Page 74 of The Forever Vault

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Lucas

Cam seemed a little distracted approaching the rings, though he and Noah had a chat - likely a pep talk - while Cam adjusted his wrist supports.

I realized my knee was shaking just before Ty put his hand on it and said, “He’s going to do great.”

I took a breath, thanked him, and then waited, along with Cam, for his signal to start. Noah stood behind him, ready to lift him up to the rings.

“Is it okay if I hold your hand?” Heather whispered into my ear. “I’ve never had somebody with me to watch Cam before.”

I glanced at her before nodding. “Sure.”

“Well, not since Cam’s father passed. Surely there have been others in the stands, but not, you know…someone that means as much as you do to Cam. Someone who cares for him as much.”

I knew what she was trying to say. “Someone who loves him.”

She squeezed my hand and said, “Yeah. That.”

There were a few seconds of silence as we watched Noah lift Cam onto the rings, then she continued, “You know if he could’ve changed things back, he would’ve. In a heartbeat.”

“I know.” I squeezed back. “This is how it is. At least one of us has a shot. As shitty as this is-” I motioned to the sling, “it could've been worse for me. It’s at least some consolation that he gets to compete as a result.”

“Oh! Here he goes.”

After ten seconds or so, I’d realized I was holding my breath. With each solid and steady hold in between elements, I became more relaxed.

Fuck, his muscles look good.

I had been training so hard the last month or so, I hadn’t had time to watch any of Cam’s sessions. As much as he had worried about his fitness level when he was called up, it was obvious he had put in the work too. And I hadn’t ever doubted it. Sometimes he would get home after me.

The crowd gasped and then broke into applause after a particularly impressive - and difficult - combo.

“Holy shit, bro!” Ty yelped. “Did you know he could do that?!” He jostled me in the process and quickly apologized. “Sorry, Luke. You okay?”

“Yeah.”

I watched, holding my breath again, Heather squeezing my fingers as he built momentum for the dismount.

Thank God! He landed with a tiny hop.

One event down. Five to go.

A lot had changed in four years, but one thing hadn’t. Camden Kane was still King of the Vault. The Kane was still the hardest vault, performed last by Cam at the world championships two years ago. As much as others tried to outpace Cam, they couldn’t.

“Yup, he’s got the best score in the vault,” Ty confirmed. “Well, of everyone that’s gone. Still have Japan and Brazil to go.”

I nodded. “There might be two guys that could come close, Ty, but I doubt it.”

He brought his iPad tonight and, already out of habit, had all the scores from earlier in the day entered into the tracking software he had used when he was a coach. It certainly worked a lot faster than Google.

It had a feature that projected the scores needed to qualify for the final.

“Can you change that during the finals so you know what score he needs to medal?” I asked.

“Of course, bro. You just adjust the number of finalists. Like, you can determine what a finalist is by sliding this from eight to three. Or for the all-around, twenty-four.”

“Damn, Shane never had this fancy shit.”