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It wasn’t as spaced out as the Olympic village had been in Norway four years ago, but the hotel was ritzy and the amenities were nice.
And the gold medal sitting in my room was definitely a bonus.
“You were with him for three hours?” Brynn blurted, and I heard the sound of shuffling and a door closing. “Was it that good?”
My lips curled up into a dry grin. “I assume I’m off speaker phone now?”
“Uh-huh, though I’m sure they’re in too much shock to have even noticed me leaving. Ceer, you never go anywhere with anyone for longer than an hour.”
“That’s not true,” I said, my spine snapping straight as I defended myself. “I spent the night with Richter at the dads’ wedding.”
Brynn’s snort of derisive laughter filled my ear as the elevator seemed to finally make it to my floor and I stepped on.
“Yeah and he’s obsessed with you now.”
I winced at that. She wasn’t wrong, the burly right winger had blown up my phone for months after the wedding. It had taken Alexei threatening to kick him onto the practice squad to get him to leave me alone.
To be completely fair to myself, I had drunk a lot of tequila that night, so my sleeping in the same bed as him was thanks to that rather than any attachment on my part.
“He is not obsessed with me,” I told her halfheartedly as the elevator descended.
“And my hair isn’t red,” Brynn shot back and I could almost hear her eyes rolling in the characteristic Peterson fashion. I’d been at the receiving end of the Peterson eye roll for almost fifteen years, so I was an expert at picking it out even over the phone.
Putting on my best Aurelia impression, I held the phone close to my mouth. “Don’t you roll your eyes at me, young lady.”
“Ugh, don’t do that.” I heard her shudder on the other end of the line. “It’s creepy how good you are at that.”
“I’ve had years of practice,” I sniffed curtly. “So, again, why did you call? It’s not like you were expecting me back tonight.”
It wasn’t out of order for me to be out all night, especially on celebration nights like this.
“Well…” Brynn began, trailing off in my ear.
There was only one reason for her to sound as nervous as she was.
“You didn’t spill the beans to the dads did you?”
There was a brief pause.
“Define spilled.”
“Did you tell them that I was hooking up with someone?”
While I was a twenty-six-year-old woman that didn’t need anyone’s permission to sleep with whoever the fuck I wanted… that also didn’t mean I wanted the two father figures in my life to know about it.
“No—not exactly—we just said you met up with some friends from Team Ireland and were going to be out late is all…”
“That lie only works if they hadn’t seen those arseholes snub us at the opening ceremony, Brynny,” I told her dryly as I scrubbed a hand through my hair and picked something out of it.
Upon further inspection, I found a down feather from one of the pillows on Wiz’s bed. Giving my hair a shake, I was dismayed to find more feathers falling from my curls.
“Ugh,” I muttered, a bit amazed and just a hint embarrassed at the evidence of our loss of control.
“It’s not your fault they’re so butthurt because you decided to skate for Team USA. It was a smart decision. They would have jumped on Colt’s sponsorship too if given half the chance.” Brynn was babbling now on the other end of the line.
I couldn’t be terribly mad at Brynn, she’d done her part as wingwoman for the night—with the help of Nash—but I knew the dads were going to want some kind of explanation about my being out late into the night.
The elevator dinged and the doors opened.
