the balance beam. She used her flexibility to her advantage, performing skills most gymnasts would never even try. She bent forward and touched her hands to the beam for a standing split, tipping her leg another inch higher in the air and then dropping it low to continue her choreography.
“Good.”
She reacted to my voice, stilling for a moment; she hadn’t realized I was watching her. She recovered quickly, flipping forward into an Arabian, landing, and connecting it to a wolf jump. Her body was constantly in motion. Her toned arms stretched overhead, and I watched her chest rise and fall under her blue leotard. Her back arched and her knees bent as she propelled herself into a back handspring-layout-layout. She was light on her feet, barely touching the beam between skills. She landed gracefully on the other side and a small triumphant smile dotted her lips. Then, she was off, slipping easily into the next skill.
It’d been weeks since she’d arrived in Seattle and her beauty on beam still never ceased to amaze me. I’d never watched someone like her before. Her long legs were mesmerizing and when she dismounted, stuck her landing, and looked to me for direction, I realized I had nothing to say. I was speechless.
I swallowed and turned without a word. She didn’t need my praise; that confident smile said it all. She and I both knew there was a pile of gold medals waiting for her in Rio.
“That’s it!?” she called as I walked away. “No critiques?”
I ignored her and kept walking so she wouldn’t see the smile I couldn’t stifle.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Brie
The more Erik ignored me, the more intensely I craved his attention. I didn’t know if it was the hot tub incident or the phone call with his grandfather, but the last few days leading up to Rio, he didn’t just overlook me, he seemed to have forgotten I even existed. I stole glances at him in the gym, expecting to find him staring back at me, pining as much as I was, but that wasn’t the case.
I’d had plenty of time to think about it (considering we hadn’t fought in days), and I decided he knew exactly what he was doing. He was treating me like I was just one of the girls on the team. He split his time evenly between us, not giving me a minute more, and that was the root of the problem. Had he been neglecting my training or ignoring my questions, I could have called him out and demanded he give me equal treatment—but no. He watched my routines and critiqued us all with cold indifference. It was driving me fucking insane.
He’d seen me naked! I’d baked him croissants! I’d endeared myself to his extended family! It wasn’t fair that I was the only one boiling up inside. I needed to know I wasn’t alone. I needed one sign that he cared, something that told me he hadn’t completely forgotten about me, something I could hold on to in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep and visions of him hot and sweaty after his run replayed in my mind.
“Seems like you and Erik have worked out your differences,” Molly said, kicking her feet up on the coffee table beside me. “Just in time, too, considering we leave for Rio in two days.”
I shrugged.
“I mean, he’s been acting normal in the gym,” she continued. “No fire and brimstone.”
I closed my eyes and let my head fall back against the top of the couch. Was it so wrong that I craved his cruelty? His tongue lashed like a whip when he was angry and yelling, but I’d grown to like the pain, if only to serve as proof that I stood apart in some way to him.
“Where are the other girls?” I asked, aware of how quiet it was in the house.
“Rosie is on the phone with her parents and Lexi is out taking her ballet class.”
I nodded. “Where’s June?”
“Up in her room, I think.”
A knock sounded on the front door.
“Not it!” I exclaimed.
Molly groaned and tossed her ice pack onto the coffee table before standing to answer the door. I figured it was Lexi, home from ballet, but then I heard Erik’s deep voice on the other side of the threshold.
“Tell Brie to dress for yoga and meet me out front in five minutes.”
She turned to glance at me over her shoulder. “Uh, Brie…”
“I heard him.”
I was conflicted. I’d just finished dinner and had been