CHAPTER 17

Drew was in second place and was about to have the perfect moment to overtake the first-place boarder. All she had to do was land on the inside and turn her body just the right way, which she did, passing the first-place racer on that inside and getting ahead on the next jump, which gave her enough air to increase her lead. She checked, without turning her head, and knew that she had enough space to make it to the finish without being passed as long as she didn’t make any mistakes. She tilted and turned, grabbed her board, and then let it go just in time to land.

Hitting the finish line with close to a second to spare, Drew raised her arms in the air, and her coach hurried over to congratulate her with a hug. Her parents weren’t there to support her because it hadn’t felt like an important competition to her when she’d decided to come here for it, so she hadn’t invited them. On top of that, had she not gotten the good news from Chris, she would have been embarrassed, so she’d just told them to stay home and catch the next one. Now, though, she really wished her parents were there.

When she pulled out of the hug, she looked around, expecting someone else to be there, too, but it only took a moment for her to remember that she didn’t have anyone else here, and that meant that Selma wasn’t standing there, waiting to hug her. Drew needed to get the woman out of her head because nothing was going to happen there, but she couldn’t help calling her when she got back home after her flight.

“Hey. How did you do?” Drew asked.

“Third,” Selma replied. “I want to fire the waxer.”

“That bad?”

“He works for the team, so he’s not technically my employee or anything, which my coach reminded me, but we went over everything after, and I don’t think he screwed up. We had some unexpected heat wave roll in, which caused the snow to start melting, so he’d prepped for one day, and we got another. What about you?”

“Uh… Yeah, good,” Drew said.

She had been excited to share that she’d won her competition because she’d expected Selma to win her own as well, but now that she knew Selma was disappointed, she didn’t want to brag.

“Drew…”

“What? I did okay.”

“Okay? Did you win? You won, didn’t you?” Selma asked. “And you’re trying not to tell me because you don’t want me to feel bad or something.”

“I did, yeah.”

“What? Drew, that’s amazing! Gia, come here.”

“Gia’s there?”

“I just got home. Grandma left a few minutes ago. I was about to make dinner. She’s in her room. Hold on.”

“Drew?” Gia said.

“Hey, Gia,” Drew replied, smiling instantly and deciding she’d have to unpack all of this later. “What are you doing?”

“Tell her!” Selma yelled from somewhere far away.

“Mom’s saying you’re supposed to tell me something,” Gia added.

“Oh, I won my race today. I came in first place.”

“Whoa! You did? That’s so cool! Can I watch it?”

“Um… Yeah. My coach sent me the video. I need to pull it up, but I can send it to your mom.”

“Okay. Can we watch it together now?”

“Oh. Now?” Drew asked.

“I put you on speaker,” Selma said. “Send the video. I’ll put it on her computer. Want to FaceTime?”

“I just got home. I look like shit.”

Gia giggled and said, “You said, ‘Shit.’”

“No, I didn’t,” Drew said at the same time Selma said, ‘No, she didn’t.’

Drew pulled back her smile because this was getting too real. This felt like she was still in her hotel room and she’d called her family back home to let them know how she’d done. But that wasn’t what was going on right now. Selma was straight and had a kid that was not Drew’s. She needed to get a grip, but she didn’t want to make Gia suffer for her current mild freakout.

“Who cares?” Selma asked.

“Yeah, who cares?” Gia echoed.

Drew laughed a little and said, “Okay. I’ll send it and get on FaceTime. Give me a minute.”

She hurried to her bedroom and changed out of the tank-top-and-no-bra combination she’d tossed on when she’d gotten home, and put on a sports bra and a T-shirt instead. Then, she sent the recording to Selma and decided to FaceTime from her iPad so that she could rest it on its stand and wouldn’t have to hold her phone while they talked.

“Your turn there was nuts, Drew,” Selma said as they watched on their computer.

Drew had the video on her phone, and they’d pressed play at the same time to try to sync up their viewing.

“Yeah, they fixed the course. It was much better today. And I only had that window to get by her.”

“The course was broken?” Gia asked.

“We sometimes say that when the course is too slow,” Drew explained. “You know all about friction, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay. So, your board glides over the snow. If the snow is loose, like the snowflakes just kind of piled up, the board doesn’t go as fast, right?”

“Right,” Gia confirmed.

