I tap my left shoulder against his right one, careful not to push him too hard and make his cast hit the bed. “I can’t be bought so easily.”
Oliver twists his body in my direction so we make eye contact. “I don’t know how it will work, McKenna. All I know is that I want you by my side and I’m willing to make it happen however we need to.”
He says it was such authority I want to believe him, and when he leans in for a kiss I decide to. I don’t know if this thing with Oliver and I will work out. Earlier today he told me I’d be the last person he ever fell in love with. But again I’m blaming it on the drugs. You can’t love someone after knowing them only a few days, even if my heart says otherwise. Regardless, I think I owe it to myself and him to find out. Even if it’s scary, it’s worth the risk.
“Okay, after we get back in the states, and you’re off your meds, if you still want me to work for you, I will.” I hold my hand out for him to shake, which he does without a second thought.
“How long will you be in New York?”
“Two weeks.” That’s the length of time they told us we’d be in post Gold Medal debriefing meetings. That’s if I’m not fired by now. I’ve made it this far. Maybe Asbell has decided it would be too much trouble to fire me now. He talked with me for over an hour after he made it to the hospital. If he didn’t fire me then, I can’t see him doing it now.
“I’ll have the paperwork drawn up and sent to your room in New York.”
“Okay,” I say with a shrug. There’s no point arguing.
“Hell my mom will probably draw it up when she finalizes the lawsuit against the committee and Isaac.”
I drawn in a breath. “You’re going to sue the Gold Medal committee?”
“No, but knowing my mother, she’ll want to make them think that for a while. Scare them into acting faster so this doesn’t happen again.”
I hope acting so harshly toward the committee won’t cost Oliver any future opportunities to compete. Normally I’d suggest it’s a bad idea, but someone does need to do something so in the future men like Isaac aren’t allowed to continue on with their reign of terror.
It took an hour to hunt Isaac down and then another three of questioning to get him to admit his part in events over the last two weeks, but he finally did. The list ended up longer than what he confessed to in the hallway with me. Pulling the smoke alarm in the American hotel, breaking into his own locker room to write racial slurs on the lockers, and hiring a woman to get compromising pictures of athletes was just the tip of the iceberg all in an attempt to make the snowboarders look bad.
The one thing no one has been able to figure out — his motive. It doesn’t make sense to anyone else, but I’ve learned a lot about athletes the last few weeks. There’s a drive inside them to win and be better than everyone else. Isaac felt he fell short of his expectations and decided to take it out on the snowboarding team. Dexler called it a bunch of BS and told me he’s never working with athletes again. Before he left the hospital, he lamented the money not being worth it and said he’d go back to the states and take a job offer from one of his friends in Maine. Move somewhere calm and quiet where nothing ever happens.
At least with Isaac’s discretions out in the open and the committee’s inability to cover up Oliver’s trip to the hospital, Isaac will have to face what he’s done in a courtroom.
Oliver yawns and I move off his bed to give him more space. “You should get some sleep.” The doctors warned the pain meds would make him tired, but he hasn’t rested all day.
He grabs on to my hand squeezing. “Only if you promise you’ll be here when I wake up.”
I squeeze his hand back. “I will. I promise. I’ll be right in the chair,” I say pointing to a light brown chair tucked away in the corner.
Oliver smiles, his eyes closing as he leans back into his pillows.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
“Well, Kenny, how does it feel to be almost done with your first Gold Medal Games?” Oliver asks, his eyes staring out the large picture window at the lodge, looking down at the hill as if he wants to break out of his cast and go for a spin.
My eyes catch the sun’s glint on some freshly fallen snow. This place is cold and full of divas, but the experience and the beautiful backdrop are once-in-a-lifetime memories. I probably won’t get asked again to help in two years for the summer games — especially if I’m Oliver’s assistant — but this time has been magical.
“I’m kind of sad to see it go.” The picturesque views and some of the people. The frigid temperatures, not so much.
Oliver steps to the left and almost trips over a big urn full of white lilies. “Where the hell did he find so many damn lilies?”
The room is stuffed with them and I smile looking around at all the different ways we were able to incorporate lilies into the decor. Lilies in urns, lilies on chairs, lilies draped across the large mantle of the stone fireplace in the lodge. When Remi said he wanted to marry Marley surrounded by her favorite flower so she could pretend she had a wedding in paradise, I thought he was joking.
He wasn’t.
It took a ton of work…and money, but we were able to track down enough flowers to transform this room. It may not be an island paradise, but the room turned out amazing. Gorgeous. If not for the snowcapped mountains out the window you might not even realize its seven degrees outside.
“Fuck.” Oliver grabs on to his elbow and the cast.
“What did you hit it on? Do you need to sit down?” For some reason Oliver, who normally has incredible balance and an innate ability to ride a small board down a hill at fast speeds has had trouble walking into things since being released from the hospital yesterday afternoon. He cleared his concussion checks so I don’t think it’s that.
