Out of Bounds (The Summer Games #2)(54)
I finished brushing my teeth before heading down the stairs two at a time. Even if it wasn’t much, the idea that I had mail was too exciting to resist.
I whipped the door open and glanced down, my smile slowly fading as a pink and white box came into focus at my feet.
Easy-Bake Oven was printed across the side of the box in pink cursive.
“What the—”
I leaned forward and ripped off the yellow post-it note stuck to the top.
Stay out of my house was scrawled out in thick black Sharpie.
I looked up at Erik’s house, prepared to march over and throw the Easy-Bake Oven at his head, but then I caught sight of him in his kitchen. He was sitting at the island, hunched over a paperback, reading. One of my croissants was in his hand and I watched as he brought it to his mouth and took a giant bite before turning the page. Bastard.
I looked back down at the pitiful play-oven. It looked like revenge, if any was to be had, would at best be served half cooked and chewy.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Erik
In the last two days, my grandfather had called three times looking for Brie. He pretended like he didn’t mind talking to me, but he wasn’t fooling anyone. Ten minutes in, after I’d pushed away talk of my father or the impending Olympics, he’d move the conversation on to his next favorite topic: Brie.
“She seems really nice.”
She’s not.
“She was going to send me a recipe. Will you get it from her?”
No.
“I took a picture of my garden. Could you pass it along to her?”
Yeah, let me get right on that.
The morning after I’d dumped the Easy-Bake Oven on the guesthouse porch, I’d walked out of my front door and nearly tripped on the box on the way to my truck. She’d returned it with a butter knife sticking through the side, and despite myself, I smiled.
I wasn’t an * with everyone in my life, but Brie pushed my buttons like no one had before. If I gave her an inch, she took a mile. An hour spent in my kitchen and she was answering my phone and laying claim to my personal life. My grandfather was off limits. My home was off limits. Brie needed to learn that I had boundaries. She couldn’t bulldoze through the rules I’d set out for her and expect me to be okay with it. For the next few days, I kept my distance as much as possible, trying to redefine my personal space and ensure she was far, far away from it. I ran the trail before she woke up and didn’t spare her an extra glance unless she was working through a routine. Even then, I watched her as a coach would watch a gymnast.
At practice that day, she walked up and mounted the beam, nailing the Mitchell turn that would help contribute to her high start value in Rio. Her tight, slender body was made for the balance beam. She used her flexibility to her advantage, performing skills most gymnasts would never even try. She bent forward and touched her hands to the beam for a standing split, tipping her leg another inch higher in the air and then dropping it low to continue her choreography.
“Good.”
She reacted to my voice, stilling for a moment; she hadn’t realized I was watching her. She recovered quickly, flipping forward into an Arabian, landing, and connecting it to a wolf jump. Her body was constantly in motion. Her toned arms stretched overhead, and I watched her chest rise and fall under her blue leotard. Her back arched and her knees bent as she propelled herself into a back handspring-layout-layout. She was light on her feet, barely touching the beam between skills. She landed gracefully on the other side and a small triumphant smile dotted her lips. Then, she was off, slipping easily into the next skill.
It’d been weeks since she’d arrived in Seattle and her beauty on beam still never ceased to amaze me. I’d never watched someone like her before. Her long legs were mesmerizing and when she dismounted, stuck her landing, and looked to me for direction, I realized I had nothing to say. I was speechless.
I swallowed and turned without a word. She didn’t need my praise; that confident smile said it all. She and I both knew there was a pile of gold medals waiting for her in Rio.
“That’s it!?” she called as I walked away. “No critiques?”
I ignored her and kept walking so she wouldn’t see the smile I couldn’t stifle.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Brie
The more Erik ignored me, the more intensely I craved his attention. I didn’t know if it was the hot tub incident or the phone call with his grandfather, but the last few days leading up to Rio, he didn’t just overlook me, he seemed to have forgotten I even existed. I stole glances at him in the gym, expecting to find him staring back at me, pining as much as I was, but that wasn’t the case.
I’d had plenty of time to think about it (considering we hadn’t fought in days), and I decided he knew exactly what he was doing. He was treating me like I was just one of the girls on the team. He split his time evenly between us, not giving me a minute more, and that was the root of the problem. Had he been neglecting my training or ignoring my questions, I could have called him out and demanded he give me equal treatment—but no. He watched my routines and critiqued us all with cold indifference. It was driving me f*cking insane.
He’d seen me naked! I’d baked him croissants! I’d endeared myself to his extended family! It wasn’t fair that I was the only one boiling up inside. I needed to know I wasn’t alone. I needed one sign that he cared, something that told me he hadn’t completely forgotten about me, something I could hold on to in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep and visions of him hot and sweaty after his run replayed in my mind.