I’ve been waiting for your text. I’m headed there today on the Nuclear jet. Get to the Banff airfield in an hour and I’ll get you on the plane.
CHAPTER 48
JETT
“You ready?”Dan asks, his voice raised so I can hear him over the cheering of the crowd below, the blaring music from the loudspeakers, and the crackly voice of the announcer reading off the last skier’s score.
I nod, checking my skis one last time before dropping them onto the snow and clicking in my bindings. They’re my old skis I used to use when I was fresh out of high school, with nothing better to do with my time than hit the slopes.
That was back when I was not only a cocky little shit, but I was reckless, too. I’d ride until the beginning of summer, even when the melting snow started revealing rocks and twigs.
It took Dan a long time to buff these skis down, get all the chips out of the bottom and wax them to a point where I wouldn’t kill myself. Jury’s still out if I can win the cup on them. But I’m here, I’m amped up, and I feel a kind of freedom I haven’t had in a long fucking time.
I told Poppy how I feel. Well, I told the reporter, and my interview was streaming live on sports channels around theworld. But I don’t even care if she heard. I said it, and the next time I see her, I’ll say it to her face.
Her gorgeous, irresistibly cute, face.
I love my wife, and I want the whole world to know it.
Talking to her last night on the phone, hearing her voice, making her laugh, it’s become my new favourite feeling. I love the adrenaline of skiing, but I love the steadfast, quiet comfort of her more. I love that she gives me space to be myself. I never have to prove anything with her.
But Iwantto.
She motivates me, makes me want to be a better man, the man she deserves.
I want to win this cup for her, and then I want to win her heart every other day of my life.
“What’s the game plan here, Coach?” I ask Dan as I make my way to the starting line. Being at the World Cup and all, I expected Dan to have more opinions on how I approach this jump, but today, he just throws his hands in the air.
“Up to you,” he says. “This is your big day.” He starts to walk away to the viewing platform where he can see my run at a better vantage point, but he turns before he’s out of earshot. “Whatever you do Jett, full send or nothin’.”
“Full send,” I repeat. And I know exactly what I’m going to do. I just know that it isn’t going to land the same when I get to the bottom and she isn’t there with me. Because of that, my head is all over the place.
To make matters worse, my knee has started acting up in the last few days, and nothing I’ve been doing in training has been helping. It twinges as I bounce on it a couple times, warming it up before I take off down the hill.
Get your head on straight,I think. But nomatter what I do as I peer down the hill and assess the slope, the speed I’ll have to get for the jump, and the trick I want to do, I can’t think of anything but her.
The announcer’s voice booms over the speakers, the fuzzy noise barely allowing me to make out the words, but I hear my name as he announces my run.
“It appears Jett Landry is already causing quite the stir at the bottom of the hill, and he hasn’t even finished his run yet.”
“You’d think with all the recent press, he’d be wanting to stay under the radar.”
I squint to try and see all the way down to the bottom, but it’s too far away. My hand is on my goggles, ready to snap them into place on my face, but before I do, my gaze catches on the big screen off to the side of the run at the bottom. Even though it’s small from here, I can see it clearly.
A set of big brown eyes, plush pink lips, and dark wavy hair. My heart skips a beat.
She’s here.
“Jett’s wife is in the crowd today to watch him compete.”
“Ex-wife.”
“Ah, that’s right. Do you think they’re still trying to keep up appearances?”
“Whatever she’s doing here, she’s either a very good actress or she really does love him.”
“I kind of want to marry Jett, after that moving speech he made on live television.”
