Page 47 of Burnout
I follow her lead, silently doing each thing she does, but a fuck of a lot less gracefully. She has me flipping and twisting. From the floor, from a large block mat, to the trampoline.
“Okay. You’re good on that. Let’s try a double,” she says.
I eye her skeptically. She rolls her eyes as she gets into position on the trampoline and then demonstrates. I’m so distracted staring at her toned legs and the way her leotard hugsher curves that I miss whatever she was trying to show me. She’s undeniably gorgeous. That much was obvious the first time I saw her, but there’s something else about her that has started to make our workout sessions blue ball hell.
She pulls herself out of the pit and waits for me. I give it my best go, but I overshoot it and almost do a triple. Her smile is wide when I come up.
With a sheepish grin, I try again. Usually while I work out, she’ll eventually leave me to do something else. Beam or stretching, floor work. She never goes far, but she doesn’t hover. But tonight, she stays with me. Sometimes she joins in to show me something, but mostly she’s just watching.
“How long have you been doing gymnastics?” I ask.
“I started when I was three,” she says. “And I’ve been competing since I was six. Could have been earlier, but my parents thought I was too young to be devoting all my time to one thing. Plus, it’s expensive, so I guess I can’t really blame them.”
“Motocross too.” I rest my hands on my hips as I catch my breath between flips. “Archer and I used to mow grass and do whatever odd jobs we could for people to buy parts and pay for entry fees.”
“Archer?”
“My brother.”
“I thought you said his name was Flynn.”
“Different brother.”
She cocks one brow. “How many do you have?”
“Four.”
“Four?” Her eyes widen.
I nod. People always have that reaction.
“And you’re the oldest?”
“Second oldest. I’m twenty-three, Hendrick is twenty-six, Archer and Brogan are almost twenty-two, and Flynn is seventeen.”
I can see her working it out, trying to make sense of the dynamics. I don’t expand. I doubt she wants to hear about how our mom died and then Dad took off after Hendrick was in college.
“What about you?” I ask, bridging the silence. “Any siblings?”
“Yep. I have a little brother. Tommy. He’s thirteen.”
“Does he do gymnastics too?”
“No. He never did. He’s into music though. He plays like four different instruments. He’s pretty cool as far as little brothers go.” The way she talks about him, I can tell they’re close.
“What about your parents?” she asks in a softer tone. “I’m assuming they aren’t around if you’re Flynn’s guardian.”
“No, they’re not around.” I don’t say more even though I can see her face is still full of questions. I try another double backflip, once again not getting the speed quite right, and I land halfway through the third turn, eating foam.
She must be feeling sorry for me because she asks, “Should we take a break and come back to it?”
“No way.”
She cracks a smile like she knew I wasn’t going to give up that easily.
Twenty-five minutes later, I’m starting to get the feel of it. Avery offers me her water bottle as I rest.
“Thanks.” I take a long swig and hand it back.
