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He’s obviously impressed by my former beau.
Troy is an excellent snowboarder, but he was a lousy boyfriend. Most professional athletes are, which is the exact reason I’ve sworn off dating them.
Morris
The smell of the burgers cooking and the sound of conversation pull the rest of the ski staff from their cabanas. Everyone pitches in beverages and snacks.
By the time the sun is down, we have a full-blown party with music blaring from two Bluetooth speakers, shaped like cowboy boots, which Scooter picked up at the general store in town earlier today.
A couple of the rocking chairs are moved out into the grass beside the parking area, where Langford had a brick firepit installed, while others pull out camping chairs.
I help Clay carry wood from the covered shed by the mess hall, and once a fire is roaring in the pit, I look over to see Zoey standing against the railing on the porch, watching everyone with a faint smile on her lips.
She makes for a gorgeous silhouette against the glow of the moon. The highlights in her long hair catch the light as the evening breeze gently blows it around her face.
Beautiful.
I thought it the first time I saw her back in Colorado before I grew to dislike her, and she’s even more so now.
No wonder she’s graced so many magazine and tabloid covers over the years. The camera loves her.
I grab two beers and join her.
“Not going to join the festivities?” I ask as I offer her one of the bottles.
She shakes her head. “Nah, I’m kind of tired. I think I’m going to call it an early night,” she says.
“I hate to be the one to tell you this, but I’m pretty sure this loud crowd is going to be keeping you up for a while,” I tell her.
“I have noise-canceling earbuds,” she informs me.
“Smart.”
She looks up at me and grins. “This isn’t my first rodeo.”
“I can see that.” Then, I say, “Langford asked if I could drive you into town tomorrow, show you around, and makes some introductions.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
“All right, I’ll knock on your door, say eight in the morning?” I ask.
“I’ll have coffee waiting,” she says.
“Good night, then,” I say and head back down to the fire.
I spend another two hours hanging with the group before I call it a night.
I peel my clothes off, grab my laptop, and climb into bed. Out of curiosity, I type Zoey’s name in the search engine.
Article upon article populates the screen. I click on the first one, which starts with a short biography.
Zoey Phillips was born and raised in Boise, Idaho, and started skiing at the age of two on the slopes of Tamarack Resort. Her family moved to Colorado when she was six years old so she could begin training with longtime Team USA coach Tobias Taut at his Elite Development School, where she excelled in the Alpine racing program. She learned to ski the fall line like no other.
Her father, PJ Phillips, was a national junior winner and pushed her very hard. She trained in all-terrain, and once she was age eligible, she began participating and dominating in many US Ski & Snowboard and Federation of International Skiing (FIS) sanctioned events. She joined the US Ski Team, and by the age of seventeen, she became an Alpine Ski World Cup racer. She won two World Cup overall championships, a gold medal in downhill, and a silver medal in slalom, three World Cup season titles in downhill discipline, two titles in super-G, and a title in combined. She has several Crystal Globes as well. She earned a bronze medal in the Junior World Championship in France, a silver medal at the US Alpine Championship in Alaska, and many trips to the podium in various world championships.
She was the one to beat leading up to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, but sustained a nasty fracture in the humerus in her left arm and a cartilage tear in her right knee after a fall during her first run in the slalom at the 2014 trials in New York, which threw her out of the run for the Olympics. Everyone expected her to return to training for the 2018 Winter Olympics, but in a surprising move that stunned the skiing world, she announced her retirement from competitive skiing in 2017, ending her storied rise to fame. She is fondly remembered in the sport, and her short career draws comparisons to those of Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin. Who knows what could have been if not for that fateful fall?
At the end of the article, there is a link to a video of her attempt at Lake Placid, and I click on it and watch.
