Page 110 of Salto

I was incredibly sore that morning. The increase in our training leading up to the next meet was starting to take its toll. And because I hadn’t been icing…my body was stiffer than usual.

I didn’t think anything of it until I headed into my Jaeger, and the stiffness in my shoulders made it harder to reach and catch the bar.

I thought I’d had it; my trajectory appeared good, but then my shoulders didn’t open as widely as I intended.

My hands missed.

I heard him curse. He’d been leaning casually against the bar, clearly not prepared to catch me.

His arm shot out, wrapping around my waist. The momentum carried both of us off the spotting block.

And I dethroned the block prince in one fell swoop.

We crashed onto the mat, and I heard him groan.

Dazed, I sat up, the fall having stolen my breath even with him cushioning the impact.

“Oh my gosh, Rove, are you oka⁠—”

His arm was still wrapped securely around my waist.

As he lifted his head, his eyes took in the position of our bodies.

My hands were splayed against his chest.

One of my legs had somehow ended up draped across his waist.

He froze.

For the first time since I'd met him, I could've sworn I saw him blush.

A second later, he was untangling us. I quickly tried to help, pushing myself up and rolling away from him.

There were foam particles from the mat clinging to his sweatsuit, and when he stood, he started brushing the flecks off of himself.

“I’m so sor⁠—”

“Don’t—” His jaw clenched as he shook his head, glancing up to meet my eyes briefly. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I said quickly. “I’m good.”

He held my gaze for another second.

Then he looked away.

“We're done with bars.”

I had a feeling that, even though he was dismissing me, this wasn't going to be the end of it.

Bars was the last event, so I escaped to the locker room.

I took my time putting my things away, trying desperately not to think about the way we'd landed tangled together on the mat.

I avoided my teammates' questioning looks, focusing instead on zipping my bag.

I waited until everyone had filtered out before stepping back into the gym.

But when I walked out, it wasn't empty like I'd hoped. Rove was sitting beside the beams, scribbling something in his notebook.