by Nana Malone
As soon as the apartment door was closed, Echo melted onto Jen’s sofa and let loose an impressive round of frustrated tears. “It was horrible. I was horrible,” she sobbed. “I can’t believe I told them all about Dad like that.”
“Echo, you’re being too hard on yourself,” Jen insisted, sitting beside her friend on the couch and rubbing her back, while Echo turned to lean on her. “You didn’t ask for them to put so much pressure on you. Honestly, if I were in your position, I would’ve said way worse and a lot sooner.”
“I’ve been sleeping with Cole again.” Echo confessed. “Gramps somehow found out, and he said things to Cole…I don’t even know all of it, but it’s my fault, and when he stormed off I just…”
“I don’t think your grandfather is the only one who suspected there might be something between you and Cole,” Jen said carefully. “But as for how he found out or what made him so sure…that might be my fault.”
“What?”
“He called the other night, looking for you. He said you’d hung up on him, and he wanted me to talk sense to you,” Jen explained. “It was late and I was tired, and it took me a minute to catch on to what he was talking about and cover for you, but he must’ve known that you weren’t here, and from there…”
“I shouldn’t have hung up on him,” Echo lamented. “I should’ve been patient with him. I know how he can be; I know better than that.”
“It is not on you how he chooses to act,” Jen scolded. “He knows better and does it anyway. You were perfectly right to put your foot down like that. And with your parents, too. Standing up for yourself is not a bad thing. If they are mad at you, which they have no right to be after the way you’ve been treated, they’ll get over it.”
“How am I supposed to go home and face them?”
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to. You know you can stay here with me. Just…move in. The couch is yours until we find a bigger place,” Jen said. “Being out on your own like that would be good for you. Good for them, too. They need to realize how much they’ve been relying on you. Your brothers have done it.”
“But they don’t mean to, and I don’t want to be selfish if they really need me.”
“Stop. This is your future we’re talking about, not a party on some weekend you’d rather go to or skipping a movie or something. Your career, your love life, your happiness.” Jen pushed up from the couch and began pacing. “It’s not up to you to take care of them all the time. You have four brothers who could share the burden. And being supportive of your dad while he’s sick doesn’t mean lying to people and putting yourself in an awkward position like you’ve been doing. It’s…making sure he knows how much you love him, and…chicken noodle soup, asking how he’s feeling and offering the level of help you’re comfortable with—not being imposed upon to the point of having nothing to call your own.”
Echo struggled to see the sense she knew was in Jen’s words, but she was too used to feeling the guilt of letting her family down to find much comfort in her friend’s support. The prospect of spending time away from them, of living away from them, was more than appealing. She had lived on campus in college, but the university she attended was so close to home that she spent about as much time at home as she did living at school.
“Okay, let me ask you this,” Jen began, trying another tack. “Have you been happier with Cole?”
“We haven’t been…together for more than a couple of weeks,” Echo protested. “If we’re even together at all. There was that night before, and then after the qualifiers started. It’s new and hot and oddly connected and…” Her voice trailed off, and she sobbed.
“Ah, but that’s not what I meant. In training, you’ve been making progress, and you seem…calmer when he’s around. What do you feel about it? Has training with him been stressful?”
Echo sighed. “Not for a while, no. At first, yes. When we realized about before. But no, not since those first few days, really. I mean, he could be a bit intense and strict, but it was always clear he was putting as much of himself into it as he was asking me to do, you know?”
Jen smiled. “My point exactly. And during the qualifiers, do you think he had your back? Was it easier running knowing he was there?”
“I don’t know about easier…but it was definitely more relaxed, more…what it should be,” Echo admitted.
“And does he know about design school?”
Echo smiled, blinking away tears. “He’s been telling me for a while now to just jump in, to use the contacts I already have through the company and get started now. He likes the little of my work that I’ve shown him and really likes some of the sportswear ideas I told him about.”
“See. That’s what you need. That’s what support looks like,” Jen emphasized. “You’re in love with the guy, and you should let yourself enjoy it.”
“While it lasts?”
“No. You make it last by choosing him, by choosing yourself.”
“Do you think he can handle it?” Fear gripped her, and Echo fell back on skepticism. “He bailed pretty fast at the party today, and I don’t know for sure what he wants. What if I can’t give him that? What if this thing gets out and it works against him, and he loses his career because of me?”
Jen cocked her head and rolled her eyes. Echo didn’t need her friend to tell her just how ridiculous she was being, but Jen did anyway. “You’re worried about him bailing, while you’re listing reasons right now for you not to take a chance on him. Echo…go talk to him. Ask what he wants. Tell him what you want. As long as you’re on the same page there, you guys will figure out the rest, and you won’t have to do it alone, either.”
“And what if he doesn’t want to bother. With me, with my family? What if he really does bail?”
“Then you’ll know,” Jen said with a sympathetic shrug. “Not knowing is…paralyzing.”
Echo took Jen’s advice and went to see Cole. She stood in front of his apartment door for two or three minutes before working up the courage to knock.
When he opened the door, she was surprised to see that Bryce was there with him.
