Letters to Nowhere(93)

“Oh shit,” Jordan mumbled after lifting his head.

I had been curled up against him, his arms around me and my leg slung over his body. And he was shirtless. Just jeans.

We jumped apart and Jordan hung his head over the side of the bed, snatching his shirt from the floor. He had it on in record time and I’d pulled mine down because it had crept up during the night. My eyes zoomed in on the clock behind Stacey. It was only six thirty. We didn’t need to be at the arena until ten.

“What…” Nina stuttered, pointing a finger at Jordan. “Who…?”

That’s when I saw the two clear plastic cups Nina was holding in her left hand—random drug testing.

Stacey opened her mouth to answer and closed it after exchanging looks with Bentley.

My coach sighed and looked away from me and right at Nina. “This is my son, Jordan. Jordan, Nina Jones, National Team coordinator.”

Jordan sat near the end of the bed, wide–eyed and looking nearly as panicked as I felt. “Uh…hey…”

“Henry, you allow your son to sleep in hotel rooms with underage girls?” Nina snapped at Bentley.

“No,” Stacey said right away.

“First of all,” Bentley said, still speaking directly to Nina. “They’re both underage, and second, I had no idea he was here in Chicago. He’s supposed to be in school today. In St. Louis.”

Now Bentley turned to Jordan, and Jordan spoke up, but there wasn’t much to say except, “I’m sorry.”

“Yes, but why was I not aware that your son was having…” Nina waved her hand dramatically in the air. “…relations with one of my gymnasts.”

I am not her gymnast.

“We had no idea,” Stacey said, trying to somehow remedy this situation.

I was just now beginning to fight the urge to laugh. This was exactly everything Jordan and I had been trying to avoid.

“Actually,” Bentley said. “I had an idea. Just wasn’t sure if it was present or future.”

I felt my face heat up even more…He knew? How? Jordan looked just as surprised by that as me. He stood up and straightened his clothes.

“I think I should probably go,” Jordan said. “Unless you need me to take one of those drug tests…?”

Nina glared at him, a mixture of fury and disgust on her face.

Bentley opened his wallet. He handed Jordan a room key. “Wait for me in my room. We have things to discuss.”

Jordan took the key with a long sigh and then gave me one last fleeting look before taking off. I sat there staring at the three of them, having no idea what to do or say.

Nina tossed her hands in the air. “That’s just great, Henry! Exactly what we need. A pregnant teen on the National Team. Might as well add a teen with an STD while we’re at it. That’ll bring on a whole new set of endorsement opportunities.”

My mouth fell open and I was sure I looked completely horrified. I hadn’t expected her to go there. I was fully clothed, after all. And Jordan still had jeans on. I wasn’t an expert on the subject, but I was pretty sure you had to take your pants off to get pregnant.

Stacey walked over and rested a hand on my arm. “Karen is smart and responsible. She’s never done anything to disprove that.”

“You mean besides having a boy sleep in her hotel room during a National Team training camp,” Nina snapped.

Bentley surprised me by rolling his eyes. “Karen’s seventeen. She’s not a child. I think you’re overreacting a bit. I’ll talk to Jordan. He won’t be sharing any more hotel rooms on USA Gymnastics’ dollar. I’ll have him pay back the cost out of his next check at the gym. Now, Karen has a competition to focus on, so if we could just let her do that…”

Nina stared at him for a long time, and I could see the wheels churning in her head. She couldn’t really use it against me. Maybe if I performed poorly today, but if that happened it wouldn’t matter what she blamed. She finally set the plastic cups on the dresser, turned around, and left without saying a word. Somehow I had gotten around the rule where a non–personal coach had to actually watch me pee in the cup.

The second the door closed, Stacey spun around to face Bentley. “You knew about this! And you didn’t think it was important to tell me?”

His arms folded over his chest. “I wasn’t sure. Until now.”

“Karen, I think we should have a talk,” Stacey said, then turned to Bentley again. “And you should have a talk with Jordan.”

“Jordan and I had that talk years ago.”

“Well, obviously it didn’t work!” Stacey said.

“Wait…which talk are you referring to?” Bentley asked.

Stacey let out frustrated breath, shaking her blond hair off her face. “The abstinence talk!”

“I had the safe sex talk with Jordan.” Bentley shrugged. “I thought only religious people gave the abstinence talk.”

“God, this is a nightmare.” I covered my face with my hands. “We aren’t…we didn’t…ugh!” I dropped my hands. “It’s not like that. Nothing to worry about, okay?”

“Good,” Stacey said, looking like she might actually believe me. “And just in case you haven’t thought it all out, I’ll be staying in here tonight. With Olivia. A night with a screaming baby should be very effective birth control for you.”