“Maybe,” she said, walking toward the door. “Can you forward my calls to my cell?”
“Will do.”
Elodie left the office, but she didn’t go home immediately. She walked through the side yard between the office and the house into the backyard. The target was still there. The tarp hanging behind it was still there, too. The only thing missing was Madison Fletcher standing about seventy meters away, aiming her arrow at it and firing.
It had been several days since she’d seen her at Doyle’s. She’d gone into the bedroom once and noticed Madison’s shampoo and conditioner still in the shower. She didn’t have the heart to throw it out. God, she’d really messed up. She’d been unable to get up off the couch the morning of the invitational. She hadn’t been able to sleep the night before. She had tossed and turned and thought only about having to go back to the academy where it had all begun and, later, ended for her. That morning, she had gone into the kitchen to make coffee. She had seen the broken wine bottle and the deep-red stains she had failed to address the night before, and she had slumped onto her sofa. She’d stayed there until Madison had burst into her home and scolded her.
The backyard seemed empty now. It had always been that way, save for the past few weeks, but for some reason, it felt to Elodie like Madison had taken up all the space back here, and that the yard had needed it; needed her. Elodie walked the line from the position of the archer to the target itself. Then, she ran her fingers over the used paper that had peeled and cracked with the wind and weather. She inhaled deeply, loving the fresh air in her lungs. It didn’t make her miss running, though. It made her miss running with Madison. They had taken to running together whenever possible, and Elodie found herself getting back in shape and having fun while doing it. Madison was faster than she had ever been, which meant Elodie had to work harder just to keep up with her.
She turned around and went into her house, going immediately to her room. She was just so tired. She changed out of her suit and into a pair of soft shorts and a t‑shirt. Then, she coiled up under the blanket and closed her eyes. She tried to push the thoughts out, but she couldn’t. Rod’s face entered her mind. It was that first day when he’d scouted her. She’d been a teenager. He’d been a world-renowned coach that she hadn’t heard of, but he’d seen something in her. No one had seen anything in her. She’d lost her parents. Her aunt didn’t want her. She was an outcast with her peer group – if not for her sexuality, then for the fact that she had gotten emancipated and now lived on her own. Rod had been there, though. He’d found her, scouted her, and told her about The Archery Academy.
When she’d lost him so unexpectedly, it had torn her world apart. Rod was gone. She’d lost the ability to even pick up a bow. She’d lost a lot more than that. She’d lost everything. She had picked herself up when she’d finally been able, and she’d forced herself through law school. It wasn’t exactly the career of her dreams, but it would give her something to focus on, something to achieve, and then something to do every day. She’d been told that her grandfather had been a lawyer. Maybe that was why she thought of law when her archery career was over.
Elodie woke up hours later, realizing it was just now the appropriate time for her to actually go to bed. She went to the kitchen to grab something to drink but thought better of it. Wine wouldn’t help her sleep; not now, anyway. She had too much on her mind. She went into her bathroom and reached for the sleeping pills instead. Two of those would let her get some rest. She’d worry about everything else in the morning.
◆◆◆
“Are you okay?” Nancy asked the next day.
“I’m fine. Why?”
“You, I don’t know, seem different lately.”
“Different?”
“Since Madison left,” Nancy said.
“Did you and Matt decide to gang up on me or something?”
Nancy looked behind her to Matt’s empty desk and said, “What? No. He’s not even here today.”
“He said something to me about her yesterday.”
“And?”
“And what? She’s gone. Madison left.”
“Because you messed up.”
“Yes, I have admitted that. It was my fault. I never should have agreed to be her coach in the first place.”
“But you did.” Nancy crossed her arms over her chest. “You messed up when you didn’t go to the tournament. She needed you there.”
“I know. I know it myself, and she yelled at me, so I don’t need to hear it from you, too.”
“Fine.” Nancy held up her hands. “I just wanted to tell you that I’m taking off. I’ve got to pick the little one from day care. We’re going to the movie-in-the-park thing this weekend. Want to tag along?”
Elodie had forgotten all about the annual event in the biggest park in town. Practically everyone would be there, sitting on picnic tables, watching the chosen family film on the giant screen. She had been a few times, but being there alone, or even with Nancy’s family, always made her feel lonely. Normally, she could handle her loneliness, but for some reason, just being there once a year, seeing all of those families and couples, made it worse.
“I think I’ll skip it this year,” she replied.
“Why? It’s not like you have anything else to do.”
“Nancy, I have some motions to file. Would you mind letting me get back to work?”
“Don’t get mad at me because I’m trying to get you to live a little.” The woman backed out of Elodie’s office. “I’ll see you later.”
Elodie couldn’t focus on her work. She thought about the picnic in the park, the families that would be there having fun, and of Madison who would be with her own family this weekend, celebrating her twenty-third birthday. Elodie wondered what she’d told them about her awful coach and the invitational she had lost because of her. It made her sick to her stomach; not because of what they’d think of her, but because she had hurt Madison. She had seen it in the girl’s eyes when she’d come to the house. There was a fire there from her anger, but also sadness that Elodie had caused.