He scoffs. “Of course not. I just keep hitting the dam cast on shit.”
“Don’t they say that’s a sign of old age?” Cyrus asks his best friend, Charlie, as both of them pat Oliver on the back.
Oliver scoffs, again rolling his eyes. “I’m twenty-five years old. Compared to you, old man, I’m practically a baby.”
I don’t mention the sixteen-year-old they have on the ski team or the snowboarder who won the bronze medal in Oliver’s event is only twenty. These snowboarders seem very delicate in the ego when it comes to their ages.
“How is your arm doing?” Charlie asks, eyeing his cast.
“Good. I should have it off in about six weeks. I’ve never broken the left one before.” He taps on the cast with a single finger.
Never broken the left before?
“So you’ll be practicing by midsummer? A few of us are planning to hit up New Zealand in July if you want to come?”
Oliver smiles and wraps his good arm around my back. “Sure, as long as Kenny will come with me.”
“New Zealand?” I try and step away from Oliver’s grasp, but it only makes him dig his fingers in deeper, keeping me close.
Cyrus raises an eyebrow at the open display of PDA. “So you two then?”
Oliver smiles, beaming with pride, and I feel guilty for being concerned with someone seeing us. The closing ceremonies are in under six hours. It’s not like Asbell can fire me now. Probably.
“Kenny lives in Cali. Once we’re both home, she’s going to become my new Director of Public Relations and Publicity. Help keep me in line. Schedule some school visits.” Oliver uses his broken arm to nudge Cyrus with his elbow.
I wasn’t in charge of Charlie during the Gold’s, but I was around her enough through Cyrus that the look she gives me makes my cheeks heat. It doesn’t help that Oliver’s title for my new job position gets more extravagant with every person he tells. I accepted the job of Assistant and not until we get back to California. If Oliver still wants me. I have no idea what job duties this new title will include.
“He’s had a lot of pain meds,” I explain to Cyrus and Charlie… and Oliver in case he needs a reminder. No one should make big decisions while hopped up.
Ol
iver shakes his head. “I haven’t taken a pain pill in almost twelve hours. After the ones they gave me at the hospital. My head is clear.”
“Oliver! You need to take your pain meds.”
He shrugs off my concern.
“Well, if you decide to take the job,” Charlie leans in talking to me directly and steering the conversation away from the argument I’d been about to start, “I could use someone to help with my social media too. Now that I have a win, I expect to get a bunch of sponsors and want to work on my presence. Social media can make or break an athlete these days.”
I did take two classes on social media and marketing during my college classes. Could I apply the same principles I learned for selling cookies and clothing to an athlete? I guess in a way Charlie and Oliver are like products, if I look at them the right way.
Cyrus nods. “Me too. We’re knocking down the wall between our two condos when we get home. And I could use somebody who knows how to spin a story for good publicity.”
Charlie rolls her eyes. “He’s always looking to make good publicity.”
“Sponsors like a good fluffy news story. Anyway, you did great managing the media this time and you’re firm with the snowboarders but not a bitch. That’s a good mix.”
Oliver squeezes his fingers in my side in an I-told-you-so way.
Men.
I haven’t given any consideration to public relations. My degree is in marketing, but in a way, if I took the job I would be marketing the athletes. They’re my product. Cyrus’s idea of coming up with some good fluffy news stories doesn’t sound so bad. Behind that I bet I could apply most of what I’ve learned over the last five years while earning my bachelor’s degree.
“I have to go through two weeks of debriefing in New York once we get home, but if you guys are serious afterward, let me know. We can talk.”
I have no idea how it would work since I live so far away from Cyrus and Charlie, but hell it is the digital age. It couldn’t be too hard.
“And think of how much fun it would be to attend the games without having to work them?” Charlie says. “It’s highly suggested all the athletes who won a medal this round should attend the summer games to cheer on athletes there. So I guess Cyrus and I will get to watch the gymnastics. Together.”
“Gymnastics?” I ask.
She nods her head enthusiastically. “The men.”
Cyrus tilts his head in disbelief at Charlie. “You just like to look at their butts.”
She shrugs, totally not denying the fact. “The uniforms of the summer games are much skimpier than what we wear. All those muscles.”
“We will go together in two years, but you’re not allowed to talk to Antonio.” Cyrus says pointing a finger at Charlie.
“He’s a friend.”
“He’s a gymnast,” Cyrus says with complete contempt. “You can’t trust a gymnast.”
I didn’t realize there was so much rivalry between the two sports. I wonder if it’s just a Cyrus thing.
Reagan, her blonde hair pulled on top of her head in an updo, joins our little circle with Knox dressed up in a black suit and tie right behind her.
