The excuse that Mia should spend time with her brother has rolled off my tongue more than it should in the past week. I’ve been on the halfpipe every moment I could, practicing because I have to nail these Winter Classics. I need to show Mia and everyone else in the Salter family, I am the best there is. I’m not second best.

“You need to calm the fuck down. You’re going to injure yourself.” Beckett sits next to me at the restaurant, giving me unwanted advice.

“I’m fine. Going out with you tonight. Thinking about training with you on slope style, practicing my tricks in the big air.”

“Um...no.” He flags the waitress down.

“Why not?”

“Because you’re about to kill yourself. Relax, we have a week and a half before the competition starts, just master what you’re already doing.”

We hear some commotion and turn to find Matt Peterson walking in with his entourage. Half the restaurant points and screams his name.

“Fuck that guy’s annoying,” I grumble.

Beckett smiles over at me, popping the popcorn from the bowl on the table into his mouth.

“How the hell are you eating that shit?” I ask.

He shrugs. “Where’s Mia?”

“She’s with Brandon.”

He nods slowly, piling another handful of popcorn into his mouth.

“Oh, look there’s Mr. Self-Destructor.” Dax slides into the chair next to Beckett.

I roll my eyes in response.

“What a fucktard, right?” Dax eyes Matt Peterson. “I mean, try earning something before you act like a damn rock star.” His hand competes with Beckett’s for popcorn.

The waitress sets what I know will be Beckett’s one and only beer for today down.

“Me, too, thanks,” Dax squints at her name tag. “Soo.”

“Soonil,” she clarifies.

“Is there a difference?” he asks.

Beckett shakes his head.

“Yes, there is.” She gives him a fake smile.

“Then my bad. Beer please, Soonil,” he pronounces every syllable of her name.

She spins on her heel and walks away.

“There’s one that won’t be sleeping with you,” Beckett says, grabbing a bowl of popcorn from the empty table next to us.

“You can’t share?” Dax asks.

“With you? No.”

“You’ll share with who knows how many other pee stained hands, but not Dax’s?” I ask.

Dax truly looks offended.

“Considering how often he beats off, Dax’s might not be pee.”

“Hey now. That’s just mean…I don’t have to beat off. I have plenty of willing partners.” He tosses a few kernels into his mouth.

“Bullshit,” I cough out.

Soonil drops the beer off without saying a word or really stopping. “Thank you, Soonil,” Dax screams out after her.

She doesn’t deem him worthy of a response. She’s probably right.

“Not all of us have a hot chick in our bed every night.” Beckett eyes me.

“I think I’m going try Demi again this time around,” Dax says and both our heads snap in his direction.

“That ship has sailed,” I say.

“Not only sailed, I think the boat has been burned and sunk to the bottom of the ocean with no hope of being retrieved,” Beckett adds, sipping his beer.

“Why? We had fun last Winter Classics.” Dax throws popcorn up in the air, catching it in his mouth.

“You’re really not that clueless, right?” I ask, sipping my energy drink.

Someone drops into the seat next to me.

“Rumor has it, my boyfriend has been training way too hard and not fulfilling his obligations to me.” Mia tilts her head with a smile.

Her hair is thrown into a bun on top of her head, an ear warmer hanging around her neck and a jacket covering up the body I love to admire.

“Get him off the pipe, Mia,” Beckett says. “He’s going to hurt himself.”

She grabs a piece of popcorn from Beckett’s bowl and pops it into her mouth.

Not her, too.

“I agree. If he’s not careful, I’ll text Candice about it and she’ll be on your ass, too, when she gets here.”

I roll my eyes. My friends, my girlfriend, my coaches, and Candice? That might be more bitching than I can handle.

“He’s been pushing me aside since we arrived.” She pretends to narrow her eyes at me and I can’t help but smile at her teasing.

“Take me home and I’ll fulfill all your requests.” I swing my arm around her shoulders and kiss her.

She pushes me back. “You have to woo me,” she stands up, raising her eyebrows in a challenge.

“Yeah, see you guys. I have to go woo.” I stand, pushing in my chair and following her out of the restaurant.

“You’re leaving me with clueless here?” Beckett yells out.

“Fuck off,” Dax says, but when I glance through the restaurant window, I find they already have two girls sitting across from them to take our place.

“So.” She links her arm through mine. “What’s going on with you?”

“Nothing.” I shake my head.

She stops us outside the athlete’s village where they have a path of ice sculptures depicting various sports on display.

“Bullshit, come on, Grady. Level with me.”

It’s cold and I pull her toward me, holding her with my hands locked behind her back.

“Nothing, let’s go in and grab a handful of condoms on the way to my room.”

“Eww, Dax walking in on us again? No thank you. My room.”

“What about your roommate?”

A smile teases her lips. “She’s already found love with a guy who does Skeleton.”

“Skeleton? Are they boning?”

She stares at me for a minute. “Corny joke, babe.”

I can’t help but chuckle.

“If you want to work yourself to the bone, Rogue, work me with your bon-er,” She grabs my jacket and pulls me forward while walking backward to the door of her building.

“Who has the corny jokes now?”

I follow her giggle right into her room.

---

I crawl back up the sheets, finding a very satisfied Mia attempting to catch her breath.

“Was that a bribe so I don’t give you shit about your training?” she asks, leaning on her side, holding her head up with her hand.

I pull her on top of me, my hands pushing the hair back from her face. “No, that was a thank you for the blow job this morning.”

She bats her eyelashes. “I aim to please.”

“Well, that was a gold medal performance. Can I request another wakeup call tomorrow morning?”

Her head falls into the crook of my neck. She’s clearly as tired as I am. I wonder what things will be like after our events are over? When we have a few months off.

“If you stay in bed until nine o’clock.”

That’s her little jab since I’m out at seven am every morning to be the first one to the pipe.

“Come with me tomorrow.” I tickle her ribs and she squirms in my arms, eventually falling over and placing her head on my chest.

“We’ll see. Hey.” She props her chin on my chest. “Come have lunch with me and Brandon tomorrow?”

My hand tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “How has he been about us?”

She smiles. “Great. Doesn’t say much. Whatever you said must have appeased him. Thank you.” She slides up and kisses my lips, her bare breasts pushed against my hard chest.

I say nothing because who knows what will happen after the Winter Classics and because the truth is that I miss my friendship with Brandon.

“The Gasoline party should be interesting…with all of our family there.”

Our sponsor has decided to throw a party for their athletes and families the weekend before the competition begins. Which means my parents and the Salters will all be under one roof. Add on the fact that Mia and I are together, and whether or not Gasoline arranged for fireworks at the party, I know there will be some.

“It’ll be fine. They only want us to be happy and we are.”

I lean forward and kiss her forehead. My sweet, naive girl.

I roll on top of her, my lips casting soft kisses along her neck and collarbone. “Do you have enough energy?”

She pulls my head down by the back of my neck. “For you...always.”

Our lips crash together and my hand is already stretching out for a condom on the side table.

So far, I’ve found that an intense orgasm does wonders to push away reality.