.

  “You can use it any time you want. You don’t even have to credit me. Wait till you find out what I like to call boat pose.”

  “I can’t even imagine,” Elise said coolly. “Do you come to this class every day?”

  Corey beamed. “Never miss it.”

  “Okay,” Mikael cut in. “Grab a sip of water.”

  Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief. Corey straightened and reached for her water bottle, trying to act nonchalant instead of guzzling. Had yoga hurt this much last off-season? She didn’t think so. And yet the disbelief still written all over Elise’s face reminded her it hadn’t been nearly as entertaining either.