There was a long list of reasons for him not to even consider going back to California. As much as Grandpa insisted he could look after his wife alone, Drew knew that eventually her condition would deteriorate to the point where she would need more support. They were both in their seventies, and while they were more active than the average forty-year-old, it would be irresponsible to let them handle it alone. And then there were the financial reasons. While his grandparents had done pretty well for themselves and spent years building up his college fund, he couldn’t justify going back to school when he knew they could spend that money helping Grandma get the very best medical treatment. Plus, Thandie was a full-time professional athlete, and female athletes especially were infamously underpaid. He couldn’t bear the idea of her moving back home or reallocating any of her earnings to help out with the care he knew he was better positioned to contribute to. Which is what he told Ari, careful not to let slip what exactly his sister did for work. He’d cross that bridge when he needed to.
“But don’t you feel like she’d want to know?” Ari asked. “I’d be pretty disappointed if I knew my sister was going to miss out on college to protect me.”
She was right. But Thandie was his younger sister, it was on him to make the sacrifice.
“I know. She’s definitely going to be hurt when she finds out that I kept it a secret. But I’d rather postpone the conversation than have it before I can control the outcome.”
He refused to add stress to the two most important weeks of her life—he and Grandpa had agreed to that. But Ari shook herhead in disagreement. Her gaze was going back and forth between him and the competition as the players swept their brooms across the ice with an intense level of focus.
“You can’t postpone things forever to control— Yes!” she said, getting up to cheer as Team GB hit the target. She and her teammates clapped and high-fived one another as if it was them on the ice. They were just spectators today, but their enthusiasm made him realize just how excited they probably got in the aftermath of their games. Most of Drew’s assignments clashed with Ari’s games, but the joy on her face as she sat down made him resolve to find a way to watch at least one of her matches in the next couple of days. He wanted to see her doing what she loved.
“So, what I was saying, before that beautiful moment, was that secrets have a way of blowing up in your face,” she said, taking a cheery sip of her smoothie as the teams on the ice switched sides. He knew she was talking about his grandmother’s diagnosis, but he couldn’t help but wonder if that’s what would happen when he eventually explained to her that his sister was her archrival.
“Is that from experience?” he asked, nervous.
“Yep. Remember how I told you about my family drama?”
“Your mom and sister’s fight?”
She nodded.
“My dad called to tell me about his engagement months ago. He sent both of us an invite. But we kept it a secret from our mom until my sister announced that Dad had already booked her flight. It was the secretiveness that hurt her.”
“But if your sisterhadn’taccepted the invite, don’t you think keeping the secret would have protected your mom’s feelings?”
She shrugged. “That’s what I tried to convince myself, but finding out once we’d already made our decisions made her feel like we’d betrayed her.” She turned in her seat to face him. “I get wanting to protect someone’s feelings. I do it all the time. Butpeople have a right to know the secrets that will affect them, even if it leads to an uncomfortable conversation,” she said before returning her attention to the curling match.
Her words made it clear to him that the longer he kept Thandie’s identity a secret, the more likely Ari was to be upset when she found out the truth. So, he made a mental note to tell her before they left the stadium. Then he sat back and watched the second half of the game with Ari and her teammates. But before he could focus his attention on the ice, or the odd rules that governed the game, a horn blared and the match came to a sudden pause.
“What’s going on?” asked Ari, looking around and trying to figure out what was interrupting the competition.
“I have no idea,” said Drew, as they scanned the ice and audience for some sort of sign. After a moment they noticed a bunch of staff reaching for their walkie-talkies and a group of officials huddling into a hushed discussion. After overhearing a few conversations and checking his phone, Drew figured out what was going on. It turned out that there was a tech issue with the live broadcast feed streaming the competition out to the rest of the world, so the competition had come to a halt. The officials looked stressed out and the camera crews were glancing over at each other in despair. Millions of viewers tuned in to watch the Olympics, and each minute of lost time cost the broadcasters millions of dollars. Drew could only imagine how chaotic things probably were behind the scenes as they worked to fix the issue. The audience watching the competition at home from their TV screens had probably been taken from a live feed of the game to a studio recording of commentators making small talk to avoid an empty screen. But that wasn’t an option inside the arena. So instead, the speakers around them started playing music. At first, Drew thought they were just filling the silence. That it would bea short musical interlude to kill time, but then he heard the opening beats of Stevie Wonder’s “As.” A wave of excitement filled the room as colorful lights started flashing. A camera began to scan the audience and project people’s faces onto the screen.
“Is that…?” said Drew.
“The kiss cam?” said Ari, looking at him wide eyed. “I love the kiss cam!” she said, grinning as she pointed up at the TV monitor.
The screen filled up with hearts as the camera quickly flashed across audience members around the room. First, it landed on a sweet-looking older couple who laughed and then kissed on the cheek. Then it landed on two people wearing matching New Zealand fan T-shirts who immediately went in for a full-on makeout session. It panned to a toddler who blew a kiss, making the whole audience sayawwin response. And then, Drew saw his own face up on the screen. Ari was beaming, but she froze when she realized what was happening. They quickly turned toward each other with startled expressions. Harrison sat in their direct eyeline, looking on and shooting them daggers. Her teammates were excitedly cheering her on. They needed to act fast.
“Ari,” he whispered as they locked eyes.
“Drew,” she replied, her expression something he couldn’t quite place.
“Is this…”
“An emergency? Yes,” she said without hesitation.
“I thought so.” He smiled.
“But… kiss me like you mean it,” she whispered.
Drew leaned in closer, brushed a curl away, and traced a finger down the side of her face, from her hair to her cheek, to her lips and then down to her chin. He slowly tilted her face up until they were just a breath away, and then his lips softly landed on hers. He instantly felt a spark. One that made its way across the entirelength of his body. Her lips were soft and gentle against his, as if asking him a question. So, he answered it by placing a hand on her face, pulling her in, and meeting her with a slow, tender-but-firm kiss. Drew felt like he’d just touched a live wire. His whole being set alight as she traced a trail along the stubble on his chin and then down to his neck before wrapping her arms around it. Their lips melding together and moving in harmony as if they’d known each other longer than their minds had. It was the same feeling he’d felt on New Year’s Eve, the same tension in the air when he’d seen her after the opening ceremony, and the heady, electrifying feeling at Schokoladenzeit.
Drew was kissing her like he meant it… because he did.
27Ari
DAY FIVE OF THE 2026 OLYMPICS
