Page 125 of Broken Silence
“Oh, I’m sure I would break something now.”
“Rubbish. You were born for this. You could’ve gone all the way, Oakley. The Olympics was in your future.”
I shook my head. “I never would’ve taken it that far.” But it was nice to hear again that I was good at something.
“Why not?”
“I didn’t want the attention.”
My dad never would have let me go for it, either. There was a chance that if my name was out there, his would be, too. Ridiculous really. How many rich, famous people, and politicians were a part of the circles my dad ran in?
“What are your plans now?”
“Well, I was kind of hoping you could help me out there.”
He tilted his head. “Go on.”
“I’ll need a job if I stay in England.”
I’d not figured out where I’d live, though I had a feeling Cole would insist on me living with him, but I needed a plan B in case he wanted to take things slower.
“Ifyou stay?” Marcus asked.
“I want to.”
“Good. I don’t think Cole will let you go again, anyway. You know, he came here a few times. I saw him at night, sitting outside the gym.”
My heart stuttered. “What?”
“I guess he wanted to be close to you—to something you loved.”
“Did you speak to him?” I whispered.
“Sat with him a couple of times. He didn’t want to talk.”
“I had no idea.”
Marcus smiled. “I don’t think you were supposed to. Mary’s moving away with her husband, so we have no one to teach the under-fives on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I want to expand, so I’ll have more hours soon.”
Hope bloomed in my chest. “Yeah?”
“I know it’s a bit like herding kittens at that age, but you can handle it.”
“I don’t mind which age group it is. Cole will probably tell me he’ll take care of me, but I don’t want that.”
He’d spent a long time doing that.
“Want to get a drink? I have a while before class,” Marcus asked.
The drinks in the canteen were disgusting, but I actually missed them, too. “Drinking that crap again?” I smiled and linked my arm through his. “You bet.”
Marcus nudged me and nodded to a table in the canteen. “You sit. I’ll buy the liquid shit.”
I chose my favourite spot by the window. Sunlight streamed through the blinds. Marcus sat down opposite me and handed me a hot chocolate. It would be watery, but that was fine.
I wrapped my hand around the cream mug with the stick image of a gymnast doing a cartwheel on it. “Thanks. Hey, you remember when Silas broke his wrist doing a backflip off that table?”
Marcus laughed. “Yeah. What a dick. You just stood there looking at him like you couldn’t believe how someone could be such a moron. He was a good gymnast but too cocky.”
