Chapter 8 ZEE #2
“This is a surprise and an honour. As a swimmer who grew up as poor as the dirt, I know how hard it is to maintain academics when your home life isn’t the best and I am thrilled that this scholarship will help a student who might be in a similar situation.
But I couldn’t have done it without the support of my coach, Fredrick Howard.
Coach Howard pushed me to do my best, no matter where my head was at, every day at the pool and I am forever grateful for those lessons. ”
He stopped, knowing he rambled, took a breath and continued.
“I couldn’t have done what I did in the pool if I didn’t have the love and support of my wife, Ella waiting for me at home. Ella, you are my everything. I can’t wait to see what our team does this year. Coach Howard, come up and say a few words!”
The audience broke out with applause and cheering as Coach came on stage and embraced Zee and then Nico and Roger huddled around him to more cameras going off and cheers from the crowd.
But he wanted to go back to Ella.
Racing down the steps of the stage, he reached her and pulled her into a tight embrace, kissing her with all the relief and pride he felt.
***
“Zee, this is one hell of a place,” Roger said, floating on his back in his pool. “How did you swing it?”
“That’s what happens when you don’t have an ex-wife who bleeds you dry,” Nico said.
“Hey, that’s two wives, buddy,” Roger retorted.
Zee pushed off the wall and dove under the water, silencing the noise before resurfacing next to Nico. “We got lucky. You know I always wanted a big house.”
“There’s a big house and then there’s a mansion,” Roger said, whistling. “This pool is nice though. I don’t know why I didn’t think of having an indoor pool.”
“It’d ruin the aesthetic of your cattle ranch,” Nico said.
“True.” Roger nodded his head, and Zee could see the man’s bald spot and felt an irrational flash of pettiness as he brushed his hand through his full hair.
The doors clicked open as Ella entered, her hands full with a tray.
“Thank you, dear heart.”
“Hey, thanks, Ella!” Nico called.
Ella put the tray on the table.
“You’re welcome.”
He smiled at her, hearing the ‘Master” in her tone. He brushed his knuckles along her back, feeling happy but his peace quickly turned to annoyance as Roger jumped out of the pool, brushing his arm against Ella’s.
The man always was a bit handsy and it irked Zee.
But Ella shook off his touch, and coming over to him, she dropped a kiss on his cheek.
“I’m going to call Annie again.”
Zee heard the tiredness in her tone and brushed a kiss on her soft lips. “Love you.”
“Love you too.”
“You’re so lucky, Zee,” Nico said, biting into a sandwich when Ella left.
“I wonder if he could still beat us. What do you figure, do you want to race?” Roger asked.
His back muscles protested, but he wasn’t backing down; he got off his chair and jumped into the water.
“Still remember how to do the butterfly, old man?” Roger splashed water at him and Zee shook his head and splashed him back.
“I don’t know. How are you at the backstroke these days, Roger?”
“The only thing he’s stroking is his dick.”
Nico jumped back into the pool, swam four feet, and Zee found himself analyzing the man’s movement because he couldn’t turn it off. They all might be old and grey but they were one percent of athletes once and you can’t turn that off.
“Backstroke then, winner buys breakfast?” Roger asked.
“Yeah, I’m in,” Zee said.
“Positions, boys!” Nico cried.
Zee swam to the wall, knowing he’d pay for this in the morning but not caring at all.
“Ready!”
“On my count,” Roger said.
“Why on his count?” Nico complained.
“Because he needs all the advantages,” Zee said.
“That’s not fair, let’s use my watch.” Roger held up his arm.
“Fine, the watch it is,” Nico said. “Too bad Coach couldn’t be here.”
“Zee would win for sure if Coach was here,” Nico said.
“If that was true, I would have won every time. You took that gold from me in my first race, Nico,” Zee said, the anger spiking his words. Back then he was a punk at his first Olympics, not yet mature enough to control his anger.
“Yeah but you came away with more hardware in the end. Take your marks, gentlemen,” Roger said.
They all took their positions on the wall, tense and waiting, taking a starting position as if it were a televised event.
