I watch as Wyatt’s first stone curves the slightest bit when itgets to the front of the house, stopping just behind the Czech’s yellow stone, closer to the button. Exactly where we wanted it.
Looking up from the target area, I see Brendan and Zack fist bump. I look to Wyatt and point at him, letting him know it was a great shot. With a quick nod, he finds his spot off to the side to allow Czechia their space to throw.
The rest of the end goes off without a hitch. The Czech made a mistake on the last throw, which sent one of our stones out of play, but it also resulted in sending theirs out of play as well. As of right now, we have one rock on the outer edge of the button. The next closest is our opponent’s. So if we can knock their stone out of play and keep ours in, we’ll score two points this end.
The skip throws the last two stones in an end, which means it’s up to me to make this shot and give our team a two-point advantage off the start.
Brendan is at the back end, near the house, with his broom pointed at the front edge of the Czech’s stone. If I can hit it just right, it will be pushed out of the house and mine will remain inside for an extra point.
With extreme ease, I push off the hack with my stone in hand. Not wanting too much curl, I barely turn the handle as it starts sailing down the ice.
“Clean!”
Wyatt keeps his brush down in front of the stone, keeping the path clear.
It looks like it’s headed right for the rock I intended, but I’m afraid it’s losing steam.
Brendan and I scream out at the same time.
“Hard! Hard!”
Zack and Wyatt start sweeping as fast as possible, but I’m still not sure that’ll be enough.
“Hurry hard!” I command. Hoping they’ll apply as much downward pressure as possible.
My stone continues its trek down the ice, Zack and Wyattpushing down on the ice with all their might. When it finally approaches the other team’s rock, it hits directly where I intended.
Czechia’s stone slides out of the house, but mine barely bounces off of it, landing on the inside edge of the blue ring.
Two points for us. Zero for them.
“Let’s go!” I hear Wyatt yell from the other side of the ice sheet.
A small smirk breaks my serious skip persona for a brief moment because I’m not going to lie, it feels pretty good to be up by two in our opening match of the Olympics.
But I put my mask back on, focus and determination setting in. We still have nine ends to play.
We ended up winning 8–3 against Czechia.
I’m pretty happy with our performance and how the guys stayed focused from start to finish. I’m hoping we can start building our momentum and carry this positivity into our next matchup against Switzerland tomorrow.
Usually, win or lose, I like to be alone after a game. I insist on going over everything that we need to work on before our next matchup. It is my duty as team skip after all.
But, right now my mind is only on one thing. And it’s the five-foot-eleven woman with gorgeous curls waiting for me next to my best friend.
Charlie still hasn’t spotted me and I take a moment to drink her in. She’s relaxed today, dressed casually in skin-tight jeans that flare at the bottom, showing off a pair of brown boots. Her espresso curls fall along her back and pop against the red of her puffer jacket.
Connor sees me and raises his hand in a wave, causing Charlie to finally turn my way.
Forget what clothes she has on, Charlie is wearing the most intoxicating smile on her face. She is absolutely breathtaking. What I wouldn’t give to be able to kiss those soft lips right now.
I step up to both of them and notice Charlie stuffing her hands in the pockets of her coat. I do the same because it’s absolute torture to not be able to reach out and pull her into me for a hug.
We need to find a way to tell Connor.Soon.
I don’t want to keep my hands to myself. And I sure as fuck don’t want to keep a secret from my best friend anymore.
As if Charlie can read my mind, she nods at me and mouths, “soon.”
