Before the strength session, Tish pulled off to go to her interview.Misty bumped her fist against her friend’s before she left, but there was no time to dwell on it.She went about the rest of her workout until it was time to bundle up and head for the track, and the rest of the afternoon flew by as quickly as the sled.
As they returned to the hotel to shower and change before dinner, a receptionist called out to them.“Is one of you Angela Stilwell?”
Angela stepped forward, smoothing a hand over her dyed platinum hair.“That’s me.”
“There was a call for you while you were away.Your husband says it’s an emergency and to call him back as soon as possible.”
Everyone’s faces were flushed from the workout, but Angela’s went pale.“Oh, no.”
She took her phone out of her bag, took it off airplane mode, and left the group to call him back in private.Some of her competitors kept going, but others showed signs of lingering in case she needed them.Misty stayed, unable to even imagine how it would feel to get this kind of news.
“Seriously?”Angela had stepped halfway down the hall to make the call, but Misty heard it as clearly as if she’d shouted it in her ear.
The other woman stormed back to the group, color back in her face.“What happened?”Marla asked.
“Is Evelyn okay?”Tallulah asked.
“She’s fine.”Angela looked more mutinous than relieved, though.“You’ll never guess what the emergency was, so I’ll tell you.The washing machine broke this morning, and Raymond can’t find the repairman’s number.”
Misty joined the rest of the group in incredulous shouts.If she and Angela made the team and she got to meet Raymond, Misty couldn’t imagine she’d be able to politely greet him after this.The whole time he’d been calling his wife with questions that could have been answered if he’d taken the slightest bit of initiative to look around the house or Google, he’d managed to annoy the rest of the combine too.
Once she got that off her chest, all the fight seemed to go out of Angela.“I thought he could handle this.I thought I could trust him...”
The first sentence echoed so loudly in Misty’s head that she could barely hear the rest of Angela’s words.She’d thoughtSpencercould handle this.He’d known why she was there from the day they met, and had spent their sessions more than prepared for the possibility that she would be away for weeks, only to start whining once reality set in.Did she want to be with someone like that?Her first and immediate answer was no, so why couldn’t she forget the defense she’d given Tish?
Chapter Thirty
“It’s safe to say Ididn’t have the same interview as everyone else.”The day had been such a busy one that Misty and Tish hadn’t gotten to catch up until they were back in their room, well after it had gotten dark.
Tish spoke as she and Misty sat across from each other with their legs splayed in wide straddles.The soles of their feet were touching, and Tish pulled her forward.“They asked me what it was like growing up with my dad, how that might’ve affected my perceptions of sports and fame, and a lot of stuff I didn’t think much about until today.”
Misty let out a groan as she felt the stretch in her back and legs.“I know what you mean.It was like I’d always known how I felt about some of this but hadn’t had to put it into words until then.”
She straightened up to pull her friend forward.“Think these talks’ll make a difference in the long run?”
“Hard to say.”Tish’s voice sounded muffled as she leaned into the stretch.“It’s obvious that everyone here takes it seriously and wants to be on the team, but maybe not everyone knows exactly what that entails.”
