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Quinn and I are not the only ones who can’t disguise our excitement when we step off the bus. There are a lot of wide eyes and gaping mouths when we see the wonders around us. Our hotel is in close proximity of Olympic Village and the host facilities for the Olympic Games.
A chill runs up my spine, and goose bumps break out over my skin at the pure magnitude of this moment. In a little over a year, hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world will walk on this very spot. Quinn meets my gaze and shows the same reaction.
I’d love to grab my camera from my bag, but I settle on my phone to get a few snapshots. After a few moments, we are ushered into the hotel and directed to a large conference room. The table’s set up with colored packets and name badges. The packets in front of me and the three people to my right are all blue, which I assume means this is my team.
Professor Grant welcomes us and explains that we are indeed seated next to our team members. Quinn scowls, clearly unhappy about being separated. I scrunch my nose, letting her know I’m not pleased either. To my horror, a throat clears, and Professor Grant is eyeing us.
I sit up straighter and try to control the blush creeping up my cheeks. He goes back to reviewing the agenda when the door opens. I literally gasp out loud when some of the biggest names in news walk in. The hair on my arms stands when Shana Willis stops behind the four of us on the blue team.
My eyes meet Quinn’s and hers are as wide as mine. We absolutely admire Shana. Sometimes, when we’re in crazy moods, we’ll prance around the apartment using our fists as microphones and pretend to cover a breaking news story. Usually, it’s after we’ve had a few drinks.
My hands start to tremble when she taps me on the shoulder to introduce herself. I try my best to be normal but fail miserably.
“I-I-I’m Devon Willis.” Oh shit! “I mean, I’m Devon H-H-Harris. You’re Shana Willis.”
Her lips tip up as she takes my hand. “Nice to meet you, Devon Harris.”
I slink back in my seat and watch her introduce herself to my other team members. This is where I learn their names: Eric, Kenny, and Crystal.
The squeaky voice across the table catches my attention, and I watch Quinn blubber her own introduction to Bill Tames. I completely feel her pain. This man survived an attack overseas, and instead of heading back to the safety of the U.S., he stayed and interviewed survivors and families of the fallen. We both hit the jackpot with our professional mentors.
Shana pulls up a chair, and we review the information in the folders. A few hours later, we’re dismissed to go to our rooms and get settled in our home away from home for the next six weeks.
Quinn and I contain ourselves until we are closed in our room before we both unleash our excitement. After dissecting every detail of our meetings, and the new people we’ll be working with, she goes downst
airs to make some calls.
I shoot a quick text to my parents, promising to call later, and then dial Bryce. He picks up on the first ring.
“Babe.”
“You are not going to believe what I have to tell you!” I jump right into my day, trying not to miss any details.
He listens until I’m winded from talking so fast. There’s humor in his voice when he finally gets a chance to talk as I stop to take a breath.
“So happy for you. You’re going to take this opportunity by storm.”
“Really? You think so?”
“Absolutely. I couldn’t be happier. Damn, I’m going to miss this.”
The excitement disappears, remembering he leaves at four am tomorrow for Rhode Island. Our communication will be severely limited with our schedules.
“Don’t do it, Devon. I can feel your attitude changing. Don’t lose that spunk.”
I take in a deep breath and clench the phone tighter. “I’m not going to let you miss this. I’ll make a point to do as many videos as possible and send them to your phone. You can watch them when you’re not busy.”
He laughs again, and it hits straight to my heart. I wish I could record that sound.
“All right, that’s a good plan. Now, tell me more about what you’re doing, hotshot. What’s the plan?”
I read him the agendas and different areas we’ll be going. We stay on the phone a while, me not wanting to let him go. Finally, he makes me hang up when my words start to mumble from exhaustion.
“Behave yourself, Devon Marie, and remember, I’m your number one fan,” he tells me before whispering he loves me and hangs up. The last thought I have is “I’m not doing this for me; I’m doing it for us.”
Chapter 7
