“Okay, let me ask you this,” Jen began, trying another tack. “Have you been happier with Cole?”

  “We haven’t been…together for more than a couple of weeks,” I protested. “If we’re even together at all. There was that night before, and then after the qualifiers started. It’s new and hot and oddly connected and…” My voice trailed off, and I sobbed.

  “Ah, but that’s not what I meant. In training, you’ve been making progress, and you seem…calmer when he’s around. What do you feel about it? Has training with him been stressful?”

  I sighed. “Not for a while, no. At first, yes. When we realized about before. But no, not since those first few days, really. I mean, he could be a bit intense and strict, but it was always clear he was putting as much of himself into it as he was asking me to do, you know?”

  Jen smiled. “My point exactly. And during the qualifiers, do you think he had your back? Was it easier running knowing he was there?”

  “I don’t know about easier…but it was definitely more relaxed, more…what it should be,” I admitted.

  “And does he know about design school?”

  I smiled, blinking away tears. “He’s been telling me for a while now to just jump in, to use the contacts I already have through the company and get started now. He likes the little of my work that I’ve shown him and really likes some of the sportswear ideas I told him about.”

  “See. That’s what you need. That’s what support looks like,” Jen emphasized. “You’re in love with the guy, and you should let yourself enjoy it.”

  “While it lasts?”

  “No. You make it last by choosing him, by choosing yourself.”

  “Do you think he can handle it?” Fear gripped me, and I fell back on skepticism. “He bailed pretty fast at the party today, and I don’t know for sure what he wants. What if I can’t give him that? What if this thing gets out and it works against him, and he loses his career because of me?”

  Jen cocked her head and rolled her eyes. I didn’t need my friend to tell me just how ridiculous I was being, but Jen did anyway. “You’re worried about him bailing, while you’re listing reasons right now for you not to take a chance on him. Echo…go talk to him. Ask what he wants. Tell him what you want. As long as you’re on the same page there, you guys will figure out the rest, and you won’t have to do it alone, either.”

  “And what if he doesn’t want to bother. With me, with my family? What if he really does bail?”

  “Then you’ll know,” Jen said with a sympathetic shrug. “Not knowing is…paralyzing.”

  I took Jen’s advice and went to see Cole. I stood in front of his apartment door for two or three minutes before working up the courage to knock.

  When he opened the door, I was surprised to see that Bryce was there with him.

  “Oh, Bryce?” I blinked in surprise, then shifted my gaze to Cole. “Uh…if you’re busy, I can come back—”

  “I should be heading back,” Bryce insisted, rising and slipping out past me. “Don’t want to leave Tami alone too long with Gramps. He seems to have taken the news about Dad pretty hard, and she wasn’t exactly in a sympathetic mood when I left.”

  “She was yelling at Gramps?” I asked incredulously, temporarily distracted from the more serious reason I’d come to see Cole.

  “She wasn’t yelling, precisely, but I do believe she suggested that Gramps and his habit of interfering might be part of the reason Dad and Mom kept everything so secret. Call me later, Echo,” he added. “I’m sorry I didn’t pick up on what was happening with you—with them—sooner, and do something more to help.”

  I smiled quietly at my older brother. “You didn’t pick up on anything, because I was helping to distract you. If I didn’t have more help it was my own fault for not saying something sooner, or not pushing harder to get them to tell everyone.”

  Bryce nodded in agreement. “Well…we’ll talk soon. Bye, Cole.”

  Cole nodded at Bryce before waving a hand for me to come farther into the apartment.

  “I wanted to apologize for not speaking up right away when my grandfather was…I should have stopped him before—” I started.

  “It’s fine, Echo,” Cole insisted. “I can take care of myself against your grandfather. And you clearly had enough on your plate. I should have remembered what you’d said about your father being sick. I don’t want to be just another thing stressing you out, or coming between you and your family.”

