“She’s beautiful,” she whispered. “And I’m in love with her.”
She rolled her eyes at herself because, of course, she’d fall in love with a woman who was completely unattainable. Everything she’d said to her parents about why they weren’t together was true. Everything Elodie had said to her earlier that night was also true. This couldn’t work. Elodie was a successful lawyer. She could do better than some baby college graduate with the Olympics on her mind, and not much else; and with baggage from the girlfriend she’d lost and thought she’d never recover from.
“Madison?” Elodie said.
“Hi,” she said loudly. “I didn’t follow you here.”
Elodie carried her gear and walked toward her.
“What are you doing here, then?”
“I needed to get out of the house. I went to Doyle’s for a drink and got hit on – which wasn’t what I went there for, so I left. I–”
“Someone at Doyle’s hit on you?” Elodie interrupted.
“Yeah, some softball player. Anyway, I left, and I didn’t want to go back yet, so I came here just to maybe walk around. I didn’t know you’d be here.”
“Bree, Miranda, or Stevie?”
“What?”
“Which one of the softball players hit on you?”
“You know them?” Madison asked, surprised.
“It’s a small town.”
“There were six of them. Why those three?”
“There are nine players on that team. Three are married – not to each other – and have kids, so they don’t go out for beers after. Of the other six, two are married to each other, and the other one is engaged to a man, so that leaves Bree, Miranda, or Stevie. My guess is between Bree and Miranda, really. Stevie is usually into brunettes.”
“It was Bree.”
Elodie looked away from her for a minute and said, “Of course it was.”
“Are you jealous of her or me right now?”
“I’m not jealous at all.”
“Fine,” Madison said.
“Fine,” Elodie replied.
“I’ll go watch the team play then.”
“You’re going to watch them play?” Elodie asked.
“Why not? I was invited. It’s not like there’s a whole lot to do around here. Maybe I’ll go with them for beers after.”
“You shouldn’t have been drinking tonight. You’re in training. Wait. Did you drive here, Madison?”
“I had one beer. I’m fine.”
“What happened to rum and Coke?”
“That was Wiley’s drink,” Madison replied.
Elodie softened and said, “That didn’t stop you before.”
“Well, I’m trying to figure out who the hell I am without her probably for the first time ever, and I didn’t want a rum and Coke tonight.”
“You wanted a beer?”
“No, I wanted you,” she said loudly. “You turned me down. And I’m living in your fucking office, and that’s next door to your fucking house, Elodie. I wanted like an hour away from all of that, and I ended up somehow finding you instead. That would be my luck. I meet a woman that I’m into for the first time in forever, and she’s the one woman I can’t have.”
“Maddie…”
“Can we go back to when you called me Madison? I’ll call you my coach. That’ll make things easier, I think.”
“You know that if–”
“No, don’t say that.” Madison took a few steps backward. “If you say that if you weren’t my coach, something could happen, that just makes it harder. I’ll see you tomorrow for practice.”
“Okay,” Elodie replied.
CHAPTER 20
The week had been an awkward one, to say the least. They’d lost their rhythm and easy banter, which only made Elodie sad. She hadn’t felt that alive in years, and now it was gone.
“Everything okay?” Matt asked as he helped her load gear into the back of her car.
“Yeah. Why?”
“You and Madison seem super weird all of a sudden.”
“We’re about to drive five hours for a regional tournament. I think we’re both just nervous.”
“I’m not nervous,” Madison said as she exited the office with her carry-on bag. “I’m going to win.”
“Overconfident, much?” Matt teased her.
“Nope,” she replied, passing him her bag, which he loaded into the car. “Have a good weekend. With any luck, we won’t be back until Monday.”
“Do you want to catch a movie with us next weekend?” he asked, referring to himself and his boyfriend, Elodie knew. “El? Both of you could come. It could be like a double date,” he added.
Elodie looked at Madison, who looked to the ground.
“I don’t think so,” Elodie replied.
“You never go out anyway. Madison?”
“Maybe. I’ll let you know. I’ve got to focus on the tournament first,” she said. “Are you ready?” She looked at Elodie.
“Let’s go.”
Elodie shut the doors and hugged Matt. Madison got into the passenger’s seat. Elodie got behind the wheel and turned on the car.
“I’m thinking about sleeping for a while. I didn’t get much last night. Is that okay?” Madison asked her.
“Yeah, sure,” Elodie replied.
Madison put in her headphones, which she’d never done in the car with Elodie before, and closed her eyes before they were even out of the driveway. The drive was fine, but what wasn’t fine was her own inability to think of anything other than Madison Fletcher. Madison had worn a pair of shorts and a t-shirt for the ride. Her bare legs were exposed, and Elodie wanted to run her fingertips along the skin. She wanted to reach for Madison’s hand and hold it against that skin.
“Do you want me to drive the rest?” Madison asked.
“What?” Elodie looked over, surprised. She hadn’t known Madison was awake. “Oh, no. It’s fine. There’s only an hour in traffic left anyway.”
