Out of Bounds (The Summer Games #2)(113)
“Looks like you’re stuck with me,” I smirked, holding my hand out on the armrest, palm up.
It was a peace offering—one she didn’t take right away. She sighed and glared over at me as if she were at her wit’s end, but I didn’t miss the sparkle in her eyes or the color in her cheeks. She loved our little games just as much as I did, and though we were leaving Rio, we weren’t leaving the magic behind. I wiggled my fingers, bringing her focus back down to my hand, and just before she reached out to lace her fingers through mine, she shot me a sly smile and whispered, “This is going to be a long flight.”
Epilogue
Brie
It was a sweltering day in Austin and the air conditioning in Erik’s old truck was hardly enough to keep the sweat from collecting on the back of my neck. I leaned forward and aimed the air conditioning vent down toward my chest, trying to keep cool in the August heat. The drive to Lone Star Gymnastics wasn’t more than ten minutes from our house, but in the heat of Texas summer, it felt like forever.
“Are you sure we needed to bring this many cupcakes?” Niklas asked from the passenger seat. I glanced over as he adjusted the two-tier plastic carrying case on his lap. It was my pride and joy. That baby could hold two dozen cupcakes, nearly three if I crammed them in there really tight.
I frowned. “It’s too much isn’t it?”
He laughed and pointed down to the floorboard, where his feet were completely hidden beneath more baked goods—breads, croissants, and cookies, just to name a few. I’d gone a little overboard on baking in the last few days, but I always did when my nerves were getting to me.
“It’s…a lot of food,” he conceded. “But I’m sure everyone will appreciate it.”
I smiled before glancing back to the road. Niklas never pestered me about my stress-baking—not when he found himself on the receiving end of a warm croissant—and for that, I was grateful. He’d traveled to Texas from Sweden a few months earlier, intent on a short vacation, but we’d persuaded him to stay on longer. Our house had plenty of room for him and he was an enjoyable houseguest. He’d helped us build a garden in our backyard and I’d forced him to watch a season of The Bachelor with me. (“Why does he not just buy more roses?”) He was supposed to stay until things started to settle down at the gym, but as luck would have it, we were only getting busier and busier, which meant hopefully Niklas would be here to stay.
“You could pass them out to the gymnasts too, no?” he asked, dropping his face so it was right in front of his air vent. I envied him, but I knew our drive wouldn’t last too much longer.
“Exactly. Most of them could use a few carbs anyway,” I said with a wink just as the sign for Lone Star Gymnastics came into view up ahead. The gym was situated about thirty minutes north of Austin, in a perfect spot for gymnasts to commute and train from all over central Texas. When Erik’s father had given him the gym two years earlier, it was in dire need of a makeover, so we’d taken a few months and overhauled the facility from top to bottom, even expanding the footprint to make room for a new men’s training area. By the time we’d finished, it was nearly twice as large as Seattle Flyers, and twice as time-consuming as well.
That day, we were hosting our first competition and the parking lot for the gym was already full. Cars were spilling out onto the road, parked alongside the shoulder and out onto side streets. We’d opened registration for Lone Star’s inaugural meet six months earlier and we’d had three times the amount of gymnasts we’d expected sign up for the competition.
“Wow, the place is full to the brim,” Niklas said, eyeing the cars we passed as I pulled into the gym’s parking lot. “Filip and Sarah should be out front waiting for us. I called to let them know we’d need help unloading everything before we left the house.”
I blushed. Maybe just this time, I actually had gone overboard a bit with baking. I mean, how many cookies can one person bake in a 24-hour period before they had a problem?
I swung Erik’s old clunker of a truck into our designated parking spot and as promised, Erik’s parents were waiting for us out front. Erik’s mom, Sarah, wrapped me up in a tight hug as soon as I hopped out of the driver’s seat. I closed my eyes and let the familiar scent of her shampoo wash over me, calming my nerves.
“I brought way too much food.” I laughed as she pulled back.
“Nonsense,” she insisted with a twinkle in her eye. “Remember last year for Thanksgiving? That was too much food. This is different. There are a few hundred people inside who would love a free cookie.” She squeezed my biceps for reassurance. “I promise.”
Erik’s dad stood behind her, waiting for his turn to get to me. I smiled at him over my shoulder, happy to see how healthy he looked. Though he and Erik had endured a trouble-filled decade, he and I shared a special bond and I knew it was partly because of my gymnastics career. He respected my achievements a great deal, and though I’d assumed it would bother Erik, he actually appreciated how well I got along with his parents. We spent a lot of evenings having dinner with them, and though Erik would always be much closer to his grandfather than his dad, it was an arrangement that worked and suited everyone well.
“Will your mom be here today?” Erik’s dad asked after placing a quick kiss on my cheek.