Page 189 of Whistle

“You’d pick him over your career?” Rush seemed surprised.

“I’ll pick him over anything,” I said, completely succinct. “I love you, ladybug. So much. I hope you can accept that I also love Bodhi.”

She rushed forward and hugged me. “I just want you to be happy.” Then, surprisingly, she hugged Bodhi. Against his ear, she whispered, “If you hurt my dad, I’ll rip your balls off and feed them to you for breakfast.”

“Young lady!”

Bodhi laughed. “Noted.”

The door opened, and a male nurse came in carrying a tablet. “Good news,” he said. “After we recheck your vitals and body temperatures, if everything is stable, you can get out of here.”

“Can we do that now?” I asked, anxious to get Goldilocks home.

“Sure thing,” he said, grabbing a cart and wheeling it in behind him.

“What exactly happened?” Landry asked.

“Nothing too serious,” I told her.

The nurse snorted. “If you call falling from the Lackawaxen bridge nothing serious…”

“Oh my God!” Landry exclaimed. “You fell off a bridge!”

“It’s a good thing you’re professional swimmers. Anyone else would have died.” The nurse went on as though he were presenting evidence for Judge Judy.

I gave the man a searing look.

He cringed. “My bad.”

“Dad, how did this happen?” Landry asked, wringing her hands.

“I promise I’ll tell you everything. Just let us get out of here first.”

“But you’re sure you’re both okay?” she pressed.

Bodhi seemed surprised that she cared about him too, and I reached up to give the back of his neck a light squeeze. “I promise, ladybug.”

My reassurances worked, and Rush escorted Landry to the waiting room with the rest of Elite while the nurse went about getting us discharged.

43

Bodhi

Emmett told me I didn’t need to compete in the first swim meet of the season. I could have a pass because I was still sore from surviving our death-defying plunge off a bridge, fresh from overcoming some debilitating water trauma, and then there was also the little detail that I’d been parked on the bleachers instead of training.

And no, that one lap I’d managed the other day didn’t count.

It would be perfectly reasonable to take the pass. The old me would have been thrilled.

Apparently, this “new” me was unreasonable and had something to prove because I did not take the pass. I insisted on showing up for the meet and swimming.

Em grumbled about it but then relented, and it just hammered home the other thing driving me to swap my thong for a Speedo this afternoon. He wanted me to swim. It was somehow important to him, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on the reason. He never actually said it. For all his “you will swim” lectures, he never actually made me get in the pool and train.

Maybe the coach in him was embarrassed to have a swimmer on the bleachers. As though it somehow reflected he was lacking in his job. I didn’t want to be an embarrassment to Emmett. Actually, to any of Elite.

Rush’s words from weeks ago replayed in my head often, showing up at random times and interrupting my day. You’re Elite now, and that means your condition affects the team. Your effort, or lack thereof, reflects on us all.

At the time, I acted like I gave less than two shits because, well, I didn’t. But now I did. I still wasn’t convinced I wanted to swim… Actually, I admit I didn’t want to. But I was Elite, and these bros had been pretty decent to me. More than I expected and deserved. The idea of letting them down today didn’t sit right with me.

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