Elodie shook herself out of it, tried to get back to work, and when that failed, she looked up an address online and bought a plane ticket. Then, she went home to pack. She knew it was risky, but she had to do something to get rid of this awful feeling. Nothing else had helped, not even the wine.
When it was time to get on the plane, she considered walking right back out past security, getting into her car, and driving home. Instead, she sucked up her anxiety, made her way to her seat, and put on her headphones. She blared The Boss in her ears, thinking about how surprising Madison’s taste in music had been, and then she waited for the plane to land. A quick forty-five minutes later, she was on the ground. Another twenty minutes after that, Elodie was in her rental car, entering the address into her phone. Thirty minutes after that, she pulled up to the house, parking on the street so as not to block the three cars in the driveway. She took a deep breath and got out of the car, leaving her stuff in the trunk in case she needed to make a quick getaway. Then, she walked up to the very, very nice house and rang the doorbell.
“Can I help you?” A young man, who looked enough like Madison but still had masculine features, answered the door.
“I’m Elodie Booker. I’m a friend… I’m–”
“El?” Madison asked when she emerged from behind her brother.
“Hi, Madison.” She waved shyly, feeling like an idiot for showing up uninvited and unexpected.
CHAPTER 13
“What are you doing here?” Madison asked when she stepped outside and moved to close the door behind herself.
“Madison, what–”
“Shut up, Mark,” she said, slamming the door on her brother.
“I should have called,” Elodie replied.
“Yes, you should have.” Madison crossed her arms over her chest. “You look like crap, Elodie.”
“I haven’t been sleeping well lately,” Elodie replied. “I took sleeping
pills to help, and they knocked me out, but it wasn’t enough.”
“You took sleeping pills?” Madison asked, concerned.
“Just over-the-counter stuff.” The woman shrugged.
“Were you…” Madison bit her lower lip. “Had you been drinking, too?”
“No,” Elodie said. Then, she sighed loudly. “I wasn’t drinking and taking sleeping pills at the same time. It’s not that bad. I just… I really messed up with you, Madison.”
“You came here to apologize?”
“No, I came here to celebrate your birthday with you and your family if you’ll still have me. If not, I booked a hotel. I can just go there and go back home tomorrow.”
“Elodie, you’re not my coach anymore. You’re not required to be here.”
“I know that,” she replied and looked down at the white-planked porch beneath her feet.
“What happened?” Madison asked, noticing Elodie’s pain in her eyes.
“Can we talk inside, maybe? We’re kind of exposed out here.” Elodie looked around at the very empty front yard and near desolate street behind it.
“Only my brother is here right now. We can go talk in my room. He’ll be going out soon, anyway.”
“Where is everyone else?”
“They’ll be home later. The party is tomorrow afternoon. It’s a backyard barbeque kind of thing. My sister, Monica, will be here later tonight.”
Madison turned, opened the front door, and then looked behind herself to see that Elodie was standing still. She motioned for Elodie to go in before her, which the woman did.
“Mad, have you seen my car keys?” Mark asked her.
“No. Why would I know where your car keys are?”
“Can I borrow your car, then?” he asked, picking her keys up off the table in the entryway.
“No,” Madison replied, closing the door behind her.
“I’m picking up Luca and David now to go to Top Golf, and it takes forever to get there in this traffic. We’ll miss our reservation.”
“You just gave me another reason to say no to you. Luca puked in my car three years ago, remember?”
“That was David.”
“No, it was Luca.”
Mark smacked his forehead, laughed, and said, “Shit. I think it might have been both of them.”
“Find your own damn keys, Mark,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Who is this?” he asked, pointing to Elodie.
“None of your business.”
“Girlfriend?” he asked. “Mom and Dad will be home soon. If you’re going to your room to do something, either be quick or be quiet.”
“Mark, your keys are on the counter in the kitchen. Mom put them there after she found them on the floor. We’ll be upstairs.”
“Whatever you say,” he replied, wiggling his eyebrows at her.
“How are you older than me?” she asked him.
“Don’t know. Don’t care.” He waved at them before he turned to go into the kitchen.
“Come on,” Madison said, pulling on Elodie’s hand.
They walked to the staircase and then up it, hand in hand. Elodie’s hand was a little on the clammy side. It was also trembling. Elodie was nervous. Madison made her way to the bedroom that hadn’t really ever felt like her own. She hadn’t grown up here. They’d moved in after she had gone to school. It was home, but it wasn’t home in the way the house she had grown up in had been home.
“This is your room?” Elodie asked when she went inside.
“Yeah. Why?” Madison felt a little self-conscious.
Elodie had just witnessed her immature brother act like an idiot and insinuate that they were a couple about to have sex before her parents got home; now, Elodie was looking around her bedroom. Did it look like the room of a teenager or someone just as immature as Mark? Madison didn’t have posters hanging on her walls or anything. She had hardly ever lived in the space. She hoped it didn’t make Elodie think she was a child.
