Page 126 of Home of the Brave

“Hey,” I said once I was close enough.

Miles looked up and smiled. “Oh, hey.”

“Are you. . .” I hesitated, remembering that the women were also being interviewed today, so it wasn’t all that weird that he was here. I figured he was standing in for Cambrie, but that didn’t make sense. “Do you know where Victoria and Cambrie are?”

His eyes flickered to Joe before answering. “I’m really not sure. We got a call early this morning that we needed to cover both the men and women today.”

“Okay, thanks.”

“Yeah.”

I went back to Schultz and pulled out my phone.

“Did he know where they were?”

“No, he said they were told to cover both the men and women today.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

“I know.”

I called Victoria, but she didn’t answer. I sent her a text asking where she was before trying Cambrie next, but she didn't pick up either.

Where were they?

I had no choice but to go through the motions and face the dozens of cameras. I tried to focus and express my gratitude for the opportunity, my coaches, teammates, and the fans, but in the back of my mind, I couldn’t shake the worry.

Hartman found me around one, with five hours still to go, and handed me an energy drink. “I just got a text from Madi. She said all the girls are together.”

“Okay.” I wasn’t sure why he was telling me. Madi, Kendall, and Amelia had made plans to take the train to Baltimore for the day.

“With Victoria and Cambrie,” he clarified.

I stopped with my drink halfway to my mouth and lowered it. "They’re together? In Baltimore? Why? Why aren’t they here?”

“She said they ended up not going. They’re all fine and will meet up with us after the team dinner.”

I rubbed my face with my free hand. “Okay.”

Why didn’t she text or call me back? Madi said they were fine, but that wasn’t reassuring.

“Next.” We were called forward for another interview, so I had to wait to find out.

It was another hour and a half before I had a long enough break to check my phone. There was a message.

Victoria: I’ll explain later. Don’t worry. X

Don’t worry? That was the single worst thing to tell someone when you couldn’t tell them the whole story. Of course, I was going to worry. This was a huge day for her, professionally, and she wasn’t here.

“Come on,” Hartman pulled me forward, and I had to put my phone back in my pocket.

With zero downtime between interviews and the team dinner, I didn’t have much of a chance to think about what might have happened. I focused on celebrating with my teammates, soaking in the last moments of our bond before the week was over and we went our separate ways to our home teams.

But my knees were bouncing with anticipation as we pulled up in front of our hotel.

“They’re up in our room,” Derek explained as he pressed the elevator button.

“They’ve been up to something all day,” Hartman warned. “Hopefully, it doesn’t require us to do anything too crazy this time.”