Madison looked out the window and said, “It’s pretty here.”
“The middle of nowhere is often pretty. People haven’t built a bunch of crap yet. It’s just nature.”
“Yeah,” Madison replied. “I bet these trees are so colorful in the fall.”
“They are.”
“You’ve been here?”
“I went to the same tournament. It was in September back then, though.”
“Maybe I’ll come back here and rent a cabin or something. I bet it’s nice to hike around here. Did you do that?”
“No, I just came for the tournament.”
Madison turned to look at her and said, “One day, you should come here with someone and just relax.”
Elodie continued to look out the windshield and said, “Maybe, yeah.”
“I don’t mean myself,” Madison replied. “I just don’t want you to be alone, Elodie. I get that it’s not me, okay?”
“I didn’t think you meant yourself.”
“Okay. Good.”
The rest of the drive was silent. When they arrived at the hotel, Elodie was surprised by how nice it looked. Two guys dressed in hotel uniforms came right up to the car and helped them with their bags before one of them took her keys, gave her a ticket, and drove off to park the car for her.
“This place is way too nice, Madison,” Elodie said as they walked in through the sliding glass doors following the bellboy.
“I wanted to splurge a little. I’m not spending nearly as much as I would have at the academy, so I figured I could stay in nice hotels.” Madison looked over at her. “Had you shown up to the invitational, you would have seen the nice room I’d reserved for you. There was an in-room hot tub.”
“What?” Elodie asked when they stopped at the front desk.
“Relax. This one has one, too,” Madison said, winking at her.
They checked in. Then, they headed up to their floor in the elevator. Madison didn’t say anything until they were at their separate doors.
“Go
od night, Elodie,” she said with a soft, sweet smile.
“Night, Madison,” she replied.
It wasn’t really bedtime. It was really only around time for dinner, but Elodie knew Madison didn’t want to see her for the rest of the night. Elodie didn’t want to order room service, but she didn’t have the energy to go out to eat, either. She ate alone in the very nice room Madison had reserved for her. Then, she went into the bathroom and saw the jets in the deep bathtub and the space for at least two people. She waited for the water to fill just past the jets, slid into the heat, and turned them on. She then closed her eyes and tried to relax, but all she could do was think about Madison being in this bathtub with her. She was beginning to sense a theme with her dirty thoughts.
When she finally climbed out of the tub and dried herself off, she went back into the bedroom, slid under the blankets, and decided to go to sleep early. There was no point in staying awake anyway. She didn’t have anyone to share the night with, and thinking about tomorrow only made her anxious, so she closed her eyes and did her best to fall asleep.
◆◆◆
“Welcome back,” Madison said when they walked out to the crowd.
“Huh?” Elodie asked.
“Hey, are you okay?” Madison asked her, placing her hand on Elodie’s arm softly. “Is it too much?”
“I have to do this at some point, right? It might as well be now. If you’re going to the Olympics, I have to be able to get through that.”
“I’m going to dedicate this tournament win, when I get it, to Rod,” she said.
Elodie stopped walking and looked at her.
“Maddie…”
Madison winked at her and said, “He got you where you needed to be, and you’re getting me where I need to be.”
That was all they said to one another outside of Elodie giving Madison calls for her shots. Madison won the first set twenty-nine to twenty-four, earning two points. She won the second set twenty-eight to twenty-seven, earning another two points. If she won the third set, there would be no need for the other two.
“Wind is two miles from the east. Don’t overcorrect,” Elodie said.
Madison fired and hit her second ten in a row, turning back to Elodie.
“Like that?”
“It’s the first round. Don’t get cocky,” Elodie warned.
Madison’s competitor hit the eight. Madison turned back around and hit a quick nine. She’d only needed a seven to secure a victory.
“Well, that was easy,” Madison said as they headed to the athlete’s area.
“Madison, I’m serious. You have seven more rounds to go.”
“I know. I’m only joking,” she replied.
Two rounds later, and Madison had easily won both times. For her final round of the day, it was a little closer than Elodie wanted, but Madison had still gone through to the next round. That was important, of course, but so was the fact that Elodie no longer felt the same anxiety she had when they’d first stepped foot out there.
“Dinner?” Elodie asked.
“Sure,” Madison said, smiling. “I was thinking about just eating at the hotel restaurant. Is that okay?”
“No problem,” Elodie replied.
An hour later, Elodie was sitting next to some guy named Trevor and across from a woman named Sia. This was not what she’d had in mind when she’d asked Madison to dinner. She listened to Sia and Madison catch up and watched as Trevor flirted with both women as if he wanted to double his odds. Elodie tried not to be offended by the fact that he didn’t seem interested in her at all. Trevor had lost in the third round today, so he’d be going home tomorrow morning. Sia, though, had won her rounds and would play Madison the following morning. Elodie felt both out of place and right at home at the same time.
