Page 47 of Coming Home

I spun around in his embrace, burying my face in the crook of his neck, clinging to his wet shoulders as the dam broke.

"I'm right here," he whispered into my hair, his arms locking around my waist, lifting me slightly so I didn't have to work to stay above water. "I've got you, Em."

"I missed it," I wept, my voice wrecked and muffled against his skin. "I missed it so much, Ralph. It hurts how much I missed it."

"I know."

"I forgot how it felt to be whole. I forgot."

"You didn't forget a damn thing." His hand cupped the back of my head, his fingers tangling in my wet hair, pulling me closer until there was no space left between us. "It was just waiting for you to come back for it."

I pulled back just enough to look at him. His face was a blurry smudge through my tears, but his eyes were bright, fierce, and visibly wet. He was looking at me with an intensity that made my throat tight. This man had watched me win an Olympic gold medal, and the expression on his face right now was infinitely more proud.

I kissed him.

I put my wet hands on his jaw and pressed my mouth to his. There was pool water between our lips, the sharp tang of chlorine on our tongues, and my tears mixing with the water on his cheeks. He caught his breath, his arms tightening instantly around my waist, pulling me so hard against him that I could feel the frantic thud of his heart. The kiss tasted like salt and chlorine and something I'd forgotten I wanted.

"There she is," he murmured against my lips, his breath hot and ragged. "There's my mermaid girl."

I leaned into him harder, my fingers digging into the nape of his neck. I was weightless in his arms, and it had absolutely nothing to do with the water and everything to do with the man who'd waited on that damp deck every morning, stopwatch in hand, for the day I'd finally get in on my own.

A violent throat-clear shattered the silence of the natatorium.

"Not in my pool, you two," Vance called out from the deck, her voice echoing off the tile with lethal clarity.

Ralph didn't let me go. He just turned his head slightly toward the deck, his arm still fastened around my waist, and shouted back, "Coach, come on. We're celebrating a breakthrough. Have a heart."

"You can celebrate plenty on dry land, Brandt. That water is for Olympic training, not whatever hormonal nonsense you're engaged in. Out."

A laugh bubbled up from my chest. Ralph dropped his forehead against mine. "I'm suddenly highly motivated to get that positive reinforcement we were talking about," he whispered, his gaze dropping shamelessly to my mouth.

I tilted my chin up, mimicking his slow smile. I leaned in until my lips were a millimeter from his, close enough to feel the radiating heat of him, and held his gaze. His fingers tightened on my hips.

"Actually," I whispered, "I was thinking about that tangible reinforcement. Where's your head at?"

His expression shifted—priceless. Completely caught off guard.

Before he could respond, I pushed off his chest, slipping out of his grip, and swam backward toward the ladder. "I'll be right back. I left something in the car."

"You're a tease, mermaid girl!" he called out, wiping water from his face as he grinned.

"Your split times say otherwise," I shot back, climbing out of the pool dripping, shivering, and blushing so hard my neck felt hot.

I walked toward the benches with as much dignity as a soaking-wet woman who had just been aggressively kissing the boy she'd known since childhood could muster. I was halfway across the deck when I remembered the energy drink. I'd hit three specialty shops in Silver Lake yesterday to find that stupid European brand he'd mentioned once in passing—the only one that didn't taste like carbonated cough syrup. I'd hidden it in the backseat.

My actual, tangible prize.

I hurried into the locker room, quickly peeling off my wet suit and pulling on the dry oversized sweater and shorts I'd brought. I jogged out to the parking lot. The afternoon concrete was burning hot under my feet. I grabbed the cold glass bottle from the backseat of the SUV, a stupid, permanent smile plastered across my face. My cheeks ached from the unfamiliar work of being happy.

I pushed back through the facility's glass entrance, holding the cold bottle against my palm, my heart still fluttering.

I saw him immediately.

Ralph was out of the water, standing on the concrete deck with a white towel draped around his neck. But he wasn't alone.

A man was standing right next to him. Tall, dark-haired, wearing a tailored charcoal suit that looked too expensive and structured for a humid pool deck.

His back was turned to me, but I didn't need to see his face. I knew the exact slope of those shoulders.