Edge of Glory Read online

  “Forgive me if I don’t follow your lead. You admit you know virtually nothing about my sport, and you’re not even a trainer in yours.”

  “No, but I am, and she’s right.” Nate came to her defense. “We’ve used this technique for a couple of years now in snowboarding, but I’ve never seen the skiers take things quite as far as we do.”

  “I’m listening,” Paolo said before Elise could respond.

  “Here.” Nate grabbed the Bosu ball and flipped it onto the metal box, round side down. “This is a vibrating plate, it’s like those shaky foot massagers at the mall, but times ten. Hop on, Corey.”

  Corey grabbed two ten-pound hand weights and did as instructed. She found her balance quickly, one foot behind the other, in snowboard stance. Knees bent, weights out front, she blew out a deep breath and nodded to Nate. “Let ’er rip.”

  The plate began to vibrate on a low frequency, but Nate didn’t wait long to crank it up. Soon Corey’s whole body shook from the vibrations below. Even her cheeks jiggled. She wasn’t smiling now. Her eyes narrowed, and her jaw pulled tight in concentration. She tucked low, her legs and abs contracting in a myriad of ways to maintain her balance. Elise’s temperature spiked once again. Corey’s body functioned like a mechanical work of art as she held steady, but now she’d added an intense focus to the mix. The entire shape of her face changed as her focus shifted from the things around her to something only she could see. Elise recognized the change, but what did it mean for someone like Corey? Had she mentally transported to some race course that haunted her dreams or symbolized her hopes?

  “Give me what you’ve got,” Corey said through tight lips, her voice wavering from the vibration affecting even her vocal cords.

  Then unexpectedly, Nate reared back and kicked the balance board beneath her. Corey winced and tipped back on her heels but stayed in her tuck. The second blow Nate landed sent her onto her toes, but she didn’t break form until the third kick. When Nate assaulted the rounded part of Corey’s leaning, shaking tower, she practically hopped into the air, raising the weights all the way over her head in the process.

  Elise gasped and reached out instinctively to catch her fall, but Corey only sank right back into place on the board. Nate didn’t give up though. Angling behind her, he kicked again, causing another jump and another reflexive wince from Elise. She felt the bounce in her own core as she watch the amazing body before her twist and contort itself back into position.

  Another sharp kick to the board reverberated off the walls of the now too-small room, and something inside her cracked. “All right. Fine. I get it. Turn it off.”

  Everyone jerked their heads toward her in surprise, but she didn’t care. “I’m done here. This isn’t a real thing.”

  “Elise,” Paolo whispered embarrassedly as Nate turned off the vibrating plate and Corey hopped to the floor.

  “I’m sorry Paolo, but this isn’t a workout. It’s a frat party, or a practical joke. It’s not Olympic training.”

  “Actually,” Corey said, annoyance now breaking through her usually laid-back tone. “It mimics coming across the rough surfaces pretty well, especially at the finish line where you’ve got multiple riders bumping and rubbing elbows.”

  “No one rubs my elbows across the finish line,” Elise cut back. She didn’t know why the sight of Nate kicking Corey had made her irate, and she didn’t care to examine any further at the moment. She merely wanted to get out of this circus tent. “I’m a serious athlete.”

  “Oh, well, that’s the crux of it all, isn’t it?” Corey asked. “You’re a serious athlete there in your ivory tower while the rest of us common folk are the riffraff.”

  “I didn’t say that.”

  “You didn’t have to. Believe it or not, we’re not imbeciles. We’re every bit as dedicated and highly trained as you are,” Corey said calmly, “and actually I think we’re training harder than you are right now.”

  “I highly doubt that.”

  “Care to hop on the board and find out?”

  “Training differently doesn’t mean training harder. Our skill sets are completely different.”

  “And yet you judged mine as inferior without even thinking about what I do.”

  “I know what you do. I’ve seen the videos. It’s BMX meets WrestleMania on snow.”

  Corey laughed, and the sounded grated on her nerves. “I like that description. Can I use it?”