“I love your dress,” I reach out and run my fingers over the light pink almost frilly material of her Maid of Honor outfit.
“Thanks, Marley let me pick it out myself.”
“How did she find a wedding dress in the first place?” Cyrus asks. “Does she pack it with her on every trip? Just in case.”
Charlie hits him hard in the shoulder. “No, you dumbass. They have bridal shops here too.”
Reagan laughs. “She had to buy off the rack. For a woman who has planned her wedding for the last thirteen years, she took it well.”
Knox shakes his head, little lines in his forehead forming as he concentrates. “You do realize none of the men in this group understand one word of what you said, right?”
“I’ll explain it to you when you’re older,” Reagan counters.
“You can explain it while you’re moving your stuff in to my place.” Knox casually leans his body away like his waiting for Reagan to hit him.
She doesn’t, but the way her lips pinch together in irritation, it takes effort. “I’m not moving in with you. I said I will move back to Colorado but I need my own place.”
Well this explains a lot of stuff that happened the last two weeks. I’m glad these two finally worked out whatever their issues were.
“Why waste your time and money getting an apartment when you know you’ll end up with me eventually.” Knox kisses Reagan on the side of her head.
“Knox, you’ve never dated a blonde before. I don’t know if you can handle the awesomeness of it.”
“Babe, I was waiting for the right blonde. You.”
Wow, that is so cheesy. Who knew the snowboarders are big softies at heart? Maybe all the super sweet things Oliver said to me yesterday weren’t only from the effects of his pain meds. For a split second, Reagan looks as if she’ll hit Knox, but then a small smile grows on her face and she takes a step closer, standing next to him.
“Let’s go, people. I need to get married.” Remi cuts right through our circle, stopping in front of Reagan and Knox. “You two up front.”
“Why are you always so bossy?” Reagan asks with attitude, but she turns around and follows Remi to the stone fireplace, taking up a position on the left side. Knox stands to the right, acting as Remi’s best man.
The four of us leave in a hurry to find seats in the few short rows we set up this morning. Once everyone settles, the overhead sound system plays a traditional wedding tune and Marley, with her mother and father on each side walks down the makeshift aisle created from the gap between rows of chairs.
Remi didn’t stop at the really expensive flowers. He also paid to have Marley’s parents flown in to be here for the event. He knew Marley wouldn’t want to get married without her mom. When the man makes a decision to do something, he goes all out.
Marley and her parents stop in front of the fireplace where a pastor and Remi wait for her. Her parents pass her off, and the pastor begins a short but sweet wedding ceremony. While he talks about friends and futures and finding one person special enough to spend the rest of your life with, I replay what a whirlwind adventure these Winter Games have been. From a crazy skier with a grudge to broken arms and gold medals. Four couples came together and found their someone special.
Maybe even me.
Oliver grabs my hand, intertwining our fingers, and places it in his lap along his leg. He squeezes and I miss the couple’s first kiss choosing instead to get lost in the depths of his blue eyes.
None of us are going home empty handed.
Glitch, a holiday short story featuring Aspen and Finn’s first Christmas together is available as a FREE fan exclusive. This story isn’t available anywhere else. Just tell me where to send your free copy.
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A note from the author:
Thank you for reading HIS LAST LOVE. I hope you enjoyed Olliver and McKenna’s story. You can purchase the rest of the series from my website.
GOLD MEDAL ROMANCE NOVELLA SERIES
His Last Race
His Last Fall
His Last Hill
His Last Love
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Megan Matthews writes smutty romance by day and hides behind her secret identity as a responsible Pinterest mom when other parents are around. She believes morning shouldn’t start until noon and chocolate should be calorie free. Living in Michigan she prefers sun over snow, hot chocolate over coffee, and wine over beer.
Preferring books over nature, Megan once displayed the entire Goosebumps series on her bookshelf. Her taste in reading has matured. She now prefers her heroes with rippling muscles naked in bed over brace-faced nerds running from murderous dummies.
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Acknowledgments
Publishing this series was the craziest thing I’ve ever done as an author. I wrote His Last Race in April 2017 intending to publish this series with the Olympics in 2018. I had months and months to write four books and planned to do them in my “free time”. Then life happened and I didn’t pick this series back up to keep writing until November 2017. Since then it’s been me begging my friends and beta readers to make impossible deadlines and edit half complete documents. Without them this book would not be finished.
MORE BOOKS BY
MEGAN MATTHEWS
THE BOYS OF RDA SERIES
Rush
Lag
Glitch - fan exclusive
Grind
Quest
PELICAN BAY SECURITY SERIES
Security Risk
Future Risk
Holiday Risk
GOLD MEDAL ROMANCE NOVELLA SERIES
His Last Race
His Last Fall
His Last Hill
His Last Love
His Last Love Page 8