  I licked my lips. “You don’t stress me out. The opposite, in fact,” I said with a sly smile and deep blush. Cole gave me a cocky grin at that and I ignored him. “And as for my family, things have been strained on that front for a while, and it has little to do with you. Gramps was just using you as an excuse to make trouble.”

  “I know you don’t really care about running, and I don’t want you to run in the Olympics just because you said you’d help me with my career. I’d rather do that on my own. So—” Cole inhaled deeply. “—I think you should withdraw from the Olympic team.”

  “What?” I blinked up at him. He was kidding, right?

  “If it’s really something you’ve only been doing because other people have pressured you into it, then I think you should withdraw. You should devote your time to something that means something to you. I’m not afraid of what your grandfather might try to do to me.”

  “I’m not going to back out of the Olympics.” I laughed. “I earned my place. I do enjoy running, and have liked training with you. I want to see it through. Not because I feel obligated to, but to see if I really can do it.”

  I paused and looked down at my hands for a moment. After a deep, shaky breath, I pushed through the next part of what I had to say, desperate to get it out before my courage failed me. “I’ve never been very good at doing things for myself. That is, at pursuing the things that make me happy. Applying to design school is as close as I’ve gotten on that front, and the only other time I really did something just for me was the night I met you. I’m trying to rearrange my priorities so that taking care of myself isn’t always at the bottom. Which is why I wanted to ask you…if you wouldn’t mind me making us one of my new priorities…”

  “Us?” Cole asked, a smile tugging at his lips.

  I blushed but was relieved by the small smile. “Yes. You. Being with you and everything. You make me happy.”

  “You make me happy, too,” he whispered. “So you’re saying you want this, us, to be something…officially?”

  “If that’s what you want,” I told him, taking a few steps towards him to close the distance between us.

  “Oh. It’s what I want. It’s what I’ve wanted since I saw you at the bar,” he said, before wrapping me in his arms and kissing me.

  I slipped my hands up his back and pulled myself tight against him. I was still wearing my dress from the party earlier. Strapless and white, it took little effort on Cole’s part to tug it down and free my breasts so he could palm them. I sighed into his mouth.

  “Zipper…back,” I gasped, turning around and leaning against the wall.

  I heard him working on a zipper, all right, but it wasn’t mine. He fumbled for his wallet, and I stopped him. “I—uh, I’m on the pill.” I cleared my throat. “Figured it might be a good idea, after we got carried away the other day.”

  “Fuck, Echo, are you serious?” His voice was barely above a growl.

  I nodded. “Please. I want to feel you, just you.”

  He turned me around to face him, then hiked up my dress and pushed me against the door. “I’m going to fuck you slow…later. Right now, I need you too much.” He tugged up my skirt even more and lifted me up against the door, bracing me against the wood. In the next heartbeat, he slid deep inside me.

  Cole curled his body around mine, the hair on his chest rough on my skin. He rested his forehead on mine as he picked up the pace. “I fucking love how you feel.” He groaned low when I clamped my inner walls around him. “What are you doing to me, Echo Coulter?” He whispered, grinding his hips into me as he moved.

  “Loving you, Cole Jackson.”

  He lifted his head and met my gaze. “I have loved you from the moment I heard you laugh.” He slowed his pace, and I whimpered.

  “No,” I whined. “Don’t stop… Go faster…go harder…but don’t stop.” I rocked against him, arching my back.

  He pressed a soft kiss to my neck, then another to my throat, and more in a line across my shoulder, a kiss following each thrust of his hips. My moans pitched steadily higher and I leaned my head back so his harsh breaths echoed in my ear. I pulled him close, loving the feel and scent of him.

  My fingernails dug into his skin, and Cole gripped my hips tight. He slid one hand between us, seeking access to my clit. All it took was one gentle glide of his thumb, and I cried out. Holy shit. The wave of pleasure hit, and I felt dizzy. Euphoria whipped through me.

