Between Heats (Downtown Aquatics Book 1) (10 page)

They made love unhurriedly that night. As much as she loved
the explosive way they matched each other sexually, there was also something
moving about taking it slow. No dirty talk, no rough play. He rocked her with a
gentle urgency that stirred something deep down in her core.

She wanted to kiss his hurt away. He hadn’t brought the subject
up again, but she knew that it was hanging between them. But she was grateful
that he hadn’t pressed her about it. The truth was she wanted him so badly. She
didn’t mind being exclusive with him. But there were just so many things to
consider,
things that made her feel that what she had with
Aaron was bigger than anything she had ever had.

She tried to get him to talk about the one thing that she knew
he loved above all. "All this vigorous training and competition,
Aaron," she ventured softly in the dark, "there's got to be an
expiration date to it."

She felt Aaron stir, his arms tightening around her. "You
don't have to tell me. I've been training so hard for each competition.
For the Olympic Trials.
For Rio.
But after that, I don't know. Maybe I'll retire. Maybe I'll make good on my
degree. I’m sure my dad would love that. A lot can happen between now and then,
and the truth is it scares me. This I know.
Swimming and
dryland
training and competitions.
But after this… I
don't know anything."

"I know what you mean. I feel like I'm always chasing
after something, too, but it's never as clear as yours," she confessed.
"One day I'd think being successful is all about getting my face on a
Stroke campaign, the next day I'd realize that there are other things waiting
out there. I know I'll never make it to a Vogue editorial or the runways of
Paris.
But other things.
A national
TV commercial.
The cover of
Sports Illustrated
.
A movie. If I don't chase after them,
they'll end up on someone else's portfolio, not mine."

"Do you have any regrets?"

"A lot," Madison replied. She thought of Sean. She
thought of the look on Aaron's face when she told him. “Sometimes it can get so
overwhelming that I feel so helpless. Like I’m drowning and I don’t know how to
come up for air.”

"Then maybe we can be uncertain together. Take it one day
at a time." He kissed the top of her head. "Is that so bad?"

Madison didn't reply. This she knew: she had always felt safe
in his arms but this wasn't the answer she wanted to hear. How could she expect
him to be certain about her, when she couldn’t promise him anything?

"Would you like to come to the meet in Irvine? Watch the
team?" he asked softly.

She turned to him in surprise. "You want me to be
there?"

"I would love for you to come and cheer me on," he
said. “It will give me another reason to not want to lose.”

She burrowed into his strong arms, pushing all her earlier
trepidations away. “Of course. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

 
Training before
Splash Circuit had begun to taper off to allow them some rest before the big
meet, but Coach Didion insisted that they still drive to Irvine for
warm-ups.
 
It was one of the things
that his coach had instilled in Aaron and the rest of the team; warming up and
knowing the competition pool’s landmarks was crucial. The 50
was
a burst of power but for events like the 100, it paid to know how far it was to
the turn. “Make that wall work for you,” Coach Didion would say. “Turn too
early and you’d lose your advantage.” They made good use of their time in the
pool, headed back,
then
returned on the day before the
meet to check in at a nearby hotel. They didn’t need the unnecessary travel,
according to Coach, even if Irvine was just under an hour on a good day.

Splash Circuit Nationals was a four-day affair and the Downtown
LA Aquatics meant to stay there for the entire meet, regardless if any of them
needed to compete on the last day. Aaron himself was only swimming in two
events: the 50-m where he had briefly held the US record, and the 100-m, the
one that eluded him during the last Olympics by a tenth of a second. He had
something to prove. It wasn’t just about winning; it was about
not losing again
.

His times at the aquatic center have been incredibly consistent
these past weeks. He could only hope that he’d match those times here and, more
importantly, surpass them. He let the machine part of him take over his
training. At this point it was all instinct anyway. Months of hard work had
already taught his body how to react and respond both in and out of the water.

When he was in the water, it was easier not to think about
Madison. While things hadn’t changed much since her admission, at least not
outwardly, deep down, Aaron felt that same bitter disappointment when victory
eluded him. Like he was constantly not living up to standards, that he could
train all he want and still find some part of her was out of reach.

