Waking Olivia by Elizabeth O’Roark EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Elizabeth O’Roark
- Language: English
- Genre: Sports Romance
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
Olivia
It’s my first day at a new college and I’m dragging my feet like it’s an
execution. Which makes sense since the man I’ll meet today has the ability to
end my life. Life as I know it, anyway.
I seek out the dining hall first, using the crappy, copied map the school
sent me last month. Athletes are provided a dining plan whether they live on
campus or not. Given that I’ve spent the past three months eating nothing but
eggs and ramen, this is probably a good thing.
I get my food and sit alone with the exact breakfast I have every day
during the school year: one scrambled egg, plain oatmeal, and one apple. I eat
the apple first, praying I can hold it down.
I already know that today’s meeting can’t possibly go well. After the
incident at my last school, it was a shock that any team would have me, and
I’m pretty sure my new coach is about to make his reservations clear. The
best case is a series of warnings and threats, and the worst is that he lays out
conditions I can’t possibly agree to. They wanted you, I remind myself. They
gave you a scholarship. It won’t be that bad.
Somehow I just don’t believe it.
The athletic department is housed in a vast building that dwarfs almost
any other on campus. It lets you know in no uncertain terms what matters
most at East Colorado University. I suppose I should be grateful for this fact
since it’s the reason I’ve got a scholarship.
There’s no wariness on the secretary’s face when she tells me I can go in,
which means she must be one of maybe 10 people in the world of collegiate
sports who don’t know what I did. Most people watch me now as if I’m a
rabid animal or that snake in Malaysia, the one whose bite is so deadly you
collapse only a few feet from the site of the attack.
There’s no doubt, as I enter the room, that the two men in front of me
know exactly what has happened. They’re already looking at me sternly—
narrowed eyes, arms folded—which means I’m already sort of pissed off.
I brace myself for the lecture I know is coming because I have no other
choice. Peter McEwan, the track coach in front of me, is the stuff of legends,
and I need a legend right now. People used to call me a “gifted” runner. They
spoke of my potential in awed voices. Now they don’t.
But McEwan needs a legend too. ECU hasn’t had a winning women’s
track team in nearly a decade, which is why they’ve incurred the vast risk of
offering me a scholarship.
They need me to find that thing, whatever it is I’ve lost, almost as much
as I do.
I’m willing to act contrite right now for the chance to work with him. I’ll
even pretend I’m sorry. But I’m not prepared to do so for the other one. He’s
not much older than me and looks like he should be posing for the cover of
Men’s Fitness instead of sitting there scowling. He leans back in his chair,
blue eyes glittering like ice on his tan face, a smug lilt to his mouth that sets
my teeth on edge. I’ll let McEwan lecture me, but I’ll be damned if I’m going
to kiss this guy’s ass. Keep glaring at me, asshole. See how far that gets you.
McEwan rises from his chair and greets me with a handshake. “This is my
colleague, Will Langstrom,” he says, motioning to the guy beside him.
Langstrom shakes my hand, but his eyes remain narrowed and unwelcoming.
He towers over me, and between his size and the way he is looking at me
—like I just drowned some small pets for fun—Langstrom feels like a threat.
People either cower or lash out when threatened, and I’ll give you one guess
what camp I belong to. This is bad.
“Olivia,” he says.
“I go by Finn.” I meet his eyes once before I look away. I don’t need your
approval, dickhead.
“Will is the coach for the women’s cross country team,” McEwan adds.
Oh shit. I do need his approval. Shit, shit, shit.
This is news to me, but did I really think Peter McEwan was going to
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