The Games by Patricia McLinn

Author:Patricia McLinn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Romance
ISBN: 9781939215031
Publisher: Craig Place Books
Published: 2016-10-22T00:00:00+00:00

DAY 10 – MONDAY

“How are you feeling, Kyle?”

She shifted her legs under the cloth-covered table, grateful that none of the cameras focused on her had X-ray lenses to detect the soreness already burning her muscles. Rob had worked them hard, as always. She’d felt his sharp eyes on her often. Approval never softened those eyes, but at least he hadn’t yanked her off the mountain.

She was also grateful the microphones littering the table weren’t attached to lie detectors.

She pushed a smile and stuck as close to the truth as she could. “Better than I did a week ago!”

Gene, the U.S. media liaison, had described the turnout of about twenty as mediocre. She recognized two regulars from ski magazines in the front row and expected the rest would be strangers. Gene had explained rather apologetically that she would have gotten numbers the day of the combined. Since then, other stories had supplanted her withdrawal. At the Olympics the stories came too fast to linger over any that weren’t blockbusters.

Kyle added that to her list of things to be grateful for – she wasn’t a blockbuster.

“What was the matter with you?” The questioner was that reporter Nan had introduced her to last week. Benton something.

She gave him a wry smile. Remember, no silver-spoon tone. “How can I put this delicately? Let’s say I spent more time, uh, examining my bathroom in the Olympic Village than I would have liked.”

That drew a ripple of sympathetic chuckles for what they interpreted as part of the human condition – especially humanity that travels and is exposed to more bugs than flies.

“Will you race the GS tomorrow?”

“No. I wouldn’t have sufficient training, and it wouldn’t be fair to the team. The coaches re-set the lineup after I got ill, and those racers have been preparing hard. But I’ll race Friday.”

“How is this going to affect you in the slalom?”

“Clearly it’s not ideal. I’m not going to say I wouldn’t have been better off if it hadn’t happened, but I was skiing strong before missing this time, and I think I’ll be back close to that level very quickly.”

“By Friday?”

She shrugged and gave a smile. “I wish I knew. All I can do is do my best in the next three days of training, then ski hard Friday. Today went well, so I’m optimistic.”

This was working. It was really working. She’d been nervous as she headed to the news conference, wondering if she’d been crazy to volunteer to talk to the media. But now she could see what Nan and Tess had been talking about. She just had to remember to say what she wanted to say and not let herself become a reactor to the questions.

“We hear you’re not housed with the ski team. Have you felt alienated from your teammates with being in another area and not seeing them these past days in training?”

“Not at all. I’m assigned to a pod with athletes from other sports, but my roommate’s Nan Monahan, whom you all know is on the ski team.

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