“Oh, Bryce?” she blinked in surprise, then shifted her gaze to Cole. “Uh…if you’re busy, I can come back—”
“I should be heading back,” Bryce insisted, rising and slipping out past her. “Don’t want to leave Tami alone too long with Gramps. He seems to have taken the news about Dad pretty hard, and she wasn’t exactly in a sympathetic mood when I left.”
“She was yelling at Gramps?” Echo asked incredulously, temporarily distracted from the more serious reason she’d come to see Cole.
“She wasn’t yelling, precisely, but I do believe she suggested that Gramps and his habit of interfering might be part of the reason Dad and Mom kept everything so secret. Call me later, Echo,” he added. “I’m sorry I didn’t pick up on what was happening with you—with them—sooner, and do something more to help.”
Echo smiled quietly at her older brother. “You didn’t pick up on anything, because I was helping to distract you. If I didn’t have more help it was my own fault for not saying something sooner, or not pushing harder to get them to tell everyone.”
Bryce nodded in agreement. “Well…we’ll talk soon. Bye, Cole.”
Cole nodded at Bryce before waving a hand for Echo to come farther into the apartment.
“I wanted to apologize for not speaking up right away when my grandfather was…I should have stopped him before—” she started.
“It’s fine, Echo,” Cole insisted. “I can take care of myself against your grandfather. And you clearly had enough on your plate. I should have remembered what you’d said about your father being sick. I don’t want to be just another thing stressing you out, or coming between you and your family.”
She licked her lips. “You don’t stress me out. The opposite, in fact,” she said with a sly smile and deep blush. Cole gave her a cocky grin at that and she ignored him. “And as for my family, things have been strained
on that front for a while, and it has little to do with you. Gramps was just using you as an excuse to make trouble.”
“I know you don’t really care about running, and I don’t want you to run in the Olympics just because you said you’d help me with my career. I’d rather do that on my own. So—” Cole inhaled deeply. “—I think you should withdraw from the Olympic team.”
“What?” She blinked up at him. He was kidding, right?
“If it’s really something you’ve only been doing because other people have pressured you into it, then I think you should withdraw. You should devote your time to something that means something to you. I’m not afraid of what your grandfather might try to do to me.”
“I’m not going to back out of the Olympics.” Echo laughed. “I earned my place. I do enjoy running, and have liked training with you. I want to see it through. Not because I feel obligated to, but to see if I really can do it.” She paused and looked down at her hands for a moment. After a deep, shaky breath, she pushed through the next part of what she had to say, desperate to get it out before her courage failed her. “I’ve never been very good at doing things for myself. That is, at pursuing the things that make me happy. Applying to design school is as close as I’ve gotten on that front, and the only other time I really did something just for me was the night I met you. I’m trying to rearrange my priorities so that taking care of myself isn’t always at the bottom. Which is why I wanted to ask you…if you wouldn’t mind me making us one of my new priorities…”
“Us?” Cole asked, a smile tugging at his lips.
She blushed but was relieved by the small smile. “Yes. You. Being with you and everything. You make me happy.”
“You make me happy, too,” he whispered. “So you’re saying you want this, us, to be something…officially?”
“If that’s what you want,” she told him, taking a few steps towards him to close the distance between them.
“Oh. It’s what I want. It’s what I’ve wanted since I saw you at the bar,” he said, before wrapping her in his arms and kissing her.
She slipped her hands up his back and pulled herself tight against him. She was still wearing her dress from the party earlier. Strapless and white, it took little effort on Cole’s part to tug it down and free her breasts so he could palm them. She sighed into his mouth.
“Zipper…back,” she gasped, turning around and leaning against the wall.
She heard him working on a zipper, all right, but it wasn’t hers. He fumbled for his wallet, and she stopped him. “I—uh, I’m on the pill.” She cleared her throat. “Figured it might be a good idea, after we got carried away the other day.”
“Fuck, Echo, are you serious?” His voice was barely above a growl.
She nodded. “Please. I want to feel you, just you.”
He turned her around to face him, then hiked up her dress and pushed her against the door. “I’m going to fuck you slow…later. Right now, I need you too much.” He tugged up her skirt even more and lifted her up against the door, bracing her against the wood. In the next heartbeat, he slid deep inside her.
Cole curled his body around hers, the hair on his chest rough on her skin. He rested his forehead on hers as he picked up the pace. “I fucking love how you feel.” He groaned low when she clamped her inner walls around him. “What are you doing to me, Echo Coulter?” He whispered, grinding his hips into her as he moved.
“Loving you, Cole Jackson.”
He lifted his head and met her gaze. “I have loved you from the moment I heard you laugh.” He slowed his pace, and she whimpered.
“No,” she whined. “Don’t stop… Go faster…go harder…but don’t stop.” She rocked against him, arching her back.
He pressed a soft kiss to her neck, then another to her throat, and more in a line across to her shoulder, a kiss following each thrust of his hips. Her moans pitched steadily higher and she leaned her head back so his harsh breaths echoed in her ear. She pulled him close, loving the feel and scent of him.