“So, when you’re in snowboard cross, you want the snow to be packed hard. It makes you go faster. And you put wax on your board to make it go even faster. Your mom had some trouble in her race because why?” Drew asked, hoping Selma had told Gia.

“She said it was hot, so the snow was melting, and it wasn’t packed,” Gia replied. “So, the wax wasn’t helping, either.”

“You got it,” Drew said with a smile aimed at Gia, who wasn’t looking at her face because she was still watching the video.

Drew turned her attention to Selma then, hoping to be able to stare at the woman for a second because she would be watching the video, too. Selma wasn’t watching the video or Gia, though. She was looking at Drew, and she gave her a soft smile when their eyes met. Drew smiled the same way back.

“You won by so much,” Gia noted.

“Not by that much. It’s microseconds in our sport, right?”

“Right,” Gia confirmed with a nod. “When do you race again? Is it here?”

“No, baby. Drew’s not racing here.”

“It’s not far off, though, my next competition.”

As a silent response to that, Selma gave her a wide-eyed expression that told Drew not to say anything else, which she understood because while she’d be going back to train with the team soon, their next competition was an international one, where she’d be representing Team USA, and Selma would be representing Canada. Meaning, if Drew mentioned that, Gia would want to go, and Selma probably didn’t want to cause any problems with that right now.

“Hey, Gia, can you go back to your room for a few minutes and work on your drawing? I’ll call you when it’s time for dinner, okay?”

“I wanted to talk to Drew more.”

“I know. Another time, okay?”

“Fine,” Gia reluctantly agreed and marched off with her computer.

Selma’s phone had been resting against something, but she picked it up and moved to lie on her side. Drew felt like all she had to do was lie down on her own sofa, and it would be as if they were in the same room, staring at each other.

“Congrats on the win again,” Selma told her. “You killed it.”

“Thanks. Did you kick her out because of–”

“Yeah. She’d want to go, and she can’t. She has school. This new program is turning out great for her, but now that she’s actually excited about school, I don’t want to pull her out for a week.”

“I understand,” Drew replied before she decided to lie down as well and turned her iPad to make sure Selma could still see her face. “So, training is next for you?”

“Yeah. I’ll leave again soon. I’ve worked out a schedule with Grandma and Kelly, who watches her whenever Grandma can’t. Kirsten, that’s her daughter–”

“Yeah, I remember. She’s thirteen, right?”

Selma smiled and said, “She was. She just turned fourteen and got her CPR certification because she’s trying to get into babysitting. So, I’m going to start paying her for watching Gia on the times they can’t. It’ll be pocket money for her, and there will always be someone at the hotel in case there’s an issue.”

“That sounds like a plan,” Drew said.

“You look tired.”

“Uh… Thanks?” Drew replied with a little laugh.

“What? You do. It’s not a bad thing. Just a fact. Maybe you should take a nap or something.”

“I don’t need a nap.” She shook her head. “I need to eat something and then, do laundry.”

“Laundry? You just got home.”

“Part of my returning home ritual,” she explained. “I like to get all my laundry done right when I get home.”

“Do you want to come here and do my laundry, then? I haven’t done the load from before I left, so I definitely haven’t started with the new stuff.”

“I would if I could, but…”

“You’re not here,” Selma finished for her.

“No, I’m not,” Drew said, and she knew that she sounded sad.

“And odds are, you won’t be back here for a while, right? I’m asking for Gia. She won’t shut up about wanting to board with you again.”

“Gia. Right. I don’t have any trips to Vancouver planned, no. Do you… want to come here?”

“What?”

“Never mind. Stupid idea. You can’t take Gia out of school, and I don’t have space for both of you unless we do an air mattress or something anyway. So, just forget I said anything.”

There was something drawing Selma’s attention away from the video now. Drew assumed that it was Gia coming out of her room.

“Grandma, everything okay?”

“Yes, it’s fine. I just left my phone up here when I left.”

“Hi, Ruth,” Drew said before she could stop herself.

“Who is that?”

“Oh, it’s… Drew.” Selma turned the phone toward the old woman, who smiled at her.

“Well, hello, Drew. How are you?”

“I’m good. How are you feeling?”

“I’m just fine. Thank you for asking. What were you two talking about?”

“Oh, nothing, really,” Selma replied instead. “Drew’s schedule. That kind of a thing.”

