Page 113 of The Forever Vault

I don’t know what happened when he was called to the floor, but something changed. I could see it in his face. And when he went for his first pass, it sounded like a grenade went off when he hit the landing. Each pass was an exclamation point. I would’ve thought he was pissed. He wasn’t pulling any punches, that was for sure.

Generically speaking, there were two philosophies for the all-around. Go easy or go hard. Easy meant your normal routines, nothing extremely difficult, and your execution scores would be high. However, you likely needed someone to mess up to win. That’s where going hard came in. Those gymnasts went for the higher difficulty scores. If successful, they won, but there was a higher chance of fucking up and losing big.

Cam hadn’t discussed it with me, and I couldn’t read Noah well enough to tell if he was as surprised as I was, but Cam was going hard today. I was almost in shock when he finished. I hadn’t seen this Cam on the podium before. It was…I hate to admit, arousing.

Noah greeted him with a high five and Cam headed straight to the seats after a half-hug from me. No kiss.

“You okay?” I sat down next to him.

“Yeah. I’ll explain when it’s done, but I need to focus today. I need Coach Luke now. I should’ve given you a heads up, but my mind’s all over the place and I just decided this is what I think will work. If that makes sense.”

I knew the mind of a professional athlete enough to let him go where he wanted to go.

“No problem at all. Whatever you need, Cam.”

“Thanks.”

Well, wherever Cam had gone, it was working.

Three events done - floor, horse, rings - and he was in the lead. Miles was close, in fourth, which was absurd because he was in the third group. He was beyond anyone with him. Hudson and Woodward must’ve told him some good shit because he was working his little ass off.

Cam had the vault and the bars left. Miles had the high bar, floor, and horse.

Hiruto and Inacio were the others in the top three. The other three from Cam’s group - Alessandro, Maksim, and João Paulo Matos from Brazil were close behind Miles.

Cam remained aloof, all ice and focus. It was the opposite of the team finals, but it was working and I wasn’t going to let my feelings or desire for kisses get in the way if this is how Cam wanted to compete.

I was going to spank the fuck out of him later, but for now, whatever worked for him, I supported wholeheartedly.

“Did you guys have a fight?” Noah asked, as Cam headed to the podium to warm up for the vault.

“No. I don’t know where this new strategy came from.”

Noah considered that for a moment, before grabbing my shoulder. “Sorry for you, but I’ll admit it’s working.”

“Oh, I’m aware.”

Noah chuckled. “He’s gonna get it, isn’t he?”

I smiled. “I will be thrilled if he gets the gold medal, but I’m not quite sure how to handle this…development. He’s never been like this before.”

“No shit. It’s almost robotic.”

“Laser focused,” I added.

“Determined.”

“It’s like he’s owning every apparatus.”

“I heard you liked Dom Cam.”

I shushed him. It was time.

Even with all his practice for the other events, the vault was still his best. I have a feeling he could do it with his eyes closed at this point. The Kane, that is.

“Here we go.”

In four point three seconds it was done.