Wildest Dreams (Thunder Point #9)(40)

“Blake said it’s all looking good, and that last attack might’ve been worse because those guys who chased me scared the crap out of me. Half the battle is mental, he said. Did you know athletic competition is as much about mind-set as muscle? That’s what he said.”

Lin Su leaned closer to him. “You smell gamey.”

“That’s called sweat, Mom!” And there was no mistaking his sparkle.

It wasn’t long before Troy and Mikhail returned and Charlie’s experience was recounted again. Next came Grace bearing chicken parmesan, salad and garlic toast from Carrie’s. Charlie went through his story one more time and showed no sign of coming down to earth.

Lin Su was tired. Just worrying about the first day of this new program, the waiting and wondering, left her exhausted. She asked Grace if she could manage the bedtime rituals; she wanted to take Charlie home for a shower.

Bedtime wasn’t a demanding chore and Grace was more than happy to step in. It required just a little freshening up after which Winnie was content to read and watch TV in her room. But Grace would not let Lin Su leave without a generous portion of Carrie’s dinner to take along.

Charlie was still wound up when they got home to their loft; he was starving and ate as though he hadn’t been fed in days. He showered off the sweat, though Lin Su suspected he wanted to bask in it awhile longer, a kind of badge of glory. Then while Lin Su took to her bed to read, Charlie was reading in his own bed. His was the pull-out couch and he was completely absorbed in one of the books Blake had given him.

It took willpower not to tell him it was time for lights-out.

Sundays were often Lin Su’s own, the day she caught up on shopping, cleaning, laundry. But given that Charlie would be working out with Blake, Lin Su said she’d be more than happy to spend a little time with Winnie and the family, making sure everything was caught up.

“I bet you’d be happy to,” Winnie said.

“I wasn’t trying to fool anyone,” she protested.

The workout at Blake’s was not quite as long as on the first day, not quite as much discussion, Lin Su assumed. But in all other ways it was the same—Charlie was lit up like a lightbulb, happy, excited, feeling very proud. And smelling very gamey.

Lin Su wanted to take him home, fix him an early dinner and make sure he was ready for school the next morning. But she wanted to return to Winnie’s. “Now that we’re so close, after I have dinner with Charlie, I’m coming back. I’ll see you at about seven o’clock for your bedtime rituals. It won’t take long at all and I’d like to do it. Grace, you can take a night off.”

There was more to her mission than getting Winnie settled for the night. After the little time it took to accomplish that, she walked next door and knocked softly at Blake’s door. This could wait until the next day, but she remembered his trainer was coming to town and he might not be alone. For this she didn’t need an audience.

He opened the door and the house behind him seemed pretty dark, as though the lights were turned down. He wore exercise pants and a snug T-shirt but his feet were bare.

“Lin Su, this is a surprise. Is it my birthday?” he joked, grinning.

“If you have a moment...”

“Come in, please. You’re not worried about Charlie, are you? He seemed to be doing great.”

She shook her head. “Not at all. He’s home, reading his books, ready for a new week that now includes at least an hour in your gym every day and I’ve never seen him so enthusiastic. I want to thank you, Blake. This is made possible by you and your generosity. I could never have managed it as well.”

“I’m happy to do it. It’s not going to take that long, you know. He’ll be on his own in no time.”

“And I’d like to apologize,” she said. “You’ve been on Charlie’s team all along and I stood in your way.”

“Nah,” he said. “I understood your concern. Charlie’s not the first kid I’ve known who needed all the right circumstances to fall into place to get going. It’s too bad it started with an ambulance ride. But that’s the past. Onward.”

“I didn’t mean to stand in his way. I really didn’t.”

“It’s not your fault. He’s your boy. You want to do what’s best for him.”

“Some of it is just... I could never have gotten him to read a book about asthma. He didn’t even want to talk about his asthma.”

“I know. It felt like a ball and chain,” Blake said. “Besides, you’re his mother. He’d be more willing to listen to a coach—it’s that simple.”

“I barely know you, yet you’ve been such a help to us. There’s really no way to thank you properly.”

“Pay it forward,” he said with a shrug. “I got a lot of help when I was his age. But I didn’t have a parent resisting—the resistance was all mine.” He chuckled. “I was somewhere between an angry victim and a delinquent.”

“And who helped you?” she boldly asked.

“A foster mother, a couple of teachers, a coach. That’s just a start. Just as I needed something, someone appeared with the next challenge. I didn’t have asthma like Charlie, but I had a hard time growing up. Charlie’s going to be fine.”

“He’s such a great kid,” she said. “Sometimes he acts like he has to take care of me and I wish he didn’t. But he’s such a good son.”