“Yeah. I invited her here, which I shouldn’t have done because I wasn’t thinking about Gia being in school and–”

“You invited Selma there?” Ruth checked.

“Yeah; just to board and hang out, maybe. I was thinking about both of them coming, but I know Gia is in her new program and can’t leave right now. A weekend would probably be too much for her as well because it would be a Friday night flight and a Sunday flight back, so… not sure that’s worth it.”

“Selma can go,” Ruth said.

“Sorry?” Selma asked.

“You can go. You should go.”

“Why?” Selma asked.

“Because you haven’t had more than a few hours off in months and you deserve it. I can watch Gia. Plus, Kirsten can help. She’s been looking to–”

“I know. Kelly told me. But I can’t just go to Drew’s, Grandma.”

“Why not? She invited you. Did you mean to invite my granddaughter to spend time with you, Drew?”

“I did, but–”

“Then, it’s settled. Selma will come to see you, and I’ll watch Gia. Kirsten will help.”

“Grandma, you can’t just decide for me.”

“Selma, it’s fine. It was a dumb idea. You don’t have to come here,” Drew said, trying to let her off the hook. “I know how busy we both are.”

“Exactly why she should go,” Ruth explained. “Drew, you spent most of your time here entertaining my great-granddaughter, which I appreciate, but I’m guessing that wasn’t the kind of vacation you were hoping for.”

“No, it was fine. I liked hanging out with Gia.”

“Yes, but you can have some adult time with Selma.”

“Grandma!” Selma exclaimed.

“You know what I mean. Gia is a great kid. We all love her. But you need some time off from it all, Selma. Just go for a weekend, at least. Get on your snowboards, if you must, but it’s also okay if you don’t do that, too.”

“Gia will kill me if I go see Drew, and she doesn’t get to come.”

“Tell her it’s for work,” Ruth suggested. “She’ll believe you. Now, I have to get back downstairs. We’ll work out the details later?”

“I’ll talk to you later, yes,” Selma corrected.

“Fine. Good enough.”

Selma turned the camera back to her own face.

“Did your grandma just basically book your flight for you?” Drew teased.

“She’s a very stubborn woman.”

“You should come here, then, so you don’t get in trouble.”

“Drew, it was a passing comment that you made. And now, she’s guilting you into this.”

“No, she’s not. Look, I have a one-bedroom apartment. It’s not great, but I have a pull-out sofa, and it’s comfortable enough. You can even bring Gia, if you want. You two can take my bed. I’ll sleep on the couch or buy that air mattress.”

“I’m not making you sleep on the sofa or an air mattress in your own apartment, Drew. And Gia really can’t go because of school. You were right about the weekend thing: it would be too much for her to leave late on Friday night and come back on Sunday and still make it through the next school week unscathed.”

“So, just you?”

“Are you serious? I mean, do you actually want me to come there, or are you just doing this because of my grandmother, who happened to walk in, and you like my kid?”

Drew had made the comment more on accident than anything else, but the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to see Selma again. Of course, that was precisely the reason she should tell Selma that she was having second thoughts and that they’d see each other at their next competition.

“I am serious,” Drew stated instead. “Selma, I don’t have many friends. I have acquaintances and colleagues, but I’ve put my career over just about everything else. When I won the race today, I only had my coach to hug, because I told my parents to stay home, and I realized how lonely that made me feel. I don’t know… I think it would be nice for us to hang out with no Gia. No offense. And it really would be totally okay for her to come along, too. I have one of my old boards she can even have or just train on here. It could be fun. But no hotel and no other responsibilities getting in the way, it would be nice to have a friend here for a few days. Did I just guilt you into coming now?” She laughed nervously, hoping to play off the fact that she really wanted Selma to visit now.

“I have to talk to my grandmother and make sure she can actually watch her.”

“Okay,” Drew said.

“And it wouldn’t be for that long; maybe a couple of nights or something. I could use a break from everything, but I don’t like spending more time than I have to away from Gia.”

“I know. I get it,” Drew replied.

“Okay. Let me figure it out on my end.”

“Yeah, whatever you need.”

“Also, she’s coming back out of her bedroom, so you should hang up unless you want to talk to her for another hour or two.”

Drew chuckled and said, “I wouldn’t mind. But I think you two need to eat dinner, so I’ll let you go. I’ll see you soon?”

Selma nodded.