the chlorine levels, the feel of the swimsuit, the peculiarities of this venue. He liked this pool. He could feel himself slicing through the water. He caught Luke slipping by him in the neighboring lane out of the corner of his eye and didn’t care. He did his flip turn, the way he’d practiced a thousand times with Adam, and he swam back again.
“Good,” Adam said when Isaac popped his head out of the water. “Get up on the block. On the clock this time.”
TIM WORE sunglasses on his way into the Aquatics Center, because even though most of the press had yet to arrive in Madrid, he’d grown accustomed to the paparazzi following him, and he’d grown fucking tired of it.
Tim found Donnie, his coach, standing at the base of the platforms. Donnie stared intently at a clipboard, and without even looking up, he said, “Suit up. I’ll get you in the rotation.”
“All right.”
A half hour later, Tim stood on a platform, ready to do the only thing he ever really wanted to do. Tim loved diving. He loved the thrill of it. He loved the physicality of twisting his body and making it conform to his will as he somersaulted through the air. He loved flying. He loved the sensation of entering the water just right.
Up here on the platform, no one knew who he was. No one else was here. So no one cared that he’d broken off an engagement right before the Trials. No one knew that Pat had seen Tim more as a meal ticket than a lover, that Pat had been mooching off Tim since his show had gotten canceled, that Pat had hoped being seen as an adoring partner in the audience at the Olympic Games would somehow revitalize his career.
Tim had left him as soon as he figured that out.
His heart still ached sometimes. The only time it didn’t was when he hurled himself off a diving board and into the waiting pool below.
So he dove. An easy one first. A simple forward pike. He jumped off the board, folded his body in half, and unfolded gracefully before entering the water.
When he got out of the pool, Donnie said, “Good. Keep your form tight. Your knees were a little bent on that one.”
Donnie got gruff when he was nervous, which was almost always the case when Tim or one of his other divers was about to compete. Tim embraced it, relished it, was glad to be critiqued on his dives and not his personal life choices.
Six dives later Tim felt invigorated more than tired, but his practice time was up. He retreated to the locker room, deciding to take a shower now, given the unlikelihood of having running water in his room.
Then a flashbulb popped in his peripheral vision.
Tim didn’t even stop to look at who’d snapped the photo or what the target had been. He’d been through this enough in the past year that he knew better than to look. Instead, he put his head down and beelined into the locker room.
As he headed to the showers, he nearly collided with a broad swimmer’s chest.
“Hey, whoa there.” The man before Tim put his hands out and clasped Tim’s arms.
“Sorry. Wasn’t paying attention.”
“Hey, you’re Tim Swan, aren’t you?”
Fuck. The guy had an American accent too. Tim didn’t want to look up, but he did slowly.
Isaac Flood.
They’d never actually met, despite being on the same Olympic team four years before. Not for any particular reason; their paths just hadn’t crossed. Well, and the swim team was super cliquey and tended not to mingle with the other athletes.
“Hi,” Tim said. “Yes. Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. You were lost in your own head. I get it.”
Tim took a step back and tried to get his bearings. Good God, Isaac Flood was a big man. He had to be six three or four, with wide shoulders and arms that seemed three miles long. He had a broad chest and pale skin. His rich brown hair was tousled from being under a swim cap. He had gorgeous, depthless blue eyes. Tim had long thought Isaac Flood was sexy, but seeing him now, he realized he’d had no idea.
Tim took a deep breath. “Yes. I was lost in thought. Sorry for bumping into you. You’re Isaac Flood.”
“I am indeed.”
Tim nodded. “Maybe you’re the best person I could have run into. I mean, because you get why…. That is, you get so much media attention that you…. See, there was a