by Nana Malone
Cole frowned, turning back to her and picking up the conversation where they’d left off. “Why would that have been an issue? With his family, I mean.”
Tami grimaced. “It’s…a long story. Brent wanted Bryce in the business, and Rory…” She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Well, Rory can be… He has opinions on just about everything, and is terrible when it comes to getting his own way. I don’t think he could have hated me more when Bryce and I were first dating. Hell, he still isn’t as fond of me as a few of Bryce’s exes, as far as I can tell. But the others… Now, they’re family.”
Bryce was pushing his way back through the crowd to join them. “Some assistant on set for this commercial answered the phone and was giving me a hard time about talking to him,” he explained, shaking his head. “Got it straightened out, though, so he’s got them all watching Echo’s start.”
“Which should be any minute now,” Jen added.
They pressed up against the barrier, straining to see up the road as the people on either side grew quieter, waiting for that first runner to appear before erupting with excitement.
Echo wasn’t the first runner from the women’s elite group to pass them, but when Bryce turned to him with a wary look, Cole reassured him that it wasn’t part of Echo’s plan to lead so early in the race.
“She’s got more than twenty miles left to go,” he reminded her brother after Echo passed them four runners later. “It’s slow and steady to start.” She made no acknowledgement of the crowd, so they couldn’t tell whether she’d heard them or not. Bryce beamed with pride and Cole was pretty sure he’d screamed louder than anyone one either side of the street, but immediately conceded it might only have felt that way because he was standing next to him.
“Well,” Tami said, standing straighter. “Should we wait for the men’s elite to start with the first wave and cheer on everyone else, or do you think we should sneak out to get to the finish line and meet Echo on the other end?”
“You’re cold, aren’t you?” Bryce teased, wrapping his arms around Tami. “Let me warm you up.”
She laughed and snuggled with him for a minute before wriggling free. “Okay yes, I am cold, and I know I’m going to want something to eat before everything at the finish line disappears, so I say we go.”
“I’m with you,” Jen said, following her through the crowd.
Bryce laughed but hung back a moment.
“Listen, Cole, I, uh…” Bryce began awkwardly. “I know that you’re busy with Echo’s training. And I don’t want to distract you from that at all, I mean…she needs you right now. But maybe sometime when you have a chance… There’s a project, a foundation, I’m working on getting started and I’d like to have your input on it.”
“My input? Why would you want my input?” Unease made his gut clench.
“I’m not going to be able to play singles tennis much longer,” Bryce confided. “And I’m fine with that, because I’d rather play with Tami, anyway. But even then… I want to still do something in tennis, though. Coaching someday, but not while Tami is still on top of her game and traveling—I want to travel with her, and that wouldn’t be fair to anyone I might work with. When she was growing up, Tami’s parents tried to pay for the kinds of lessons and tournaments and things she would have needed to get her into tennis competitively, but it’s expensive and the travel involved…” Bryce slowed his pace to prolong the conversation, and Cole found himself slowing as well, now more than a little bit curious about whatever it was Bryce was proposing.
“So, I want to start a foundation that will help out young players like Tami was. The ones who have the drive, but not necessarily the means to play. I want to have camps and tournaments where the necessary materials and coaches are provided for them, but where their families carry none of the cost, and—”
“It sounds fantastic,” Cole interrupted. “But I still don’t understand how I fit in to all these ideas, exactly.”
“Well, I know your specialty for coaching is track and field events, but I’m sure you have some friends, or at least contacts from the program you went through, who might be looking for a job with something like this.” Bryce responded as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“You don’t think you might have better tennis contacts, given your position?”
“Not ones who would really be able to appreciate where the kids I want to reach are coming from. I want coaches who they’ll relate to and respond to—and quite frankly, they deserve to have a chance, too, those coaches. I’m always afraid with things like this that there would be too much nepotism. Probably because there’s so much of it at Legacy Sports… I mean, it’s what Gramps always wanted. To be sure the family at large would be provided for, and that’s great, but keeping it too close, pushing some of us into that business… It wasn’t what I wanted and I know it’s not what Echo wants,” Bryce admitted, more freely than Cole was expecting. “I hope this all helps her feel more comfortable standing up for herself, for what she wants to do with her life.”
They were just about at the car, and Cole could see Tami and Jen huddled inside, warming themselves.
“I, uh…I’ll put out some feelers for you, yeah,” Cole promised Bryce, who grinned and clapped him on the shoulder before climbing into the driver’s seat. Feeling slightly dazed, Cole circled to the passenger side of the car to climb in as well.
He was distracted as they drove into the city to the finish line. Every so often, Jen nudged him and showed him her phone where the local news networks were covering the race. Echo was still in the pack of leaders, making good time. They seemed to follow her a lot, so he knew the newscasters were probably discussing her shift from charity participant to active competitor, and what that might mean.
He wasn’t sure he was ready to start dealing with the interruptions to her training the inquisitive sports media would inevitably cause—of course, he was more prepared for that than for the fact that not all of the Coulters were as fame-hungry and obsessed with their wealth as he’d always imagined them to be. As he stared out the window at the tenements, laundromats, shops, and restaurants that lined the increasingly urbanized streets into Boston, Cole struggled to recalibrate his mind.
