One Last Shot by Julia Connors EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Julia Connors
- Language: English
- Genre: Sports Fiction
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- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
PETRA
14 Years Ago
Innsbruck, Austria
“It’s time,” Papa says from the doorway of my bedroom.
I look up from my laptop where I’ve been preparing for the upcoming
season by rewatching video footage of my ski racing from last winter.
Behind my father, an old picture of Mama hangs above my desk. She’s
standing on the balcony of a little hotel overlooking Lake Hallstatt with her
hands on her hips and a smile so bright that looking at it is equal parts
beauty and pain. Her long dark hair frames her heart-shaped face, but her
heavily lidded eyes look at me like they know I’m doing something wrong.
What would you have me do, Mama?
I take a fortifying breath, praying that I’m not making a deal with the
devil. I may only be sixteen, but one thing I know for sure is that when
things seem too good to be true, they generally are.=
“Let’s go, Zaichik.” Papa still calls me Bunny, the nickname from my
childhood that will not die.
As I follow Papa down the narrow staircase to the first floor, I take in
the mismatched frames full of family pictures that still hang in the stairwell.
They haven’t been updated since the horrific car crash that took Mama and
my brother, Viktor, from us three years ago. In them, my mother is still
young and vibrant. Viktor is still a high schooler who loved to torment his
little sister.
As I do every day that I pass them, I wonder who they’d be today. Who
we’d be—Papa and me—if they were still alive.
“Be grateful,” Papa reminds me as we leave the comfort of our small
caretaker’s cottage to head down the path to the lawn that will lead us to the
big house.
“I am.” I don’t mention the other emotions—the fear, worry, and regret.
I breathe in the flowers that line the path behind the big house. Above
them, the imposing stucco walls of Whitehall glow in the fading light of the
golden hour. For most of my life I’ve curled up on the cushioned window
seat of my tiny bedroom, gazing across the lawn at Whitehall as the sun
sets, watching the lights come on and the family inside come alive.
Those two boisterous boys were like cousins to me—until Mama and
Victor died. Through that tragedy Sasha and I grew impossibly close, but
now he and his older brother, Nikolai, are grown and gone most of the time.
Niko spent the summer in London for an internship and is now back at
university for his senior year. Sasha has been living in St. Petersburg and
traveling all over Russia and Europe, playing professionally in the
Kontinental Hockey League for the last year.
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