“I don’t care.” Perry shrugged. “But now I know where you get your insane workout ability. You and Coach like to torture people.”
Perry’s comment broke the tension, and we all laughed. My dad could be a real hard-ass when it came to football.
I peeked over at Mateo, who hadn’t said anything. He already told me where he stood on the matter, but part of me still worried he would bail. Without saying a word, he reached down and squeezed my knee.
I put my hand on top of his and smiled softly at him. I made a promise that I wasn’t going to let the worry about my dad get in the way of hanging out with him. I would have to tell my father soon, but for now, I was just going to enjoy being here with him and our friends.
Thankfully, the waitress came by to get our order, the rest of the tension dissolving.
“So, can we talk about the fact you're an Olympian?” Perry asked a few minutes later. “Do you have actual medals?”
I laughed at the wide-eyed expression on his face. He seemed baffled and impressed. A surprise coming from an athlete who’s won The Legacy Championship. In the world of football, that was the biggest game you could win.
“Yeah, I have two bronze and two silver,” I said.
Jake whistled. “Damn. Are they heavy?”
“They actually are, and big. They’re about the size of my fist or bigger.” I lifted my hand.
“You get two medals per each Olympics?” Mateo asked.
“Well, it depends. If you place third through first, you get a medal. And then if you’re picked, you compete as a team to get another medal. So my first year, team USA got third, so bronze. And then the second time, we earned silver,” I explained.
“And this year, you’re going to get two gold,” Erin boosted, shooting me a big grin.
“Wait, how old were you the first time you went to the Olympics?” Jake questioned.
“Sixteen.”
“Geez, woman. So you're twenty-five?” I gave Perry a nod to confirm my age. “You’ll have gone to the Olympics three times. Wow, I think we got into the wrong sport.” He turned to Jake and Mateo with a shake of his head. “I want a gold medal.”
Perry turned back to me and leaned forward. “Where do you keep them?”
“In a castle guarded by dragons.”
Perry’s lips twitched with a smile, and he sent me a wink. “Let me know if you need a strong, brave knight to guard them.”
“You’ll be the first one I call.”
Weirdly, I didn’t feel awkward or like I was crawling out of my skin talking about being an Olympian. Hell, a week ago I was dreading hanging out with other people for that reason. There was something about talking to other athletes that just seemed to get it. They understood what it took to be the best of the best.
Erin asked Jake and Perry a question, drawing their attention away. A squeeze on my knee had me turning my head to Mateo.
“Who knew you were such a badass,” he murmured.
“What can I say? It comes so naturally to me,” I joked.
Mateo’s baby blues flicked between my eyes, pupils dilating. “Jake was right, you’re out of my league.” He said it so softly that if we hadn’t been inches apart, I wouldn’t have heard him.
“I…” I didn’t know what to say to that. Not when I felt like it Mateo was out of my realm.
As if he knew I couldn’t form words, he squeezed my leg again and turned back to the conversation at the table. I stared at the side of his face, wanting nothing more than to grab and kiss him.
As we waited for our food, we talked about an array of random things. Perry made jokes, Jake told us stories about the three of them over the last few years, and Mateo asked Erin what she did for a living, which turned into a big discussion about books.
Shock found us all when Perry said he was a big reader. From the sound of it, he read everything and anything, something that had Erin swooning in her seat. Even though it was light conversation, it was nice. Mateo’s friends easily accepted Erin and I into the fold.
When our food arrived, conversation ebbed as we all dug into our plates. The way the guys ate, you would havethought they hadn’t eaten in a week. But with how much they sweated during Pilates, I wasn’t surprised.
