The kid didn’t look up. “They’re almost over. Go through the men’s locker room. Take the first door on your left.”
“Thanks.” Jack took off his suede coat and slung it over his shoulder as he walked through the busy locker room. He emerged into the hot, damp world of an indoor pool.
The bleachers were full to capacity. Along the back wall, dozens of women in Speedo bathing suits and bright rubber swim caps stood clustered together, talking to one another.
A sound blared. Instantly, a row of swimmers dove into the pool and raced for the other side.
Jack eased his way up the bleachers and sat down. His narrowed gaze studied the Georgetown team.
There she was. His Jamie.
She stood head and shoulders above her teammates. She had her hands at her mouth; she was yelling encouragements to a woman in the pool.
He felt a bittersweet ache at the sight of her, so tall and grown-up. Only yesterday, she’d been seven years old, a water baby who once dove into the pool when it wasn’t even her race.
I just wanted to swim, Daddy.
He’d been so proud of her then. Why hadn’t he pulled her into his arms and whispered, Good for you, instead of telling her to wait her turn?
Suddenly the race was over. A new group of swimmers was walking toward the edge of the pool.
Jamie stepped into place, stretched, then bent into position.
It was the 200 IM. Never her best event.
The horn blared, and the swimmers dove into the water.
Jack couldn’t yell. Slowly, feeling as if he were the one in deep water, he got to his feet.
She was in second place at the first turn.
“Come on, Jamie,” he said.
By the second turn, she’d fallen into fourth place. In the old days, he would have gone to the pool’s edge, bent down, and encouraged her to try harder.
He’d thought that winning was everything. Now he knew better.
At the final turn, she picked up speed. Her strokes were damned near perfect.
He moved down the bleachers, stepped onto the floor. “Come on, Jamie,” he said, still moving.
The finish was close.
She came in third, with a time of 2:33. If it wasn’t her personal best, it was damned close. He’d never been so proud of her.
When she got out of the pool, her teammates clustered around her, hugging and congratulating her.
Jack stood there, waiting for her to notice him.
When she finally looked up, her smile faded. In that moment, across the crowded room, everything blurred and fell away. Only the two of them were left.
He was the first to move. He closed the distance between them, mentally preparing for her anger. God knew, it could hit you like a hammerblow. Sometimes, you had to duck fast. “Hey, Jamie. Good race.”
She crossed her arms and jutted out her chin, but there was a softness in her eyes that gave him hope. “I came in third.”
“You swam your heart out. I was proud of you.”
She immediately looked down. “Why are you here? Business in town?”
“I came to watch you swim.”
Slowly, she looked up. “It’s been a long time.” She obviously meant to sound tough, but her voice cracked.
“Too long.”
In her eyes, he saw a flash of the girl who’d once followed him everywhere, afraid he’d get lonely without her. “Well. Thanks for coming. I’ll tell Stephie you were here. She’s finishing a big paper.” She turned and walked away.
For a minute, he was so shocked he just stood there. Then he called out, “Wait!”
She stopped, but didn’t turn around.
He came up behind her. “Forgive me,” he whispered, hearing the desperate harshness in his voice. “I spent too much time looking at my own life.”
“Forgive you?”
His voice fell to an intimate whisper, “Remember when you had that bad start at the state meet when you were a junior in high school? I took you aside and told you you’d had your stance wrong. But you knew that, didn’t you?”
“Of course.”
He stared at her back, wondering if he dared touch her. “I should have hugged you and told you it didn’t matter. What you do is nothing compared to who you are. It took me too long to figure that out. I’m sorry, Jamie. I let you down.”
Slowly, she turned around. Her eyes were moist.
“Please don’t cry.”
“I’m not. What about you and Mom?”
“I don’t know.”
“What happened? I don’t get it.”
“Think about you and your boyfriend, Mark.”
“Michael,” she said.
Damn. “Sorry. Anyway, imagine marrying him. You live with him for twenty-four years. Day in and day out, you’re together. You raise children together and change jobs and move from town to town. Along the years, you bury parents and watch your friends divorce and say good-bye to your daughters. It’s easy, in all that time, to forget why you fell in love in the first place.” He took a step toward her. “But you know what I found out?”
“What?”
“You can remember if you want to.”