  Why did she find everything so damned amusing? Elise shouldn’t let the cavalier attitude irk her. It only proved Corey wasn’t capable of taking the work seriously.

  “Does it scare you?” Corey asked.

  “What?”

  “Does it scare you? What I do for a living? The unpredictability, the pressure of someone breathing down your neck, the thought of someone else being able to take away everything you’ve worked so hard for?”

  “Save me your armchair sports psychology,” she snapped, even as her chest constricted.

  “It doesn’t require an advanced degree to see you like control. And my sport doesn’t offer that option. It’s gritty. It’s unreliable. It’s riding an edge. It’s staring your competition in the eye. It’s a powder keg of close quarters, steep grade, and speed.”

  “Speed? You don’t think I can handle speed? I go down steeper grades than you do, and I hit upwards of seventy miles an hour.”

  “Cool story.” Corey shrugged, studiously unimpressed. “Does anyone kick you while you’re at it?”

  “I’d like to see them try.”

  Corey gestured to the balance board. “Hop on, sister.”

  “Whoa, whoa.” Paolo stepped between them. “No kicking. Nada.”

  “She started it,” Elise said before she realized how childish she sounded. “I mean, she asked me to try something, and you said I should listen to her today.”

  “And I stand by my request,” Paolo said, rubbing his chin. “This exercise actually has a lot of potential for you, but I also see why it isn’t common among skiers.”

  “Because it’s insane?” Elise asked.

  “No.” He sounded exasperated. “The kicking doesn’t mimic what a skier experiences on the slopes.”

  “Exactly, that’s what I said. Completely different skill set.”

  “Not completely,” Paolo corrected. “The vibration and the balance ball combined will likely work well to stimulate many of the core and balance muscles we need. And Corey’s right, we need to work on recovery strategies. You’re not in the shape you’re used to. You can’t assume smooth transitions anymore.”

  Her stomach tightened, but she didn’t argue. Nothing about her life had been smooth for a long time.

  “I’d like to see you try your skate-leg squats on the vibrating plate, then move up to the ball and the vibration together.”

  “I can show you how to calibrate the vibration to simulate different conditions,” Nate said calmly. “We can also use the heart rate monitors and oxygen masks to measure responses at simulated altitudes.”

  Paolo nodded. “Yes. We can adapt this nicely.”

  Elise sighed heavily. She’d lost again. Lost her temper, lost the argument, and lost a chunk of self-respect in the process. Something else for Corey to lord over her.

  Only Corey didn’t seem smug as she leaned against the wall and watched the trainers fiddle with various remotes and wires. She’d merely gone back to her usual relaxed expression, slight smile, eyes kind, one hand jammed casually into the pocket of her athletic shorts. A thin sheen of sweat glistened across her bare shoulders and torso, and Elise had to turn away to keep from getting sucked into studying her again.

  “Am I going to do this today, or is this show and tell?” she asked.

  “I need to learn a little more,” Paolo said, still inspecting the machines. “Why don’t you and Corey go through a couple of weight circuits while you wait.”

  “Works for me,” Corey said, pushing off the wall.

  Elise followed her out the door before say
ing, “Thanks for the tour.”

  “You’re welcome, but don’t you want us to spot each other through the weights?”

  “I’m good, thanks.” The last thing she wanted was to have to stand over Corey while she flexed and stretched. She needed to get away, to regain her focus, and to remember what she came here to do. “You can do your thing, and I’ll do mine.”

  Corey shrugged. “Sure, but I’ll be across the gym. If you need help, just call out for me.”

  “Right.” She nodded and bit her tongue to keep from saying something crass. She didn’t anticipate calling out for Corey anytime soon. Not in the gym, and not anywhere else.

  • • •

  “All right, dude.” Nate flipped some switches on the heart rate monitors next to Corey’s stationary bike. “You’re at five miles.”

  “Don’t turn it off,” Corey said, continuing to pedal. “I’ve got another one in me.”

