Page 137 of The Forever Vault

“Well, since they changed the rule for the event finals and are only allowing one coach per athlete, I felt it was only fair. Cam wouldn’t be where he is today with Noah.”

“He wouldn’t be here without you-”

She was being sweet, then awkwardly stumbled into the reality of my injury.

“I’m sorry, Luke. I didn’t mean-”

“I know what you meant, Heather. It’s okay. We mean a lot to each other.”

She gave my hand a squeeze as we approached the large number on the wall that matched our ticket. A suited arena employee asked us to show our tickets to proceed further. USA Gymnastics had splurged after both teams won the gold and bought out a suite for the rest of the games for family and friends to watch the competition.

Only Cam and O were competing today, so as soon as we entered, I saw Miles and Ezra standing next to each other.

“That better be water, Ezra,” I teased.

“Oh, don’t worry, Luke. Zane’s here. I’ve been warned already.”

“Good boy,” I said, giving him a pat on the head, before making my way through the food and drink area so I could see the floor below. It looked like the athletes were still warming up.

I found Cam immediately, his blond hair was distinctive, though even if I didn’t know him at all, I would’ve been drawn to him anyway. I could almost feel his smile from here. And well…there were the muscles, too.

It wasn’t for nothing that during the promotional photo shoots for the Olympics they had the men take their shirts off. A double standard, perhaps, but it wasn’t one I would ever complain about. All of us showed a lot more skin on our social media accounts anyway. The more skin America could see, the less uptight they might be about everything else.

Heather, Cecilia and the others found their way to their seats, and I watched them long enough to see the Foxes were already here, Austin and Erika included, as well as their security.

“Hey, kiddo.”

I turned with a smile, recognizing the voice, then pushed myself into Shane’s arms for a hug.

“How’s it going?” he asked.

“I should be the one asking you that question. I’m good.”

“I’m doing alright.”

“Austin’s coach going to be okay?” I asked, leading the way to a quieter corner of the room, away from the non-competing members of the girls team, who had just arrived.

“Josh will be fine. He’s lucky to have reacted so quickly, otherwise he would have sustained a concussion at best.”

“Shit.” I paused to consider that for a moment, before asking, “And Austin?”

“It’s possible Josh may recover in time, but his teammates are very supportive, and he has Orion to distract him.”

“And his soon-to-be-born nephew,” I added.

“Yeah, I don’t know why you guys always decide the month of the Olympics is the best time to schedule everything.”

“It’s not like we plan it that way, Shane.”

“Uh huh. And when is Ty and Declan’s wedding again?”

“Shut up!” I attempted to push him away from me. “You’re making too much sense.”

“You want something to drink?”

“I suppose I can have a cocktail.”

“There’s my guy. Stop worrying about everything and enjoy the moment.”