So he channeled his frustrations into his training. With
swimming, at least he knew what he was up against. Knew what drills to do, how
to breathe,
what
time to beat. Life in the water was
simpler.

“
Yo
,” his teammate Craig Parker said,
slipping into Aaron’s lane feet first. Their team shared a warm-up schedule
with a few other clubs. With the number of swimmers in the water, circle
swimming was inevitable.

Usually, Parker was a talker, a trait that irritated Coach
Didion to no end, but neither of them was in the mood right now. He knew that
this was Parker’s first big meet outside of the NCAA and the younger guy, who
favored backstroke and freestyle, was understandably on edge. Aaron pushed off
first, getting a feel of the water. He was slowly slipping into the zone that
he didn’t even notice Parker following him about ten seconds later. They swam a
few lengths before he caught up with Parker and tapped him for a pass, and
overtook him for the last length.

Coach Didion was waiting by the starting blocks as he heaved
himself out of the water. “It was supposed to be an easy swim, Harding.”

“What do you think, Coach?” he asked.

Coach was looking at the water, surveying the other swimmers
there. Aaron knew most of the others, competed against them in national and
international meets. He was seeded second for the 50-m, third in the 100-m, but
that was no reason for him to rest on his laurels, not when there were dozens
of hungry, aggressive swimmers nipping at his heels like sharks. “I think
you’re in a good place,” Coach agreed. “Parker might even make top 32, if he
manages to control that elbow.”

“Thanks, Coach.”

“Now go take the sprint. It’s your lane.”

Aaron grinned and adjusted his goggles. Today, lane four was a
one-way sprint lane, with a meet
marshall
on the far
end. Tomorrow, it was
his
, the way
top-seeded swimmers in a heat usually took the inside lanes.

He took deep breaths and shook himself before climbing up the
blocks and grabbing the edge.
You and the
water and the wall,
he told himself.
Nothing to prove.
But he knew deep down that this was now a
lie.

At his coach’s signal, he dove. He thought of her in the water.
He wasn’t going to lose again.

Madison expected Irvine to be a madhouse, and while the
aquatic center where the meet was held appeared busy, it wasn’t packed. She
quickly managed to ease her old Toyota into a parking slot and checked her
watch. 9:45.
The
meet had started at 9:00. Madison had
promised Aaron that she would arrive early, before his preliminary heat, but
she had gotten caught in the morning rush downtown. Luckily for Aaron and the
rest of his sports club, they had set up camp the day before, unwilling to
leave anything to the mercies of freeway traffic.

It was a hot SoCal morning. Madison slid her sunglasses on and
headed to the pool. Aaron had gotten her a VIP ticket for both days, telling
her she deserved a treat since it was her first meet. She insisted on paying
him for it but he didn’t want to hear any of it. So she decided to cheer for
him by showing up wearing a baseball cap that she had swiped from his
apartment, one that boldly said Harding on the front.

The sports facility boasted of a huge eight-lap 50-m outdoor
pool. Yellow and white flags were strung up over the starting blocks and the
bleachers.
 
There were plenty of
spectators but the place wasn’t elbow-to-elbow as she imagined. From what she
gleaned from Aaron, the morning was all about preliminary heats, with the
finals for the day’s events held in the evening. That was why she had promised
to stay for the whole day; it didn’t seem like the 50 was an event that Aaron
could lose. She was already incredibly proud of him for coming this far.

“Madison! Over here!”

She glanced up and saw Zoe standing and waving at her. She had
seen Aaron’s sister only once after the shoot, and it was for just a brief
errand to her university. Today Zoe looked pretty in another retro-looking
dress, which made her stand out in the sea of jeans and shorts over the
bleachers. She stood beside a tall, broad-shouldered man who had Aaron’s jaw.
She made her way to the second row, where they were seated. The VIP section was
near the starting blocks, and she was glad that Zoe had already found good
seats.

“I haven’t missed it yet, have I?” she asked worriedly,
settling beside her friend.