“It’s really nice, Madison,” Elodie said, letting go of Madison’s hand and taking a few more steps into the room. “You have your own bathroom?”
“Yeah, the people who owned the place before my parents actually built a new master suite on the first floor. It’s huge. This is technically the original master. Mark wanted the room that was closer to the game room, and Monica didn’t really care since she was already out of the house when they moved here, so she just took the smallest room.”
“You got lucky. This room is nicer than the bedroom in my house,” Elodie said, chuckling.
“I guess that’s a good thing; I live here now,” Madison replied.
She sat on the end of her four-poster bed with lilac comforter and sheets. It wasn’t her favorite color, but her mom had picked out almost everything in this room.
“Come back, Madison,” Elodie said, turning toward her.
“No,” Madison replied.
Elodie sat down next to her and said, “Is that it? Just no?”
“What do you want me to say, El?”
“That you forgive me.”
“Are you here for my forgiveness or to be my coach again?”
“Both,” Elodie said.
“Why?”
“To which part?”
Madison turned, sat cross-legged, and faced her.
“Why do you want to be my coach? The last time I saw you, I remember you being pretty adamant about not being able to.”
“Madison, this is hard for me.”
“Tell me why,” Madison requested softly.
“I’ve never talked about it; not all the way, at least.”
“You think I talk about Wiley all the time? No one knows outside of my family and hers, Elodie. I talked to Larry about it a little bit, but even then, he doesn’t know it all. He knows I was in a relationship and that I lost her. He doesn’t understand how it impacted me; how Wiles brought me to archery, and how I still talk to her sometimes. You know that.”
“Why did you tell me?”
“Because there was something about you that told me you’d understand,” Madison said.
“I’d lost someone, too,” Elodie replied.
“And you love this sport. You love it how I love it. Do you know how rare it is to find someone that understands that drive? That ambition? I was on an archery team at a Division I school, and none of them even got it. You do.”
“I do,” Elodie said as she nodded.
“Why didn’t you go to the invitational?” Madison asked.
Her hand found its way to Elodie’s blonde hair, which she slid behind her ear on instinct so as to see more of Elodie’s face. The motion wasn’t one she had planned, but it felt good all the same. Elodie looked up at her with a confused expression.
“I had a panic attack,” she replied.
“Do you get them often?”
“Not anymore.”
“Have you talked to anyone about them?”
“I tried a therapist for a while, but it didn’t take.”
“Didn’t take, or you didn’t really try?”
“Hey,” the woman said, shoving lightly at Madison’s knee.
“It’s a fair question. You’re kind of an asshole.”
“I am not.” Elodie laughed a little.
“An asshole with a cute laugh,” Madison said.
Elodie stopped laughing, turned straight ahead, and said, “I never thought I’d go back to it, Madison. I had left that part of my life behind. I’d made other plans. I was going to build my law practice and maybe renovate my house. That was it.”
“Then, I showed up,” Madison stated.
“Then, you showed up.” Elodie glanced over at her.
“Good,” Madison said and lifted her eyebrows at her.
“Good?” Elodie asked, surprised.
“You needed it,” Madison said.
“I did not,” she replied.
“Yes, you did.”
“Madison, I–”
There was a kno
ck at the door. Madison turned her head to it as if she could see through it.
“Come in,” she said.
“We’re home. I–” Madison’s mom noticed Elodie sitting next to her. “I didn’t know you were having a friend over.” She smiled at Elodie and then at Madison. “Your father and I will leave you two alone.”
“Mom, you don’t have to–”
“We were going to watch a movie downstairs. Join us if you want, or not. It’s up to you if you want to–”
“Mom!”
“This is good, Madison.” Her mom smiled at her and pointed at Elodie. “Good.”
She then closed the door, leaving them alone again.
“What just happened?” Elodie asked.
“She thinks you’re here for other reasons,” Madison said.
“Other reasons?”
Madison lay down on her bed and said, “My parents have been pushing me to date again. She probably ran into Mark outside, and he mentioned you were up here. Then, she came in to see it for herself, pretending to just want to tell me they’re home, and she left us alone because she wants me to get a girlfriend.”
“Girlfriend?” Elodie asked, turning to her side to look back at Madison.
“I haven’t officially been with anyone since Wiley.” She stared up at the ceiling.
“Officially?”
“I went on a few dates here and there, but nothing more than that. My parents feel like I’m wasting away, I guess. Part of the problem is that I’ve focused on the Olympics and my dream.”
“The other part?” Elodie asked, already knowing the answer.
“I didn’t want to be with anyone else for a long time.”
“And now?”
Madison met Elodie’s blue eyes and said, “Now, it’s time for me to think about moving on.” She then paused for a moment. “But my parents shouldn’t act like obsessive weirdos because they want me to date.”
“At least they support you.”
“That’s true. I’m very lucky,” she said. “Hey, what’s your middle name?”
“What? Why?”
“Because my parents know about the shit you pulled at the invitational. They are not your number one fans, Elodie Booker.”
“And that has to do with my middle name, how?”
A Shot at Gold Page 9