Just like Echo, Bryce had surprised him. Maybe it was time to reevaluate the way he thought of the Coulter clan.
Nineteen
It took Echo a few minutes to locate and recognize her family after crossing the finish line. She was too focused on the race itself. She was pretty sure she’d placed well—the top ten, at least—but all she saw was the blue, yellow, and white of the finish line. She had only been paying attention to the woman in front of her. Her legs burned—more than she was used to after crossing that familiar line. And her lungs, well, they felt like they were about to burst from her chest. She walked around a bit until her pulse quieted in her ears and the cheering of the crowd replaced it.
Cole was the first person she saw, though he hung back a bit from her parents and siblings as they slipped from their places in the crowd to come and hug her. Her eyes stayed with him, caught by the intensity in his gaze. She saw him nod and smile, and she burst into a smile of her own. She didn’t even care that one of the news crews had pointed a camera in their direction. She only hoped the microphones were focused on the large group gathering around the woman who’d won and that the cameras would soon get their fill of the Coulter family party slipping off to one side of the street.
Cole said something to someone in a bright security vest before coming to join the larger group. The television cameras were soon pointed in another direction, allowing her family as much privacy as could be expected.
“You did wonderful, honey,” her mother said, wrapping a solar blanket around her shoulders and trapping in her body heat.
“How’d I place?” she panted.
“Fourth,” her father told her.
“Awesome job, Echo,” Bryce nodded, while Tami came in to give her a quick hug.
“With
a bit more training you’ll be on that podium, no problems,” Gramps said with a grin.
Echo started shaking her head, but her mind was still too clouded from focusing on the race itself to find the words she needed. “I like running marathons,” she tried to explain. “I don’t like racing them.”
Gramps was dismissive. “You’ll like them better when you’re up on that podium, trust me,” he assured her.
Echo gritted her teeth, listening to several more murmurs of agreement from her family group. She winced as she took a step and felt the muscles in her right leg start to seize, just as they had the week before during training.
Cole quickly pushed through to slip one of her arms over his shoulders and help her get out of the crowd.
“Let’s get you to the medical tent and have you checked out. We can discuss things there.”
He spoke loud enough for the rest of her family to remember where they were. Bryce quickly took up Echo’s other side so that she didn’t need to worry about putting any weight on her uncooperative right leg.
A number of the first elite runners were in the medical tent being given liquids and warming blankets to counteract the effects of the chilly morning—so far, the weather hadn’t warmed up as much as the weathermen had predicted. Some of the wheelchair participants were having blisters checked as well. There wasn’t much the medical officials could advise for Echo, beyond taking a rest and perhaps massaging the cramps out of her muscles.
“You can stay here for a little while, but when more runners start coming in, we’ll be needing these spaces for more serious cases,” one of the organizers said, nodding to Echo, Cole, and a few other members of her family to be sure they understood. Then the organizer disappeared back to the front of the tent, where the crowd could be heard erupting into exuberant applause, as the first of the elite men’s group came into sight from farther up Boylston Street.
Cole pulled up a seat and propped Echo’s leg in his lap so he could get to work on relieving the knots in her muscles.
“I think you’re selling yourself short,” Gramps began, picking up the topic that Echo thought had been successfully dropped. “If you put everything you’ve got into the marathon—”
“I want to run the half mile,” Echo interrupted. “I want to run the events I like best and feel like I’ll do well in. I can’t do that if I put everything into the marathon.”
“The marathon is more—” her grandfather continued.
“She’s not running the marathon for the Olympics,” Cole interrupted, not looking up from where his fingers were pressing into the flesh of Echo’s calf.
“Well, that’s not up to you, is it? It’s up to her and—” Gramps snapped.
“And she’s said she doesn’t want to run it,” Cole said calmly. “Given what I’ve seen from her in training the last few weeks, I don’t want her running it, either. This is causing too much wear and tear on her muscles. Pushing herself to go faster over such a long distance is not good for her. What’s more, she doesn’t want to run it, so she’s inherently less likely to win. She can and has been pushing herself to her limits, but without that heart-and-soul drive to run it, to win…she won’t. She wants to run the 800 meters, so that’s the race we’ll be pushing her for, and she’ll still have time to train and run in other events as well.”
Cole’s voice rose and fell before finally leveling out. Everyone watched Gramps to see how he’d react. His face was red and he clenched his jaw. Cole stared him down, an impressive feat, since he was seated while the older man was still standing. The ache in Echo’s leg stopped bothering her; she was too caught up in the power struggle playing out before her.
“Do you have any idea how much time we lost last week because of these leg cramps?” Cole added. “How long it takes for her to get back on her feet. And in a place where she can really run again?”
“It’s a couple hours,” she spoke up, turning to Cole, who nodded his agreement. “Usually means the end of training for the day.”
“Even more time lost, then,” Cole stated.
“Why don’t we drop the issue for now, and discuss it at a better time,” Bryce suggested, glancing over his shoulder at the attention they were beginning to attract.
