Page 69 of Unlocked Dive
“Good. Keep it that way.”
“I’m tired of lying to him.”
“You’ve kept the secret for this long. What’s another few weeks?”
“If I tell him, he might spend those weeks in LA. Isn’t that what you want?” I tilt my head to meet his eyes. “This could be the thing to break him free of me so he never looks back.”
“Or it might just break him. And this time, he won’t have you to put him back together.”
“Echo put himself back together.”
But that’s not the whole truth, and I can tell by Wash’s face that he’s not buying it.
“I’m not an idiot, Byrd.” First names again, now that he wants something from me.
Or maybe we’ve bared too many painful truths to hide behind formality now.
“I saw the way he was with you. I’ve watched a lot of young men come and go in Jericho’s life, and I wasn’t lying when I told you I’ve never seen him kiss one before. Whatever you’ve made him feel for you, he believes it’s real.”
“So do I.”
He waves a dismissive hand. “He’s going to Tilburg. That is not up for negotiation. You’ve done the job you were paid for—barely—and I thank you for that.” He leans in. “But I will not let you hurt him again when he’s so close to achieving his dreams.”
I think his dreams have changed lately.
The thought is guilty. Exultant.
I don’t need this man to tell me who Echo is or what he’s capable of. I’m certainly not about to let him discredit everything Echo has done this summer.
“You know what,Graham?” I straighten, forcing him out of my space. His eyes narrow, but he shifts back. “I’m not an idiot either. I know what we look like, Echo and I. We look like a mistake. Something desperate or convenient. Or predatory.” I shake my head and push to my feet, pacing the three long strides to the door and back. “You’re not the first person in our lives to try and protect us from each other. Hell,Itried to protect us from each other.” Wash softens a bit at that, and I give him a rueful smile.
“But not Echo.” My voice is full of wonder. “Echo never saw us together as something to be protected from. Since the very beginning, he chased it without fear. Who are you and I to say he hasn’t known exactly what he needed every step of the way?”
Wash opens his mouth, but I cut him off. He had his turn.
“What we haveisreal, and Echo deserves the truth. If he forgives me, I’m taking him back to Mendo until it’s time for him to leave for school. If he doesn’t…” I reach out and press my palm to the door to the audition room. “Then you take him home.” I let my hand fall and turn back to pin him with my gaze. “And you keep him the hell away from his brother while he’s there.”
Wash flinches, but I don’t let up.
“Whatever happens, it will hurt, but he won’t break.”I won’t let him.
I’ll break for both of us.
29
Echo
Iam fearless, flawless, and I can still fly.
The handstands are a bitch, but the coach lets me do them first, and then I have the rope in my hands. If her eyes are blue and impersonal, I know now what it’s like to be in the air under Byrd’s warm hazel gaze, and the adrenaline is an old friend welcoming me home. I flow through first the mandatory and then the elective skills without hesitation. My limbs are strong and exultant as a part of myself, once withered and dead, wakes to the familiar challenge.
Beyond the fear that paralyzed my brain, my hand was pieced back together from a serious trauma. The bones might be reinforced with surgical steel, but muscles and tendons take time to strengthen. I’d neglected my grip while running pathetic circles around my studio last winter. But none of that matters now because Byrd had me conditioning the basics even before he coaxed me from my panic with kisses and dirty words.
I’m probably imagining the surprise on the coach’s face when I complete all five of the required one-arm straddle-ups, but a flush of pride that has nothing to do with my burning muscleswarms me anyway. Even if it’s only half as many as I pulled off at my original audition.
My beats are weightless, and I show off my flexibility by landing the last one in a perfect scorpion. And I finish with my double pirouette—even though Byrd assured me the single would be enough—because fuck it, I feel like a badass, and I know as soon as my hands leave the rope for the first rotation that I’m gonna nail it.
When it’s over, I’m so giddy with relief, I can barely make myself thank the woman.
