Teagan
One lap around the athletic center was enough to pull focus. She’d stretch out, do a warm-up, get in the zone—
She glared at Coach Hayden.
“I’m pretty sure I’m the one who gets to decide that.”
He shrugged out a fair enough. “Okay. But your coach has intel on your competition. Would you like to hear it?”
Obviously. But she was busy sending out Distinctly Unhappy vibes. Ha. They could glare this out. Orrr they could pick it up later when her chances of putting her rowing career back on track weren’t dangling in the balance.
“Intel. Please,” she added, because her mother, who had slept with him, had raised her to be polite. They would definitely be having words later.
“Good.” He held up the notebook he put stats in. “No surprise, Gravenhurst are expected to take first and second positions. There’s an up-and-comer from Claremont to watch for, but if you keep your pace on your third five hundred, you’ve got a shot at taking that top spot.”
“Okay.” Good. Yeah. She liked those odds. Had needed the intel. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“This doesn’t make up for smashing my mom.”
Hayden winced, like he’d smelled a skunk. “Hearing that is punishment enough.”
Fair. She hadn’t painted a pretty picture of what had, presumably, been a good date night. Now that she thought about it, her mom had been a lot happier lately. But there had to be ground rules. “No PDA, she’s home by eleven, and I’m up at six, so if you’re sneaking out, it better be earlier.”
“Deal.” He nodded, satisfied. No need for a handshake.
“One more thing, and this is really humiliating for me to ask so don’t make a big thing about it, okay?”
“Go ahead.”
“Do you know where she is? She’s not answering her phone. She said she’d be here.”
He shook his head. “Sorry. But I’m pretty sure if she does call… when she calls…” he amended, “you’ll be the one whose phone rings.”
Good answer. And a good coach. But the other stuff? Bleurgh.
Truce in place, she accepted Coach’s invitation to sit with him and Ryder’s mom to watch the guys’ race.
She hunted her teammates out among the rows of ergs, with judges walking between them. Coach spotted them first. “Looks like Cam’s already caught the scout’s eye.”
“Or Ryder,” his mom interjected.
Yeah. Maybe. They were both good. But Coach’s lack of response indicated there was something else they agreed on. Cam was the one to watch today.
She watched as he and Ryder exchanged a weird look Teagan couldn’t interpret, but Cam’s face transformed into his blinkered zone too soon for her to figure it out.
Uh-oh. Baloo was staring daggers at the Westvale guy. Snapchat wouldn’t light up with their shirtless selfies anymore. Poor Baloo. He deserved so much better.
She spotted Josh strapping his feet on to the erg. He was in his own world from the looks of things. Eyes not lifting once to find a friendly face in the crowd. Which made her heart ache almost as much as it had when she’d caught that glimpse of “normal Cam” at check-in.
Madison jogged over and squished herself between Teagan and Coach—wise—just as the official moderating the event did a quick mic check.
The room fell silent. The tension was palpable.
“Rowers, pick up your handle.”
Twenty handles whirred into position.
C’mon, Cam. You’ve got this.
“Sit ready,” called the moderator. “Attention! GO!”
It was hard to know where to focus. The leaderboard tracking the rowers’ progress, or the rowers themselves.
Ryder’s name flew to the top of the board straight away.
“Keep it up, Easton!” Coach Hayden called. A reminder that in less than ten minutes they’d be a team again.
“Go, Ryder!” Karina shouted.
Baloo, who was closest to them, was pushing hard. So was Logan. Not hard enough.
Teagan cupped her hands to her mouth. “GO, BALOO! FLY LIKE AN EAGLE!”
Coach Hayden shook his head. “He’s pushing too hard. He’ll burn out trying to keep that pace.”
He was right. She glanced at the leaderboard, watched Baloo’s name drop. Saw Josh’s name shoot past it, closing in on Cam and Ryder.
Josh’s face was tight, tense. Too tense. She’d seen him straining before, gritting his teeth, pushing through the pain to hold a pace, but this was different. He wasn’t reacting to the muscle burn in the way he normally did.
“Josh’s losing steam.”
Ryder saw it, too. Pushed harder, faster, like the two of them were in some weird Marvel film, and Ryder, who’d been forced to stand in his cousin’s shadow all his life, was literally draining Josh’s energy stores.
He was rowing stronger than he ever had before.
Behind Teagan, his mom was going wild. The leaderboard continued shuffling names.
Teagan shook her head, not believing what she was seeing.
Josh had fallen to tenth place. He wouldn’t be getting an invitation to the Junior National team. Not now. Maybe not ever.
Coach shook his head, bewildered. Caught Teagan’s eye and pointed at Ryder and Cam, who were pretty much rowing in sync. Solid. Strong. Steady. And fast. “It’s a two-man race now.”
Their names flipped back and forth on the leaderboard faster than an Olympic Ping-Pong volley.
Five hundred meters to go.
Ryder.
Cam.
Ryder.
Cam.
She felt sick with nerves. Forced herself to watch the rowers.
Cam was in his element. He could pull ahead.
Keep himself in the number one position, get noticed, like he deserved.
Everyone on the team trained hard, but Cam had done it fastidiously, noticing his faults, correcting them, pushing himself to another level, fine-tuning until he was ready to move to the next.
He glanced up, caught her eye. She willed him to know how much she wanted this for him. How much she believed in him. How deeply she cared for him.
His name passed Ryder’s.
The two of them glanced at each other. Ryder looked pissed off, like Cam had laid down a royal flush after successfully bluffing at a high-stakes game of cards. Cam held his poker face…
And then, a falter.
Ryder’s grin as he finished the last few meters was pure triumph. Like he’d pulled a five of a kind out of his hat—the only hand that could beat Cam’s royal flush.
This race was meant to be played with a straight deck, not wild cards. There were judges and officials everywhere. The results had to stand up to the highest levels of scrutiny. No funny business. No preferential treatment. No cards slipped up sleeves.
Cam slid to a standstill, glanced up at the leaderboard, and dropped his head, as if seeing it had drained away any remaining energy.
Teagan looked up at the board again, willing it to change.
But no. Cam’s final time was slower than Ryder’s.
Both of their times were slower than the personal bests Cam had been hitting for weeks.
He sat there, motionless, while the rest of the rowers finished their races.
What just happened, Cam?
He could’ve won this. Be talking to the scout who was leading Ryder away for a chat. She’d seen Ryder pull ahead with her very own eyes, but she couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off.
Madison and Coach looked as confused as she felt. Coach was happy for Ryder, as an Eagle, but she could see he was disappointed for Cam. Had wanted it to go another way.
Cam finally looked up, stared at Ryder and the scout for a minute, then unstrapped his feet and headed for the locker room.
She didn’t care if they weren’t really talking. She was going to squeeze the truth out of him.