Page 110 of Where We Belong
“Well, tomorrow, we get back to work.” To get to the Olympics, I still need to have a successful performance at the trials, and that won’t happen by relaxing.
His index finger traces the line of my neck, then dips between my collarbones and my breasts. “What about now?”
“Now?” I shift so I’m straddling him, finding him hard against me. I smile against his lips, then slide my hands under his shirt and say, “Now, we celebrate.”
Epilogue
Lexie
I’msoexhaustedIcould probably fall asleep on my feet.
The practices I’ve had all year to get here were no joke, but the ones with Team USA the day before our individual events at the Olympics were something else. Still, it felt like a dream to be there, so I embraced every second of pain I went through.
Not even caring to undress or shower, I let myself flop onto my hotel bed. Skincare can wait until tomorrow. All my muscles loosen as I feel sleep tugging at my conscience, yet the second my phone vibrates next to me on the bed, I jump up, a new buzz coursing through my veins.
“Hey,” I say without even needing to look at the caller ID.
“Lexie,” Finn says, my name always sounding like a compliment, like a reverence in his voice. “How are you doing? Missing me yet?”
“You know I am,” I say, fighting to keep my yawn silent.
“I wish I could be there with you right now.”
“I know, but it’s fine. That meeting’s too big of a deal.” Since I’m up, I pad to the bathroom to brush my teeth. “Plus, you get to have a break from me, and you should enjoy it cause it won’t happen again anytime soon.”
Ever since I earned my spot as one of the five gymnasts who’d represent the USA at this year’s Olympic Games, the plan was for Finn to come with me. But with the expansion he’s been doing on the farm—the degree he’s still working for turned out to be the thing he needed to turn full businessman mode—he had to meet with potential investors, and sadly, one of those meetings had to fall this week.
“I don’t need any day off from you, Lex. Trust me.”
I smile. Even after a year together, he still succeeds in making me giddy in that lie-on-your-back-and-kick-your-legs-in-the-air kind of way. Even though we’ve technically been living together all this time, I’ve been traveling all over the place for competitions and events, so we’ve had to deal with a lot of time apart, and while I can’t speak for him, I can say that if I never have to spend another day without him, I’ll be the happiest woman in the world. It’s almost embarrassing to think, but it’s the truth. When I’m with Finn is when I feel like my best self. A little smilier, a little brighter, a little happier. Together is where we belong.
I pull my toothbrush out of my mouth to ask, “Josie still doing okay?”
“Yeah. She’s with Martina and Callie right now, I think.”
“What do you mean, you think?”
Ever since Josie moved in with us, she and Callie have become like sisters. When I have to travel away, she sometimes comes with me, and she always helps me with the organization of the clinics I host at the gym, but most of the time she stays either with Finn or with the Scott-Perez family. I’ve never seen my sister happier.
When she first moved to Vermont, I was apprehensive that she would find it hard to be away from everything she’s ever known, including her mother, but the truth is that she’s been blooming ever since. It’s as if she felt like she shouldn’t take too much space in Phoenix, but here, she feels comfortable to be as wide as she wants to be. Our mother calls her every week or so, and that seems to be a convenient arrangement for the both of them. As for me, I’ve given up on trying to have a healthy relationship with her and Kyle, and the simple act of letting go has been like a breath of fresh air.
“I mean I’m not with her right now so I can’t say for sure,” Finn says.
I spit in the sink, then rinse my toothbrush. “I thought your meeting was only tomorrow morning.” With the time difference, that’s in about twenty hours for him.
“Yeah, it was.”
I frown when a knock comes at the door.
“Gimme a sec,” I tell Finn, already walking to the door. “Someone’s knocking.”
Without another thought, I undo the lock chain and swing the door open, expecting to see my coach, Trudy, or maybe a hotel staff member, but the second I see his face, I drop my phone to the carpeted ground and take a step back.
“You’re not even going to let me in?” Finn says, grinning like a fool.
“Wh— I don’t…” I can’t find logical words as I try to wrestle with the idea that he’s actually here. This feels like Phoenix all over again, except that this time, I don’t have to hide anything of what I’m feeling. “Oh my god,” I finally say before throwing myself into his arms. He catches me and easily carries me back inside, squeezing me tightly against his body as he whispers in my ear, “Hi, darling.”
“What are you even doing here?” I gasp, inhaling a gulp of his clean, woodsy scent, one that always fills my dreams.