  “Yes, fuck, Echo. You feel so…fucking…good.” With two more thrusts he found his release. I could feel him jerking inside me, bathing me with his seed. He collapsed against me, trembling, and I held him tight.

  26

  Echo

  Everything was still being cleaned up from the party the day before when I arrived to meet with my parents in the morning. I’d called the night before but didn’t let them speak, hastily letting them know that I was staying with Jen, and was all right, and I’d be by to see them in the morning to talk.

  There was a moment of hesitation at the front door, when I considered ringing the bell and waiting to be let in. I decided to check the door first. If it was locked, I’d ring the bell rather than use my key. If it was open, I’d knock loudly and let myself in.

  It was unlocked.

  “Hello?” I called as I closed the door behind me. “It’s just me…Echo.”

  There was no response, so I moved to my father’s library and knocked on that door before checking inside. Empty. I was beginning to believe that they might have left because they didn’t want to see me. Or worse, maybe something had happened to Dad and they were at the hospital…

  I picked up the pace as I poked my head into the sitting room, where the cleaning crew were putting the furniture back where it belonged and wiping down the greasy fingerprints that had accumulated on various surfaces.

  None of them said anything, so I knew the stories of my behavior the previous afternoon were making the rounds. The dining room was empty, too, and I was debating checking upstairs. I would have to pack some things in my room to bring back to Jen’s with me, anyway. That was when I heard the quiet thrum of activity coming from the kitchen.

  I approached quietly, not wanting them forewarned with enough time to flee and avoid me. At the same time, I didn’t want to startle them. I peeked around the doorjamb and saw the pair of them seated on the high stools along one side of the island. They had their robes tied loosely over their pajamas, coordinated sets they got each other every year for Christmas. These ones were corresponding plaids, his blue and red, hers blue and green.

  I cleared my throat and they looked up at me, fumbling to set their utensils aside and wipe the remains of their pancake breakfast from their mouths.

  “I just wanted to apologize,” I began to recite the speech I’d practiced on the drive over. “I made a scene yesterday, and for that I’m sorry. I’m not sorry that I told Bryce and Dax and the others. I still think you should have done that a while ago, but I shouldn’t have told them the way I did, and not with so many people here. I was upset about the way Gramps treated Cole, but that was no excuse for my own behavior.” I took a deep breath. “Also, I wasn’t at Jen’s. I was with Cole. There’s no point in pretending we’re not together.”

  “Echo, we—” my father began after he had finished swallowing, but I shook my head, refusing to be interrupted or distracted.

  “I’m moving out. I’m moving in with Jen. I’ll crash on her couch for now, but we’re going to look for a bigger place soon, or if I can find a place I like for myself, I’ll do that, but I need to live on my own. I need…space to figure some things out and to be in control a little. Now, rest assured, when I say ‘figure things out,’ I don’t mean I’m going to pull out of the Olympics.”

  My parents visibly relaxed, but they appeared to be making a concerted effort not to interrupt me again. I pressed on.

  “I’ve put too much of myself into them at this point not to at least try, and it wouldn’t be fair to me or to Cole. But once they’re over, I’m done running in any kind of competitive way. If I run, I want it to be because it’s something I enjoy; I want it to be for charity, and I don’t want to feel pressured about my performance. I’ll still help out with some of the charity runs for the company, but I want to start handing my responsibilities over and moving on from Legacy Sports. It won’t be too difficult to transition, since I’m already missing so much work for training. I just…won’t go back full time when the Olympics are over. I will help supervise and train whomever you decide to make my permanent replacement. I don’t want to leave you high and dry, but I need to be doing something that I actually want to be doing.”

  I paused to see that my parents were gently nodding their understanding. My father’s mouth was pressed into a small smile, while my mother had shifted her plate out of the way and propped her elbows up on the counter so she could rest her chin against the heel of one hand, effectively clamping her mouth shut.