  “You already swam this morning,” Nate said as if Corey could have somehow forgotten the mile she’d covered in the pool earlier in the day. “I thought you’d want some time in the skate park by now.”

  “I’ll get there, but I haven’t been pushing myself hard enough on cardio lately.”

  “What did she say?” Holly slowed her treadmill.

  “I’m not sure,” Nate said. “Sounded like she said she wants to do more cardio, but I must’ve heard wrong.”

  “Cardio? That doesn’t make any sense. She probably said she wants a beer to go.”

  “Or some crunchy tacos?”

  “Or more time to party, yo?” Holly suggested.

  “Are you finished?” Corey asked.

  “Oh, she’s cranky too.” Holly turned her treadmill off completely.

  “Extra cardio will do that to you,” Nate said.

  “Maybe you’ve got a fever.” Holly reached up and put a hand on her forehead, then wrinkled her nose and wiped her palm on the towel hanging off Corey’s handlebars. “You’re certainly sweaty.”

  “I’m not cranky. I don’t have a fever. I’m sweaty because I’m working out, which is my job.”

  “Whoa.” Nate cast a worried glance at Holly. “It’s her job? Did you know she had a job?”

  Holly shrugged. “She doesn’t look employable to me. She’s a mess.”

  Nate laughed. “And she smells bad.”

  Corey wiped her face with the sleeve of her T-shirt, which happened to feature a T-Rex on a snowboard. “Go ahead, yuk it up, but it’s already the end of July, and I’m the one who has to face a mountain in a month.”

  Nate frowned. “You have to? Or you get to?”

  “Yeah.”

  Holly’s eyes narrowed. “That wasn’t a yes-or-no question.”

  “It’s both.” Corey picked up her speed, ignoring the burn in her thighs. “I get to race, but I have to stay competitive in order to keep racing.”

  Nate and Holly both glanced across the gym, to where Tigger was running full speed on a whirring treadmill without breaking a sweat. Corey rolled her eyes. “Exactly.”

  “What?” Holly asked.

  “You both looked at the Tigger.”

  “No,” they said in unison, then laughed nervously.

  “You did. I know she’s on the treadmill, and I don’t care.” She wasn’t freaking out about Nikki. She didn’t care if the kid spent hours upon hours in here without breaking a sweat. Corey didn’t care if Tigger never needed a turn on the massage table or even mussed her ponytail on the trampoline.

  “Okay then, if it’s not Tigger, who is it?” Nate asked.

  “It’s not like there’s anyone else vying for your spot on the team,” Holly said. “I know you didn’t finish as high as you wanted to last year, but you’re the top American woman. You say the word, and I could find you ten new sponsors today.”

  “It’s not about that.” She heard the frustration in her voice, and she didn’t like it, but she couldn’t explain it either. “It’s not about other snowboarders at all.”

  “What else is there?” Holly asked.

  “Skiers,” Nate answered before Corey could even ponder the question.

  “Skiers?”

  “Skier,” he corrected. “Tall, blond, smoking hot, and yet cold as ice.”

  “No,” she offered up, as a pathetic defense.

  “Elise tore into her pretty hard last week,” Nate explained to Holly.

  “When? Why?” Holly immediately sprang into big sister mode. “What did she say?”

  “Nothing.” She rose up off the seat of the bike throwing her body weight into a standing pedal.

  “Some bullshit about Corey not being a serious athlete.”

  “Pretty sure Corey could kick her candy ass.”

  “Pretty sure that argument isn’t helpful,” Corey said through gritted teeth.

  “Slow down, Core,” Nate commanded. “You’re at seven miles.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “I don’t think so,” Nate said. “You’re pressing. You have been all week. I thought you were bored with overland, but if Elise got under your skin—”

  “She didn’t,” Corey snapped. “I don’t care what she thinks about boardercross, or me for that matter.”

  “Then why are you killing yourself right now?”

  Corey pedaled steadily, legs pumping, muscles screaming, but they couldn’t drown out the questions both external and internal. Why did it matter? Why did she care? Elise? Tigger? The sponsors? The tour? The Olympics?