“Fine,” Gramps agreed. “It can wait until you’re not as…tired as you are now. When you’ve recovered enough to think things through more clearly.”
Echo had to force her jaw shut to keep from saying anything. He is your grandfather; cussing him out is not a good look. Gramps turned to smile at Echo, but it wasn’t as reassuring as she thought he meant it to be.
Regardless, Echo smiled tightly and played along. Eventually, Gram dragged him and the rest of the family away to give her some space and rest.
Finally, it was just her and Cole in her little corner of the tent. There was a lull in the general activity around them; the elite male runners were just now coming across the finish, and the interviews and crowning ceremonies were segueing into the general commotion of the other ten-thousand-plus runners.
“Thank you,” she whispered as he massaged her calves.
“Feeling better?”
“Yes, but that’s not what I meant,” Echo inclined her head toward the tent opening. “Standing up for me just now. My family can be a bit…intimidating, especially if they gang up on you.”
“You’re not entering the marathon competitively, and that’s that.” He reiterated with a dismissive shrug. “I don’t care how many times they push the point. I’m your coach, even if they are the ones who pay me right now. Fact of the matter is, there isn’t enough time to get your marathon time down before qualifiers. They’re only a few weeks away. The risks outweigh the rewards. Besides, I’ve seen you run the 800 meters. From what I’ve seen, you’ve got your heart in that run. That’s what’s going to get you gold, and the gold is what will bring the prestige your grandfather seems to crave. You might even be able to break a world record in the process.”
“The marathon…it takes too long,” Echo groaned as she sat up straighter and Cole removed his hands from her leg. “And it hurts. Plus, it’s too much time alone with my thoughts. There isn’t enough to carry me all the way through. The stuff I use to push myself…it gets used up and I’m left with, well, with the less useful stuff.”
“The doubts,” Cole offered, holding out a hand to help her up.
“Exactly.” She took his hand and eased herself back onto her feet. She was still a little wobbly, but steadier than the trip into the tent, and more runners were arriving in need of the cots, so they needed to clear out. “Can you walk me back to my hotel so I can shower? Just want to make sure I get there without collapsing.”
Cole chuckled as he nodded and led the way out of the tent. Echo was grateful the media was preoccupied with the crowning of the men’s winners at the moment. It allowed the two of them to slip away quietly, though given the state of her legs, they weren’t moving very fast.
“It was true, wasn’t it?” Cole asked quietly. “About wanting to be a designer,” he clarified. “That night when we… You said you had been accepted to design school. After everything…I assumed you had been lying, that it was all part of whatever act you were putting on. But I’ve seen you run, and you do enjoy it. I mean, some races more than others, but I haven’t seen the…the joy, the thrill that you had when you were talking about classes starting and started drawing.”
Echo flushed. “It was the truth. I went to tell my parents about my plan, and that was when they sprung this whole thing on me. That they’d gotten me a coach so I could finally pursue the Olympic dream they thought I had. It was impossible to tell them no.” She avoided mentioning her father. “They were so excited about it, and it was such a generous offer…”
“You’re bad at saying ‘no,’ you know that?”
She frowned. “When it comes to my family…yeah, I’m still working on that.”
“I’ll help you with that, too,” Cole offered. “I’m actually really good ab
out saying ‘no.’ Too good, sometimes.” He licked his lips and his gaze focused in on hers. “And not good at other times.”
She flushed and looked away. “Running might not be what I want in the long term,” she started. If they talked about things now, she might spontaneously combust. Better to stay on the safe path. “But I know that coaching is what you’re passionate about, and that this Olympic push is your chance to make your career. I want you to know that I’m not going to let you down, I can want this enough to win and help you get what you—”
He stopped her there. “Listen to me very carefully,” Cole interrupted. “You’ve got enough pressure on you without putting the entire weight of my career on yourself, too. You’re not responsible for me. This isn’t my only chance to make a name for myself…it’s just a chance, and I don’t want to be…beholden to anyone for whatever my career may become.”
“You deserve your fair share of the credit,” she added. “I don’t want them saying that I would still have won without you. Because it’s not true. And I get that you don’t want to give them the impression that you’re the only reason I’m as good as I am.”
“I guess. God, that sounds…” He shook his head.
Echo smiled faintly but couldn’t disagree with him. “Well, I promise I’m not doing it just for you. Or for my parents, or my grandfather, or anything like that. At first, I let that whole side of things… But once I was able to think about it more… Doing this, especially if I can win, it will create so many opportunities for me that are along the lines I want. After qualifiers, the endorsement offers will start. And if I can find someone interested in helping me design a clothing line, even if it starts out based on athletic wear, I have plenty of ideas, and it would be a foot in the door. I’d have the funds to pursue design school on my own terms, and I have my degree to back me up…” Shut up. She needed to stop rambling.
“You should do it. You know, whether you win or not, I mean. You have to have the connections from Legacy Sports already. Don’t they sell clothes in those stores? Anyway, you have ‘ins’ with those guys already. Don’t wait till you have a medal and all kinds of pressure from the media hoping to see you fail. Get started now, and figure it out while things are still quiet.”