She had done all of this before. She had won the day at tournaments and then hung out with her competitors before she went to bed earlier than most. So, in that way, Elodie understood what was going on here, but it felt like she shouldn’t be here right now. Sia leaned over when Trevor was talking to their waiter, asking for his check or something, and whispered into Madison’s ear. Elodie glared at her. It was wrong. She knew it.
“After this, I’m heading to my friend’s room at the hotel down the street,” Trevor began. “We’re going to hang out for a while. You guys should come.”
“I’m going to call it a night after this,” Madison replied.
“I’ll hang out,” Sia said. “Can I text Cody? She might not have anything going on.”
“Sure,” Trevor replied.
Sia threw some cash on the table to cover her meal. Trevor did the same.
“Thanks for inviting us to dinner, Mad,” Sia said.
“Yeah, it was fun,” Trevor added.
After they walked off, not acknowledging Elodie at all, Elodie met Madison’s eyes.
“You invited them?”
“Yeah, I texted them in the car on the way back to the hotel,” she replied.
The check arrived. Madison took the cash and put it in her pocket. She signed the check, billing her room, and left it on the table.
“You didn’t want to have dinner with me, did you?” Elodie asked.
“The last time we had dinner out, it felt like a date to me, so no, I didn’t want to have dinner with you alone in a nice restaurant because it’s better for me if we don’t do that stuff anymore.”
“Madison, we’re going to have to have dinner together at some point.”
“Maybe later, after I move on, but now it would hurt too much and confuse me.” Madison stood up.
“Do we need to talk about this?” Elodie asked her.
“No, I’d prefer we don’t. It just makes me sad, and I won today. I don’t want to be sad. I want to go to sleep and win tomorrow, too.”
“Okay,” Elodie said. Then, she looked toward the bar. “Good night, then.”
Madison moved toward her, placing a hand on her shoulder, and said, “Go up with me. Don’t do what I think you’re about to do. You don’t need it. We had a good day today.”
Elodie looked up into Madison’s green eyes.
“Maddie…”
“I’ll walk you to your room,” Madison said, reaching for Elodie’s hand, which was on the table. “We have a big day tomorrow, El. I need you.”
Elodie swallowed. Hearing Madison tell her that she needed her, nearly broke her. In the past, she would have opened up that bottle of wine and finished it before she went to sleep. Tonight, though, she just stood up, took Madison’s hand, and allowed her to walk her to her room.
CHAPTER 21
The following day, Madison won the first two rounds, making it into the final four. She’d chosen not to participate in the team events and just focus on the individual ones, which meant she only had two more women to beat, and she’d win.
“Wind picked up this afternoon. Watch your release. Don’t pull anything,” Elodie told her.
“Okay,” Madison said.
She lined up her final shot of the fourth set, needing a nine to secure her spot in the final round. Then she inhaled, and before she needed to exhale, Madison fired. She hit an eight, but it was on the line. The judges gave her the dreaded asterisks on her score sheet. Since it was the final shot of the round, it didn’t take long for them to rule and give her the nine. She shook her competitor’s hand, nodded, and turned to Elodie to give her a huge smile.
“I thought you’d gotten the eight, for sure.”
“It was on the line. They just needed to review it,” Madison said.
“Well, don’t hit the lines anymore,” Elodie teased, shoving her shoulder lightly.
“I’ll do my best,” Madison said, laughing.
“You’ve got an hour. Do you want to practice or–”
“I was going to go for a walk, actually,” Madison said. “There’s a cool trail over there. Sia, Trevor, and Cody found it yesterday. I like to walk off my nerves if I can.”
“Do you want any company?”
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Madison thought about that for a minute. She’d normally go alone, and given her complicated relationship with this woman, she should tell her that, but instead, she nodded. They locked their gear in Elodie’s car and headed toward the hiking trail.
“It’s only a mile, so I won’t have a lot of time to trip and hurt myself.”
“Don’t even joke about that,” Elodie replied.
“Too soon?”
“Yes,” Elodie said, chuckling.
They walked for a few minutes in silence.
“What are you thinking about right now?” Madison asked her.
“A bunch of things, actually.”
“Give me one?” she asked.
“Your front foot; you should check it before you get into your stance. You really need to make sure it’s in the right position.”
“That’s what you’re thinking about?” Madison laughed.
“I told you, I’m thinking about a bunch of things. That’s one of them.”
“You’re such a coach.” Madison shoved her shoulder lightly.
“That’s why I’m here, right?”
Madison sighed and said, “Not exactly.”
Elodie stopped walking then and asked, “What’s that mean?”
“Pretend you weren’t my coach anymore for a minute.”
“Why?”
“El, just pretend,” Madison requested.
“Okay.”
“I’d still want you here.” She shrugged a shoulder. “You know why. I don’t have to tell you.”
“Oh,” Elodie replied.
“If you weren’t my coach, I’d want you in the stands cheering me on, and I’d want to celebrate with you after the win.”
“Pretty confident, aren’t you?” Elodie teased.
A Shot at Gold Page 14