Zee’s grip on the ledge was cool and slick, the tension in his muscles rippling and ready to go and he took a deep breath, muscles coiled yet effortless, ready to spring.
The buzz of Roger’s watch sent him off the wall as if it were a starting buzzer. His muscle memory took over as he drove backward, arms slicing through the water.
He kicked hard underwater, his dolphin kicks still technically perfect, the grind in his muscles intensifying as he silently demanded more with each stroke.
The burn crept into his shoulders, reminding him that he wasn’t twenty-five anymore, but he wasn’t going to give up.
Yeah, his pride was that fragile, but Zee didn’t care.
He wanted to show these guys up the way they did back in the day when they battled for milliseconds.
Splash flew as Roger came up hard, Nico pulling ahead.
Digging deep, he propelled himself through the water, determined to beat these guys.
Zee saw Nico slow and surged forward, focused on getting there first.
As he touched the wall, turning perfectly, he tucked his knees and planted his feet on the wall, and a surge of power rippled through him.
Ella was going to roll her eyes at him when he was sore and tired later, but for now, he powered through, his lungs burning.
His arms ached, and he couldn’t reach further for the water.
He saw Roger still ahead.
Dammit, he wasn’t going to catch him.
But he reached for the wall just ahead of Roger. He pulled up, shaking the water from his face, resting his arms on the deck.
“We’re stupid fucks,” Roger said, clapping Zee on the back, breathing just as hard.
“Yeah. But Nico’s buying breakfast.”
“I’ll take it. Just wish we had filmed it to put it on social media. Wouldn’t that have been a kick?” Nico said.
“Damn, I have to sit down,” Roger said. He hauled himself out of the pool, and Zee followed him to the pool deck.
“Come on, admit that was fun,” Zee said, drying off.
“Hell, it was fun, but my body is going to hate me tomorrow. Zee, what are you doing with all this property?” Roger asked.
Zee drank down half a bottle of water before grabbing a sandwich.
“Taking in the view every day. What do you do with yours?”
“I work the damn land, not just take pretty pictures,” Roger said. “You could have an investment. A wind farm or something.”
“I don’t want anything on my land. I want to leave it just as it is.”
Even if Ella did want a bed-and-breakfast.
“Roger, leave him alone. You haven’t asked me what I’m doing with my condo.”
“I know what you’re doing with your real estate. You’re keeping your mistress in it.”
“Fuck you,” Nico said.
Roger shrugged. “Tell me it’s not true?”
Nico flipped him off, diving deep into the water and then resurfaced.
“I’ve bought new property up this way in the past month,” Nico said.
“Yeah?” Zee stretched his hands above his head, feeling the ache in his shoulders.
“I wanted to wait till I knew for sure to mention it. You and Ella have to come by one night to see it.”
“We’d love to, Nico,” Zee said, sitting back against the chair, his shoulders seizing up.
“Zee, if you have dollars to spare, I’m always looking for investment in a ranch,” Roger said.
“Not my kind of thing. I don’t know anything about cattle.”
“Good return. Why don’t I send you the info, and you can look at it?”
Zee crossed his arms.
Nico never took no for an answer and there was always a certain neediness to Roger that was rooted in the material.
Like when Zee drove his old car to practice, and the next thing he knew, two months later, Roger came in with the year-before model of Zee’s.
“You can’t call yours the oldest in the lot.”
It was the only car Zee’s father would let him have, and only because Scott stood up to their dad, pointing out that Zee had done all the restoration work on it and it was promised to him.
“There she is again, the best-looking in this place,” Nico said as Ella breezed through the doors and right to his side.
“You missed the race of the century, Ella!” Nico called.
“I won!” Roger crouched down to Ella. “A kiss for the winner?”
“I think not,” Zee said, anger flaring through his body at Roger’s brashness.
“Sorry, Roger, I’m long spoken for.”
“Too bad he doesn’t share,” Roger said as he stretched in his chair.
“Damn right, I don’t,” Zee said as he tugged Ella down for a kiss.
Being with his teammates brought back his glory days but he wouldn’t go back to that time.
He’d love his body to move like he was a teenager again but glancing at the love of his life, he knew he wouldn’t trade her for all the youth and medals in the world.