Page 152 of Oh, Flutz!

“And I think some of the others might be, too. But not if you keep acting this insane,” Mikhail warns, and he cranes his neck to look over at Bryan, switching back to English. “I don’t know how you deal with this every day. It’s been so much more peaceful without her around.”

Bryan turns around, giving up pretending he’s not eavesdropping anymore, looking right at me. “Believe me, Kuzmin. I’d much rather have no peace than the alternative.”

He’s too smooth for his own good. But I could care less. It’s more than enough to make me free Misha and run back to my partner, who lets out a surprisedoomphas I pull him into a kiss. He recovers quickly, smiling against my mouth like an idiot, and he can’t help himself, he just starts laughing.

“Pinch me?” he says, and I burst into idiotic giggles.

“Yasha, we’re both delusional, but I don’t think even we could make this up.”

“Well, if I’m dreaming, then I hope I turned off my alarm,” he says, that crooked sunshine grin of his shining full force. I was right. It really is going to be the death of me.

“You’re an idiot,” I tell him, not even bothering to fight the spread of the huge smile on my own face, and he nods his head in agreement before pulling me back in.

This might be the best day of my life.

The medals ceremony followsshortly after.

It feels so unreal that I can’t help but feel like I’m dreaming, even though I made fun of Bryan for saying the same thing earlier. I can’t stop smiling, and the audience is full of people who wanted us to win, and Bryan’s here next to me holding my hand after he bashed my face with his bouquet, and I have a gold medal around my neck for the first time in ages.

I feel so relieved. I feel sohappy.

Because we did it. We won Nationals. We proved everyone wrong. And we’re officially representing the United States at the Helsinki Winter Games two weeks from right this very moment.

“Hey, I don’t think this is real gold,” Bryan garbles around the medal he has in his mouth, then spits it out, gagging. “God, that tastes disgusting.”

“That’s what’s disgusting?” I ask in disbelief, but I couldn’t stop smiling even if I tried. “Bryan,” I whisper, eyes wide, and he immediately stops short, breaking into the biggest, most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen.

“We did it, sunshine,” he whispers back. “Thank you.”

“Couldn’t have done it without you,” I tell him truthfully. “But you’re still a mudak.”Also true.

“But you love me,” he points out.

Even more true. Who wouldn’t love him? Sometimes I marvel at how he is so impossibly easy to love. Sometimes I think everyone he meets must fall a little bit in love with him. Mysolnishko. Pure sunshine.

I try to fight the growing smile on my face, and fail miserably. “What makes you think I care about you?”

Bryan throws his head back and justlaughs, that gorgeous, gorgeous laugh, and he pulls me into a hug, wrapping his arms just above my shoulders because he’s so annoyingly tall.

“Good question,” he says into my ear, and I can hear the grin in his voice even before he drops his arms to dip me so deeply my head grazes the floor, then kisses me to the point that everyone in the audience screams in delight. He picks me up off my feet into the air, whooping and laughing.

“We’re going to the fucking Olympics!”

Chapter Fifty-Four

BRYAN

FEBRUARY

WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES—HELSINKI, FINLAND

“Okay, before you getout there, just listen a sec,” Lian begins, about two seconds before they call our names out over the loudspeaker, beckoning us to our first skate on Olympic ice.

I raise an eyebrow, becausethat’snot ominous at all. “Okay…”

“You guys have done a lot to get here. You’ve come a long way from last year, and I know you know that. But what you might not realize is that this isn’t your one and only shot.” She eyes us. “I’ve been in your shoes. I know the Olympics always feel like it’s do-or-die, but you’re young. This is only your first try, and you’re going up against people on their last.” Lian sighs. “So, please try not to get overwhelmed. Just focus, do your best, and try to have fun. It’s okay if you fall. Just get back up and keep smiling. You always have the next cycle. No one is expecting you to win right now.”

I turn to Katya, and we both turn back to stare at her.

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