Page 68 of Ruck Me Harder

Behind him are Brody and another guy. Probably one of his teammates. I think I recognize him from the gym last week. I don’t know; I only had eyes for one gymnast.

“What’re you guys doing here?” Cari asks her brother.

“Vivienne invited me.” He steps forward and kisses the top of her head. “You’re okay?” His voice is gruff.

“I will be,” she says with a sniff.

“Hold on,” Kiana interrupts. “You call her Vivienne?”

“It’s her name,” he says, glaring at her.

Brody pulls up two chairs, the third guy grabbing another.

Tony settles beside me, his arm sliding around my shoulders. His fingers on my chin, he tilts my head to kiss me.

All the tension coiled tight inside of me evaporates. There are times I have to be strong and capable, but when I’m with him, I don’t feel the weight of that responsibility on my shoulders. I feel like I can breathe, like I only have to worry about taking care of myself and not everyone around me.

“Viv,” Brody says. “Nice to see you again.”

“You too.”

“I’m Dylan,” the other guy says, offering his hand for a shake. “I don’t think we’ve had a chance to chat. I really like what you’ve done the last few weeks.”

“Oh?”

“The big grump has a heart,” he teases. “It’s nice to see him smile.”

Tony glowers at him, so I smile enough for the both of us.

“I like it too.”

The girls go around and introduce themselves. A few of them met Brody when he and Tony dropped by practice, but the guys didn’t linger.

And now that I know it was all a ploy for Tony to ask me out… yeah, I’m not upset about that in the slightest.

It’s nice for our friends and teammates to mingle. I hope they all get along. It’s as important to me as Tony’s siblings and my siblings getting along. These girls are my sisters too.

My boyfriend tightens his arm around me and steals a sweet potato fry off my plate. He goes to pop it into his mouth when, at the last moment, he detours and offers it to me instead. My smile stretches wide across my face as I let him feed me.

“You’re disgusting,” Grace says with a grin.

“Disgustingly happy, maybe,” Kiana chimes in.

“You’re right about that,” I tell them.

With a laugh, I lean into Tony and he kisses my temple. I don’t know a time I’ve ever been so happy.

twenty-eight

. . .

Tony

Rotterdam. I’ve never been to the Netherlands before. It’s such a funny name, I half believed it doesn’t even exist except, one, I got an A in my college geography class, and two, the women’s gymnastics team is one of the best in the world. They’ve won the bronze medal at the last two Worlds competitions.

We’re six hours ahead of Boston. I sent Viv and my siblings a text—separately—when we landed, but now that we’re in the hotel and supposed to be getting settled, all I’m doing is getting more unsettled.

We have three days of training and to get used to the time difference before the opening ceremonies. Then it will be a whirlwind four days of qualification rounds before the six days of finals competition.