Callie
Blood, sweat, hard work, and a disconcerting lack of tears—my entire life—was meant to culminate in a flourish of glory and significance.
I'd thought I'd always known exactly what that meant.
But I'd had the timing wrong by about three minutes.
I knew now.
This moment wasn't everything. The one person I found myself wanting more than anything during it was.
Nik
One preconceived notion can haunt you for the entirety of your life.
I thought I owed it to myself and to everyone who'd ever backed me to do what was expected. What was right. What I was supposed to do.
But nothing is forbidden in love. Not circumstances or propriety or the denial of the object of said affection.
I knew now.
This was it.
If I wanted it, I had to take it.
This gymnastics love story is more than grips, rips, and battered hands.
For Calia Nickleson and Nikolai Bagrov, it was everything.
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Excerpt
His eyes were
like actual pools of water—moving,
flowing, and changing color along with depth. Each time his focus shifted, so
did mine, zeroing in on a new fleck of deep blue and trying to help it float
through the much more abundant aqua. Their magnetism made it hard to focus on
his words, but I wouldn’t have
traded those moments spent studying their nuances for all of the words in the
dictionary.
Sure, looks
were shallow and words could mean everything, but in those split seconds when
his eyes changed before my own, I would have sworn on my every Olympic medal it
was the opposite.
And right now,
I needed the comfort of that feeling. I needed it to swaddle me in its warmth
and make everything feel right again.
The word wrong
had never been a concept worthy of my focus, but as I tried to make sense of
what was happening, denying its existence was no longer an option.
Up felt like
down and left very nearly tricked me into believing it was right.
Voices called
out to me constantly and on repeat, but none of them were the one I wanted.
Like they were speaking through water, every pronunciation of my name seemed
foreign and unwelcome, and my brain did nothing but scream another.
I tried
valiantly to talk my uncooperative body into bending to my will, but for the
first time in my life it wouldn’t.
Digging deep
down into my gut, I found the last vestiges of my energy and willed them into
one single action.
Into one
single word.
“Nik.”
Priorities
shifted and silence mocked me.
My entire life
had been a series of events all specifically driven toward this very moment. I’d known all of my work was meant to
culminate in a flourish of glory and significance. I’d known there’d be a second in time when I knew why
each part of my life had played out the way it had. Why I’d worked, why I’d sweat, why I’d fought to keep going well after most
people’s journeys were done.
I’d even known it would probably happen
now—on this stage, in front of all of
these people.
I’d just had the timing wrong by about
three minutes.
But I knew
now.
This was it.
The thing I
found myself wanting most during this moment—that
was everything.
He was
everything.
About Laurel Ulen Curtis
Laurel Ulen Curtis is a 28 year old mother of one. She lives with her husband and son (and cat!) in New Jersey, but grew up all over the United States. She graduated from Rutgers University in 2009 with a Bachelor of Science in Meteorology, and puts that to almost no use other than forecasting for her friends and writing a storm chasing heroine! She has a passion for her family, laughing, and reading and writing Romance novels. She's also addicted to Coke. The drink, not the drug.
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