Settling the Score (The Summer Games #1)(74)

“What about Andie? I’ve advised you to—”

“I’m not going to cut off communication with Andie.”

The night before, hours after the broom closet, I’d called her. I’d assumed she’d ignore it, but when the call clicked on and her voice filled my ears, I was filled with hope once again. We couldn’t talk long. She had an early morning practice and I had a race first thing.

“I know I’ve already promised you a hundred times, but I will figure this out.”

She didn’t reply.

“Do you trust me, Andie?”

“Of course, but I don’t know what you want me to say.”

“Tell me you aren’t going to give up on us. Tell me this afternoon meant as much to you as it meant to me.”

“Everyone is telling me to stay away from you.”

“And is that what you want to do?”

She sighed. “I should! Any sane person would have given up days ago. I’ve only known you for a little while, Freddie. This is crazy, what we’re trying to pull off.”

I didn’t have a counter for that, because it was the truth. A sane person would walk away.

“Tell me something good, Andie. Tell me something about your day that doesn’t include this shit.”

She laughed. “Lisa gave me a hard time for being late to my training session.”

I smiled. “Did she realize you were in the closet?”

“No.”

Even the silence was soothing.

“I’m going to try and play in the final in four days,” she continued. “Lisa’s helping me get my wrist ready.”

My brows shot up. “I thought you said the doctor—”

“I’m not going to listen to him.”

I smiled. “You’re different than any woman I’ve ever met.”

I could practically hear her smile as she spoke. “Don’t you forget it.”

Dave sighed on the phone, bringing me back to the topic at hand. “You only have a few days left before the games are wrapped up. I’ll get my team on Caroline, and in the meantime, I need you to keep your head focused on swimming—if not for your sake, for Andie’s.”





CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE


Andie




“ANDIE, SIT OUT for these next couple of drills.”

“But I can—”

My coach shot me a glare. “Not a request.”

I balled my hands and ignored the pain in my wrist as I headed for the bench. It was three days until the final game and Coach Decker was still treating me like I was made of glass. She’d forced me to sit out of warm-ups, so instead I’d jogged around the field, sending defiant glares her way with every lap I completed. Since then, she’d excused me from nearly every other drill. My legs would fall off if I ran another lap, so I had nothing left to do but sit on the bench like a loser.

“Line up ladies!” she shouted, directing everyone’s attention back to practice.

I turned away and popped the top off my water bottle with more force than necessary.

I’d already done double my usual cardio and there was another hour left of practice.

“Andie, just rest.”

I resisted the urge to flip her off and tossed my water bottle on the ground. Times of rest had become my most agonizing, because the burn I felt while being active helped take my mind off the crush of the world. Coach Decker was either coldhearted or genuinely oblivious to how painful it was to attend practices for a team I was no longer a part of.





TWO HOURS LATER, I dragged myself back to my condo, more frustrated than ever. I wished I could have called Freddie to tell him about my day, but he was at his races, probably winning races and breaking records. I’d seen on the news that he already had two gold medals to his name. What a life. Instead, I settled on a phone call with my mom.

The phone rang twice before she answered and went straight into her sentence. With her, the phone calls never really started. In her mind, we were talking all day, every day.

“Andie, Meemaw is just beside herself. The ladies at the bridge club are talking about kicking her out of the group.”

“Well, we’re all suffering.”

“You and Freddie are the talk of the world. I thought it would settle down after that ping pong player got caught doping, but you guys are still the bigger story.”

“Well I have that Sports Illustrated party tonight. I’ll try and calm things down a bit.”

She sighed heavily. “Are you sure it’s a good idea to go to that thing? It seems like you’ll only add fuel to the fire.”

“The PR team said in the mind’s eye, you’re only as guilty as you act in public. So if I hide out for too long, people will assume I have reason to.”

“Well you need to be careful.”

If even one more person told me to be careful, focus on soccer, or stay away from Freddie, I’d rip my hair out. Fortunately, a musical knocking sounded on my bedroom door before I could tell her that.

“All right, I’ve got to go now, Mom.” I opened my bedroom door, surprised to find Georgie in the living room. She was wearing short denim cutoffs and a loose tank top. She’d pushed her sunglasses onto her head to keep her long brown hair out of her face, and resting in her arms were two cartons of takeout, the smell of which immediately made my mouth water.