Page 31 of Balancing Act

“I know this was supposed to be about gymnastics,” Lily started, looking directly at Jamie apologetically, “but I don’t think I can meet my gymnastic goals without all these other parts of me. You know?”

“Yeah, I do.” Jamie beamed at the younger girl. “But now I kind of wish I had gone first.” Jamie winked at Lily and flipped her canvas around, revealing a poorly laid-out board of her visions and dreams for herself. While Lily’s vision board had considered the balance of color and overlapping shapes, Jamie had simply stuck things haphazardly across her canvas.

Both Beth’s and Lily’s faces split into matching smiles as they held back laughter.

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to laugh...” Beth tried and failed to hide her laugh in a cough.

“It looks like a serial killer made it,” Lily joked.

“Hey, wait a second!” Jamie tried and failed to defend her handiwork.

After Jamie had briefly explained her hopes for the future, the three of them had sat around talking, curled up on the couch next to the fire, until Lily couldn’t hold back her yawns any longer. Jamie glanced at the clock in the kitchen. It was past ten already.

“Lily, love, why don’t you head to bed,” Beth said softly, patting Lily’s thigh.

Lily nodded sleepily and stretched before getting up and going down to the lower level of the house. Jamie stood, too, heading into the kitchen.

“Let me clean up, and then I’ll head out as well.” Jamie moved to begin cleaning up their mess from earlier.

Beth, leaning casually against the countertop, watched her intently, making no effort to hide her gaze. Jamie felt the weight of that look, each glance seeming to tether her more firmly to the spot. “Or you could stay for a little while longer,” Beth murmured, her voice a soft entreaty hanging delicately in the air between them. “We can just talk.”

The suggestion caught Jamie off guard, her hands pausing mid-task. She swallowed hard, her heart pounding in a conflicted rhythm. Usually, she relied on her instincts to guide her in moments like this, to whisper the right course of action where logic had failed. But now, her instincts were as divided as her thoughts, leaving her stranded at a crossroads of caution and desire.

SEVEN

BETH

Beth regretted the invitation before Jamie even answered. The moment the words left her lips, she heard her own voice loop back at her:You never think, Beth. You say the first thing that pops into your head. God, now she’s thinking about how weird you?—

“Yeah, sure. Sounds like fun.” Jamie’s response cut through Beth’s loop of thoughts, causing her to raise her eyebrows in mild shock. But those perfect dimples peeked out as Jamie smiled at her, and before long, all was forgotten.

And now here they were, just the two of them, sitting in her living room with the fire crackling and a bottle of wine gradually emptying. It was all so ordinary—a simple evening of conversation that felt as comfortable as if they’d been friends for years. She found it truly astonishing. This was Jamie Lyons, the stunningly attractive Olympic gold medalist, the object of an alarmingly large number of her waking and not-so-waking thoughts, and she was just Beth.

Adding another log to the fireplace, gently stoking the flames with an antique iron poker, she closed the grate before twirling back around, wineglass in hand. An open bottle of her favorite Viognier from one of the local wineries sat on the coffee tablebetween where she and Jamie had been sprawled out on the couch for the last two hours.

She had spent weeks internally agonizing over what it would be like to finally spend time alone with Jamie, conjuring scenarios filled with uncomfortable pauses and nervous laughter. Yet none of her fears had materialized. She was amazed at the lack of awkwardness, how natural it felt to laugh and share stories with Jamie. The way Jamie listened, genuinely engaged, and interested as she laughed along, making Beth feel at ease in a way she hadn’t experienced before.

Beth couldn’t help but wonder why everything with Jamie felt so right when even thinking about her in the ways she had let herself over the last few weeks had felt so wrong, given the fact that she was one: leaving in a few weeks, and two: her daughter’s coach, and three: only interested in being friends, as she had made explicitly clear.

“Oh my God, shut up!” Jamie laughed with her hand over her mouth.

Beth plopped down on the couch beside her, a little closer than she had been sitting before.

“I know. Up until she was about ten, Lily genuinely didn’t realize that men played professional sports, too. I guess we went a little heavy on the female representation in athletics with her. And look where it got us.” She laughed and playfully swatted Jamie.

Her eyes fixed on her hand still resting on Jamie’s knee, perplexed as to why her brain had not yet sent the signal to her hand that it was time to move. But instead of pulling her hand away, she let it linger there, feeling the heat of Jamie’s leg against the palm of her hand. Her eyes shot up and met Jamie’s puzzled expression.

“Sorry.” She grinned, pulling her hand away and setting her empty wineglass on the coffee table. “I’ve probably had enough of that for tonight,” she said, blaming her actions on the wine.

She made to scoot herself away from Jamie when a hand clasped around her wrist. She stilled, looking back at Jamie. This time, she was the one left confused by the unexpected gesture.

“I don’t mind,” Jamie said, her voice so soft that Beth had almost missed it.

Jamie didn’t mind? What did that mean?

“What?” she tried to say, wanting clarification, but Jamie slid a hand onto Beth’s thigh, giving her a gentle squeeze that Beth immediately felt radiating through her.

Okay, she was confused.