  Had something changed?

  Nate was right. She’d been restless, bored, pressing all week, but did it tie back to Elise? It would be easy to blame her. Some woman had spun her head around. It wasn’t too far-fetched, and yet she’d never in her life worked this hard to impress a woman or to prove her wrong. Elise was a snob. A smart, hot-tempered, stacked, and sexy snob, but Corey could appreciate her fine physical features without listening to a word she said. Hell, she’d done that with pretty much every woman she’d ever hooked up with. The idea of biking her ass off to score some woman who wouldn’t give her the time of day wasn’t her style.

  “Have you ever known me to bust my butt over a woman?”

  “No,” Nate said.

  “But,” Holly added, “I’ve never known you to go extra miles on an exercise bike when you could be on a skateboard either.”

  Fair point.

  Something didn’t add up, but she couldn’t explain to them what she couldn’t understand herself. She couldn’t imagine some angry outburst by Elise could bug her for a week. Everyone had bad days. Everyone shot off their mouth from time to time. She’d actually liked to see a little fire out of Elise. She preferred her hot under the collar rather than frozen solid, but it didn’t mean she gave any weight to her opinions. Elise thought she was a joke. She didn’t think she was working hard enough. She didn’t think she deserved to be taken seriously. She’d heard it all before. Didn’t mean anything . . . unless she was right.

  “Nine miles, Core,” Nate said, the warning in his voice growing stronger. “This is no longer a cooldown. I can’t train you if you won’t level with me.”

  “All I know is I’m not done yet,” she finally said. “Maybe it’s someone chasing me, maybe it’s something I’m chasing, but it doesn’t feel that way to me. It just feels like I’m not done.”

  Neither one of them said anything, and the weight of their combined concern settled on her shoulders. She’d never cared about anyone else’s opinions of her or her work. All that mattered was what she believed. Which, of course, meant if Elise’s comments had upset her, they’d struck a chord. Somehow that prospect was even more disturbing than the thought of her breaking character to get laid.

  She sat back down and slowed her speed, trying to bring her heart rate down, but she suspected her elevated pulse couldn’t be completely attributed to her exertion.

  Nate glanced at the monitors and frowned. Had he noticed the same thing?

  “I’ll bring it down easy,” she offered,
trying to ease their minds even if hers continued to spin. She released a few slow breaths and tried to think logically as her endorphin levels subsided. She’d swum a mile easily, done a full weights workout, spent an hour on polymetrics, put in time on the gate simulators, and then ridden ten miles at a healthy clip, all before noon.

  “Come on, guys,” she said. “I’m fine. I’m mentally ready to hit the slopes, and I want to make sure my body is ready to keep up. That’s what we’re here for, right?”

  “Yeah.” Nate sounded unconvinced.

  Holly at least managed to smile as she tousled her hair. “Sure, sweat bucket. As long as you mean it.”

  “I do.” She punctuated the statement with a smile. “No one’s in my head but me, okay?”

  Nate finally chuckled. “Then your head must be a pretty scary place.”

  She grinned and hopped off the bike, refusing to let her trembling muscles break her bravado, but she couldn’t find either the strength or inclination to argue with him.

  Chapter 4

  The training room was cool, dark, and quiet this time of night, a direct contrast to every other part of the Lake Henry Olympic Training Center. Elise relished the solitude, leaving most of the lights off and staying clear of the TV. Silence wasn’t easy to come by this weekend. Both the men’s and the women’s US hockey teams were on site for big qualifying matches, or games, or whatever hockey contests were called. Curlers were in the house, too, along with their Canadian counterparts. The cafeteria overflowed, yoga class had gotten crowded, and for the first time since arriving in upstate New York a month ago, she’d had to wait for a turn on some of the weight machines. Never mind it was only the beginning of August. Never mind that heat and humidity assaulted her every time she stepped outside. Never mind that, even now at nine o’clock, the sunlight hadn’t fully faded from the mountain-cropped horizon. The scent, the taste, the buzz of the winter Olympics hung heavy in the air.