Epilogue – Autumn
San Antonio, Texas – a year later
The scent of chlorine clung to everything—the air, my skin—the buzz of adrenaline lacing my bloodstream.
The national swimming championship was louder than I’d imagined.
Stadium lights bounced off the glistening water, and the crowd roared the moment the competitors stepped onto the deck.
Cameras panned and banners flew. I was repping Montana now, which still felt surreal.
Me. Otter. A girl who once nearly drowned in more ways than one.
In the bleachers, I spotted my parents. They’d been in full manager mode all season, not that it meant they were back together. Dad was explaining something to Mom, which she’d probably argue about in thirty seconds, and Dom would end up playing referee. Again.
He looked larger than life in his Team Otter hoodie, his ball cap turned backward. And on his lap? Lulu, wearing an official service dog vest. Legit. Dom had wrangled her the status, and she’d been racking up air miles ever since the season started.
Next to them sat Jimmy and Julia. They had finished their races yesterday. Julia had earned a bronze in the 100m freestyle, and Jimmy had narrowly missed the podium in the 200. Today, they were both decked out in Otter merch and screaming louder than my own blood in my ears.
Then it was go time.
I slid into the pool. My hands gripped the block above me, and my feet braced against the wall. It was a medal race. 200m backstroke, my specialty. I faced the ceiling, the water waiting behind me, my lane stretching unseen.
The buzzer split the air.
I launched backward, arching through the surface. Everything else disappeared, until it didn’t.
Because halfway through the last lap, the water changed.
Suddenly, I wasn’t in a race. I was back in that frigid mountain river, fighting to keep Dom alive. Fighting for something worth drowning for.
The current of the memory surged through me and carried me home.
When my hand slapped the wall at the finish, I wasn’t even sure what had happened. Not until the scoreboard lit up and someone shrieked, “Silver! Otter got silver!”
Tears came fast, chlorinated and messy and not at all graceful. I’d been tipped to place fourth at best, so silver was everything.
I turned to the gold medalist in the next lane.
“Great job!” I called out.
“You too!” she said with a laugh. “You look way too calm for someone who just shattered a record.”
“What?”
What record?
Right then, the announcement echoed again overhead. She and I had both broken the national record.
“No way!” I gasped.
“Believe it!” she said, flashing a grin as she swam to the edge. “Next stop? The Olympics, girl!”
Dom found me as I finished talking with my team and coach, still dripping, my jacket plastered to my back. He pulled me aside, just past the crush of bodies and noise.
“You swam like hell out there,” he said, his voice low and a little rough around the edges. “Thought you were gonna give me a heart attack.”
I snorted. “Not my fault you’re emotionally fragile.”
Before he could fire back, one of the officials waved me over for the medal ceremony.
“I’ll talk to you later, okay?” Dom shouted above the noise as I got yanked away by a volunteer.
The ceremony was a blur.
Standing on the podium with a silver medal around my neck, I scanned the stands. I spotted Mom first. She was clapping like her heart might burst while Dad had both arms up in the air. And beside him was Dom. He jostled Lulu in his arms, grinning as he lifted her paw to wave at me.
When the ceremony ended, people swarmed again, offering congratulations and snapping pictures. I grinned and hugged and thanked them, but when I turned back to the seats, Dom was gone.
I frowned, scanning the crowd.
Where the heck did he go?
I slipped off the podium, ducked under a rope line, and scanned the tunnels that led out of the arena.
And there he was.
Waiting by the poolside tunnel.
“Found you,” I said, running straight at him and throwing myself into his arms. He caught me, my wet body soaking into his dry hoodie.
A kiss landed on my lips. “Congrats. You’ve done it.”
I eyed the special pass clipped to his chest. It was not from me. “How did you get that?”
He shrugged, but his focus was all on me. Or maybe on the medal still glinting at my chest.
“Silver suits you,” Dom said, his hand gliding down my back.
“Hmm, I think I know where this is going.”
“Oh yeah? Where’s that?”
“You’re about to bring up baby otters now that nationals are over.”
“Hey! I’m not that pushy,” he defended.
I was set on prying out his true motive, but he actually seemed…innocent. Maybe that wasn’t on his mind.
But it was on mine.
“Well, just in case you were thinking it, I haven’t changed my mind,” I said gently. “But if it’s okay, I’d like to wait. At least until after the Olympic trials?”
“Or after the Olympics,” he said. “Because I think you’ve got a real shot, Otter.”
“You mean that?”
“Yeah.” His voice was sincere. “I do.”
I smiled. “So what did you actually want to talk to me about?”
He nudged me farther into the tunnel, into a pocket of quiet.
And he didn’t wait. He just sank to one knee and looked up at me.
“Autumn. I’ve been through courtrooms, war zones, and rivers that nearly took us both. But nothing breaks me open like loving you.”
I froze. Not because I hadn’t dreamed of this, but because, somehow, even after everything, Dom Powell still had the power to steal the ground from under me.
He pulled a small box from his pocket and flipped it open with a thumb.
There was no crowd and no applause. Just his eyes on mine, and everything they promised.
“Let’s make this permanent, Otter. Be my forever.”
The ring inside was simple, classic, and beautiful. It looked like us, like a thousand little battles won just by holding on.
“Of course, Dom. Let’s make it forever.”
Right then, chaos exploded.
My teammates appeared out of nowhere, along with Jimmy and Julia too. They broke into an off-key song and a truly horrific synchronized dance. Then they ambushed us, spraying us both with cold water from plastic bottles and laughing so hard that they couldn’t stand straight.
I threw my arms around Dom’s neck, laughing and crying all at once.
Silver did look so good around my neck. But the ring he slid onto my finger?
That was a beginning.
We’d built something worth restarting, again and again. Because forever wasn’t some finish line you crossed. It was every unexpected beautiful day along the way.
Thank you for reading Swept For Forever! I hope Dom and Otter’s story left a mark on you the way it did on me.