Her fingernails dug into his skin, and Cole gripped her hips tight. He slid one hand between them, seeking access to her clit. All it took was one gentle glide of his thumb, and she cried out. Holy shit. The wave of pleasure hit, and she felt dizzy. Euphoria whipped through her.
“Yes, fuck, Echo. You feel so…fucking…good.” With two more thrusts he found his release. She could feel him jerking inside her, bathing her with his seed. He collapsed against her, trembling, and she held him tight.
Twenty-Six
Everything was still being cleaned up from the party the day before when Echo arrived to meet with her parents in the morning. She’d called the night before but didn’t let them speak, hastily letting them know that she was staying with Jen, and was all right, and she’d be by to see them in the morning to talk.
There was a moment of hesitation at the front door, when she considered ringing the bell and waiting to be let in. She decided to check the door first. If it was locked, she’d ring the bell rather than use her key. If it was open, she’d knock loudly and let herself in.
It was unlocked.
“Hello?” she called as she closed the door behind her. “It’s just me…Echo.”
There was no response, so she moved to her father’s library and knocked on that door before checking inside. Empty. She was beginning to believe that they might have left because they didn’t want to see her. Or worse, maybe something had happened to her father and they were at the hospital…
She picked up the pace as she poked her head into the sitting room, where the cleaning crew was putting the furniture back where it belonged and wiping down the greasy fingerprints that had accumulated on various surfaces.
None of them said anything, so Echo knew the stories of her behavior the previous afternoon were making the rounds. The dining room was empty too, and she was debating checking upstairs. She would have to pack some things in her room to bring back to Jen’s with her, anyway. That was when she heard the quiet thrum of activity coming from the kitchen.
Echo approached quietly, not wanting them forewarned with enough time to flee and avoid her. At the same time, she didn’t want to startle them. She peeked around the doorjamb and saw the pair of them seated on the high stools along one side of the island. They had their robes tied loosely over their pajamas, coordinated sets they got each other every year for Christmas. These ones were corresponding plaids, his blue and red, hers blue and green.
Echo cleared her throat and they looked up at her, fumbling to set their utensils aside and wipe the remains of their pancake breakfast from their mouths.
“I just wanted to apologize,” she began to recite the speech she’d practiced on the drive over. “I made a scene yesterday, and for that I’m sorry. I’m not sorry that I told Bryce and Dax and the others. I still think you should have done that a while ago, but I shouldn’t have told them the way I did, and not with so many people here. I was upset about the way Gramps treated Cole, but that was no excuse for my own behavior.” She took a deep breath. “Also, I wasn’t at Jen’s. I was with Cole. There’s no point in pretending we’re not together.”
“Echo, we—” her father began after he had finished swallowing, but she shook her head, refusing to be interrupted or distracted.
“I’m moving out. I’m moving in with Jen. I’ll crash on her couch for now, but we’re going to look for a bigger place soon, or if I can find a place I like for myself, I’ll do that, but I need to live on my own. I need…space to figure some things out and to be in control a little. Now, rest assured, when I say ’figure things out,’ I don’t mean I’m going to pull out of the Olympics.”
Her parents visibly relaxed, but they appeared to be making a concerted effort not to interrupt her again. She pressed on.
“I’ve put too much of myself into them at this point not to at least try, and it wouldn’t be fair to me or to Cole. But once they’re over, I’m done running in any kind of competitive way. If I run, I want it to be
because it’s something I enjoy; I want it to be for charity, and I don’t want to feel pressured about my performance. I’ll still help out with some of the charity runs for the company, but I want to start handing my responsibilities over and moving on from Legacy Sports. It won’t be too difficult to transition, since I’m already missing so much work for training. I just…won’t go back full time when the Olympics are over. I will help supervise and train whomever you decide to make my permanent replacement. I don’t want to leave you high and dry, but I need to be doing something that I actually want to be doing.”
She paused to see that her parents were gently nodding their understanding. Her father’s mouth was pressed into a small smile, while her mother had shifted her plate out of the way and propped her elbows up on the counter so she could rest her chin against the heel of one hand, effectively clamping her mouth shut.
“Which brings me to my next little announcement. I’m going to go to design school. I’m going to contact the admissions office about the acceptance they sent me a few months ago, and see if I need to reapply, or if the deferral I requested will still stand. It was what I wanted to talk to you guys about that day…you know. The day you told me Dad was sick. I had my acceptance letter, and was going to surprise you, and instead…” She trailed off, looking away from her parents to her fidgeting hands. “Bryce and Dax have both been doing really well for themselves and…that’s what I need, too. Fox is…well, Fox, and Gage’ll be heading off to college soon. I know that I’ve let you down and I’m sorry that what I want isn’t what will make you guys happy, but I’m not going to pretend I want something else anymore. I would love to have your support, but if I’m not going to get it by being myself, then…I don’t need it.” Echo nodded in conclusion. “I’ll just go up and grab some of my stuff. When Jen and I find another place I’ll be back for the rest.”
“Echo,” her father called quietly before she could escape the kitchen.
She turned back to see he was rising from the stool and crossing to give her a hug.