“There’s still one more event before his,” Zoe replied. “You’re
just in time.” She turned to the older man beside her. “Dad, this is Madison,
the girl Aaron’s seeing. I told you about her.”

From Aaron’s comments, she expected a stern and cold man. But
Aaron’s dad smiled at her warmly and offered her his hand. “Pleasure to meet
you. Call me Frank.”

“Pleasure’s all mine, Frank,” she replied politely. She
squeezed in beside Zoe, who quickly filled her in on Aaron’s event.

“He’s competing in the 50-m free today,” Zoe explained. “Right
now we’re seeing the women’s 50-m free, so it’ll be good for you to know which
lane to keep an eye on. Aaron made me promise to stay and keep you company.”
She grinned. “Dad usually takes off after Aaron’s heats and only comes back for
the finals, but I’m supposed to stay right here. Not that I’m complaining. I
only had to skip one class today.” She opened her bag and took out a sports
drink. “You thirsty?”

 
Madison shook her
head. “Uh,
I’m
 
good
, thanks. I think I’ll go look for some candy though—”

 
“Oh! I’ve got some
here, too...” Zoe answered, already peering into her bag.

 
Madison had to
laugh. She remembered the mints from the first day she met, and now this. “What
else do you have in there anyway?”

 
“Plenty of stuff!”
the younger girl replied proudly, laughing back. “Band-Aids, sunscreen, a
pocket calculator, extra underwear—”

 
“—
food
—”

 
“Especially food,”
Zoe echoed, without missing a beat. “I mean
,
it pays
to be prepared, right?
Especially on a day like this, when
we’re supposed to be here the whole day.
There are a couple of
preliminary heats to go and Aaron’s in the last one. He’ll be swimming on an
inside lane.”

“I’m pretty sure I can pick him out even in goggles and a swim
cap,” Madison said absent-mindedly,
then
gave a start
when Zoe laughed.

“
Overshare
,” she teased. “The 50
is
a quick event. Everything’s over in just seconds.”

As Zoe had predicted, the heats went by quickly. Madison
recalled Aaron’s droll statement that
‘the
fastest swimmer wins.’
It might have looked that it was all about speed but
she knew from Aaron’s rigorous training that a lot went into that swim. She
also found herself irrationally rooting for whoever was on lane four.

She reached for her phone, snapped a
selfie
(making sure that she got some of the bright yellow pennants and her Harding
cap in the shot), and sent it to Aaron.
Good
luck, hotshot!
XOXO
, she
texted.
He might not be able to read it but Madison wanted
him to know that she was there.

When it was time for the men’s 50-m free, Zoe nudged her.
“They’re starting,” she hissed, over the sound of the announcer calling out the
swimmers to the starting blocks.

“You said he was still in…” she consulted the heat sheet
dangling from Zoe’s hand, “...heat six.”

Zoe’s cheeks were a bit flushed. “True, but we’re here to cheer
for their aquatic club, right?”

Madison sat up straighter, straining to hear who else from
Downtown LA Aquatics was competing in the event. She heard the club name
announced during the fourth heat, but didn’t catch the swimmer’s name. Still,
she joined Zoe in cheering loudly when the swimmer finished first in his heat.
As if he heard them, the swimmer turned in their direction and pumped a fist in
the air.

All too soon it was Aaron’s heat. Madison was so nervous for
him. Her throat felt dry. She saw the swimmers walk up to the blocks, and when
Aaron’s name was announced, the crowd cheered appreciatively. She shouted his
name but she wasn’t sure he had heard her through the yells and applause.

Aaron didn’t look nervous at all. He had on a pair of black
jammers with a red stripe down each side and a club jacket around his
shoulders. His back and arm muscles were so cut and defined that she felt
tingles over her body. He slipped the jacket off and was shaking himself loose
as the announcer cycled through the rest of the names. She remembered him once
telling her that he didn’t notice much else once he was at the block, but this
time he looked in their direction. Because Aaron was wearing goggles, she
couldn’t tell if he saw them, but that didn’t stop her from yelling anyway.