  “Which brings me to my next little announcement. I’m going to go to design school. I’m going to contact the admissions office about the acceptance they sent me a few months ago, and see if I need to reapply, or if the deferral I requested will still stand. It was what I wanted to talk to you guys about that day…you know. The day you told me Dad was sick. I had my acceptance letter, and was going to surprise you, and instead…”

  I trailed off, looking away from my parents to my fidgeting hands. “Bryce and Dax have both been doing really well for themselves and…that’s what I need, too. Fox is…well, Fox, and Gage’ll be heading off to college soon. I know that I’ve let you down and I’m sorry that what I want isn’t what will make you guys happy, but I’m not going to pretend I want something else anymore. I would love to have your support, but if I’m not going to get it by being myself, then…I don’t need it.” I nodded in conclusion. “I’ll just go up and grab some of my stuff. When Jen and I find another place I’ll be back for the rest.”

  “Echo,” my father called quietly before I could escape the kitchen.

  I turned back to see he was rising from the stool and crossing to give me a hug.

  “I’m sorry we put you through all that, sweetheart,” he whispered as I buried my face in the soft flannel of his robe. He smelled like his favorite soap and coffee. The smell comforted me. This was home. “I’m sorry we didn’t listen to you, and that we didn’t ask you before going ahead and hiring Cole and pushing you for the Olympics and graduate school. And we want you to know that we do support you. No matter what you choose to do in life. You’re our daughter. Our only daughter, and we love you.”

  I smiled as I pulled back. “Thanks, Daddy.”

  “You don’t need to move out, Echo,” my mother insisted, finally climbing off her stool and coming to enfold me in a hug of her own. “We’ll figure something else out. We’ll be better about giving you your space, and we won’t ask as much of you, I promise. We just don’t want you to feel like you have to leave to get us to appreciate you more.”

  “That’s not what it is at all,” I insisted gently. “I should be on my own by now. I’ve been relying on you guys, too. But I’m an adult, and I need to start acting like it. I think being here so long…it’s like I’ve reverted to a melodramatic teenager and I don’t want to go back like that, I want to go forward.”

  “You were never a troublesome teenager,” Mom said in my defense.

  “All the more reason for me not to become one now.” It was true. Dax had been the troublesome one, sneaking out and getting drunk at parties, stealing from our parents’ liquor cabinet. Bryce had done his fair share of rebelling, and Fox simply ignored anyone and anything he didn’t agree with. Gage and I were the ones who had always done what we were told. I couldn’t help but wonder how much college would change my youngest brother. But whatever else I knew, I did not want to worry about Cole staying over with me at my parents’ house, whether I had to sneak him in, or whether they would invite him to stay over themselves. I wanted a room to myself, and a roommate who didn’t mind being sexiled or donning noise-canceling headphones. And on both counts, Jen fit the bill conveniently, knowing I would do the same for her when she had an overnight guest.

  I wasn’t sure how much of what Gramps had said about my relationship with Cole had made it to them, or whether they believed it or not. Bryce and Tami knew, and Jen knew. Cole admitted that there were a few of his friends who knew he was seeing someone, but didn’t know who. We had agreed to keep our romantic relationship quiet to the public for as long as we could—at least until after the Olympics. Neither of us wanted Olympic headlines that focused on our sex lives instead of our hard-earned accomplishments—whatever they may be.

  As for Gramps and Gram…they’d be the last to know, if I could help it. It would take a while for the sting of Gramps’ words to Cole to fade, and I wasn’t about to put Cole in an uncomfortable position. I’d have to see whether the chat Tami had had with my grandfather stuck.

  “It’s not like I won’t be by regularly,” I said to appease my mother, who alternated between looking disappointed and trying not to let it show too much. She was trying not to use a guilt trip on me, and I appreciated it. “I’ll stop by for dinner sometimes, and I’ll need to check in on you two to make sure you’re doing okay on your own. Once Gage goes to college, it’ll just be you guys, and Fox, when he shows up. Plus…you know…going to have to see how Dad’s doing…with the doctors and…medications…”