Page 77 of The Inside Edge

The tech in charge of Aubrey’s wire lowered him smoothly back to the ice, moving him laterally so he could transition seamlessly into skating. After that, it was just one more spin and that segment of the program was over.

The gymnasts dismounted as well. One of them, Kyla, must have spotted someone she knew, because she hopped off the ice and right into someone’s arms. They spun her around, and she laughed with joy. Apparently she didn’t get enough twirling in the air.

How did people do it? How did they make relationships work? Most of the professional athletes he’d trained with were either single or married to their training partner. The ones who played team sports seemed to fare better—at least they’d be home about half the time and their spouses would have each other for a support group when they weren’t. But those athletes could be traded at any time. Then what? Their families were just supposed to pick everything up and trail after them? What about their schools, their friends, their jobs?

It seemed like a lot to sacrifice. He was starting to understand that.

Aubrey was still turning that over in his brain when he walked past Kyla and realized the person who’d twirled her around was Greg, who must’ve been waiting for the next segment.

Greg waved at him as he passed but otherwise didn’t pull his attention from Kyla. Had they known each other before Greg moved out here? Or had they somehow forged a connection in the past two weeks?

Aubrey unbuckled his harness, handed it back to the prop master, and retreated to the locker room. Reflexively, he checked his phone. No missed calls.

Well, Nate knew his practice schedule by now. Aubrey would call from the car on his way home, like he usually did.

He just hoped he could steer the conversation away from any Christmas plans. He wanted to spend time with Nate… but his mother had specifically asked him to come home to attend his cousin’s wedding and spend the holidays with his family. Aubrey couldn’t remember the last time he’d done that, and he’d been at odds with them for so long… he felt like he had to go.

Aubrey had convinced himself he didn’t need Nate to put him first. He’d taken the job instead of putting Nate first, and Nate stayed in Chicago instead of putting Aubrey first, and now Aubrey might not see him at Christmas either.

How did people actually do this?

Maybe I should just give up.

But as he was reaching into his locker for his towel, the light on his phone blinked. He reached over and swiped to unlock.

It was a text message from Caley—no words, just a picture that took a moment to download. When it did, he was treated to a photograph of Nate and Carter Ng mid pillow fight, Nate with his weapon raised over his head and Carter in the process of a wide sideways swipe, inches from making contact.

A moment later, a text message followed.He misses you.

Aubrey enlarged the picture, memorizing the smile lines around Nate’s eyes.

What was it like for Kelly to leave her family every weekend? Aubrey imagined she must hate it. He’d seen how close the three of them were, and it would be worse now that Caley was pregnant.

On the other hand, while she was gone part of the weekend and two weeknights, she had the rest of her days free to spend time with Carter, bring Caley lunch at work, cook family meals…. There was a happy medium there somewhere.

Aubrey just didn’t know how to find it.

“ARE YOUgoing to tell me what’s going on with you or am I going to have to guess? I haven’t slept through the night in a week because an embryo the size of a goldfish cracker has moved in to the apartment above my bladder, and my patience is shot.”

Nate blinked at Caley. Hadn’t it only been two days ago that he’d been at her and Kelly’s place, having a pillow fight? How had they gotten to this? “Uh. Hi to you too.”

She pushed past him into his apartment and handed him a tub of ice cream. “Spoons,” she demanded imperiously, holding her own ice cream under one arm. “Chop-chop. Also I’m using your bathroom.”

Well, that was why she was the captain.

Nate procured spoons as well as napkins and glasses of water, and when Caley emerged from the bathroom, she picked up right where she left off. “So you’re a miserable sad sack, and it’s making Kelly cry. Not literally, she doesn’t cry, but you’re upsetting my wife and I’m pregnant. I need to have dibs on the mood swings. What gives?”

He huffed. “Aside from the obvious?”

Caley rolled her eyes. “Look. The past couple weeks have been challenging. I get it. But humor me. Pregnancy brain is real. Is this about the show or about Aubrey leaving?”

Nate didn’t know that he was emotionally capable of separating the two right then. But apparently he really did need to talk about it, because he offered hesitantly, “Yes?”

“Oh good, an easy one.” Caley dug a prodigious scoop of ice cream from the carton. “Do you want to elaborate, or am I going to have to play Twenty Questions?”

They’d run out of ice cream long before they came to any useful observations that way. “I didn’t expect the show to be sold. I thought it’d be canceled or go on as it was. I wasn’t ready for this.”

Caley nodded and licked ice cream from her thumb. “That’s fair. It’s a big change.”

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