But my body was a few steps ahead of my brain and I was already paddling by the time I’d remembered I was supposed to, racing toward the final fall and the finish line beyond.
Water rushing, blood pumping, brain still whirling with thoughts, this was the most alive I’d felt inmonths.
Morgan loved me.
I didn’t evencarewhat happened with this competition anymore, I’d gotten the best prize I could imagine.
Nothing mattered more than Morgan. Nothingcould.
I whooped for the whole crowd to hear and threw my paddle in the air as I launched over the last fall, catching it as though it was nothing and laughing as I crossed the finish line, turning sharply to soak Brad as he hovered over the timekeeper’s shoulder.
“Four minutes, sixteen seconds,” she said, grinning at me. “Wow. That’s anincredibletime.”
I blushed as I climbed out of the kayak, smiling to myself. That was mybesttime.
It didn’t matter if I came first or last anymore. I’d donemybest.
And Morgan loved me.
It really didn’t get much better than that.
* * *
“…and in second place, Devin Goode! With a special shoutout for doing tricks on the way down,” the announcer said, the crowd bursting into another round of cheers as the trophy girl put a silver medal on a purple ribbon around my neck.
The loudest cheers were coming from a little group standing off to the side, whistling and clapping and shouting my name until they were hoarse. Myfriends.
Myboyfriend, who I was pretty sure wouldn’t have a voice after this if he kept cheering that loud, who couldn’t stop smiling at me.
Who’d let me sit in his lap in my towel, even though I was soaking wet, and who’d kissed me in front of everyone and helped me fix my kayak onto the roof of Marta’s car.
Who’d gotten his van stuck in the mud and fallen in it himself coming to see me.
Chris had already promised to tow him out, but Morgan had said he didn’t care if he lost the van. He had something better.
Me.
The medal was cool in my hand as I wrapped my fingers around it, smiling down at the little kayak on the one side, turning it over to see the year on the other.
No one could take this away from me.
“Hey, Devin,” Marta called out, hollering above the buzz of the crowd, holding her phone up. “Strike a pose.”
I grinned broadly, holding the medal up for her at first, then turning and bending over, sticking my butt out and holding it up to my face, barely managing to stay upright between exhaustion and laughter.
The tip of Marta’s tongue stuck out between her lips as she concentrated, taking shot after shot as I turned around and bent over to look at her through my legs.
A wolf-whistle from Chris nearly knocked me flat on my face with laughter, but I recovered just in time to see Morgan giving me the most impossibly soft look I’d ever seen.
I waited the minimum decent amount of time for the winner to get his trophy and then bounded over to them, pulling the medal off so they could pass it around, Marta and Alex getting into a playful slapfight over who got to look at it first.
Brad came fourth. Didn’t even place.
I hadn’t seen him once the final standings were announced, but I was willing to bet he wasfuming.
I didn’t care. I didn’t care what Brad thought at all.
“This is socool,” Alex said, handing the medal back to me once he and Marta had both seen it. “You got somewhere to hang it?”
