They shared one more lingering kiss, and Hawk smiled at him, rubbing their noses together. “Don’t worry, I’m not letting you get away for long this time. I’ll be in touch soon. Do you want me to walk you down?”
“No, I’m good. I’d rather not have everybody see me get all emotional because I have to let you stay here and not come with me.” He bonked his forehead against Hawk’s chin. “I’ll see you soon.”
“Later.” Hawk let him go and stepped back. Caleb grabbed his bag and headed out of the door.
Livigno was gorgeous.
It definitely had an alpine village look with steep streets and whitewashed buildings with dark timbers. There was a ton of activity, of course, because of the Olympics, and the 800-bed Olympic village was more makeshift than the one in Milan, but it was perfectly acceptable.
Any other time Caleb would have wandered out and had a look at the town, maybe buy some souvenirs or having a bottle of wine in one of the little osterias on the street. But really, he needed to focus on why he was here. He had practice runs to start tomorrow, and then prelims were looming over him.
Today, he had a meeting with his coach at dinner time, and they were meeting at the cafeteria at the Olympic Village. Caleb wasn’t one of the young kids who needed his coach hanging over his head every minute of the day or anything. So they were just now getting together.
Caleb didn’t think he’d ever been so disinterested in a competition before. He honestly didn’t want to do this, and he knew it was because his body felt like it was betraying him. Going up in altitude as much as he had today was making his whole body burn with inflammation. He was sure if they took his blood levels right now, his markers would be way up because of stress, but Hawk had made it way better. He really had.
He settled in at the Olympic Village and then went to get a short workout in, knowing that just doing the bike and some stretching/yoga type stuff would make his joints feel better.
By the time he went to meet with his coach, Caleb felt like his headspace was almost where it needed to be. He wasn’t feeling terribly competitive, but he was feeling more in line with that spirit.
“Hey, Caleb.” Tyson, his coach, met him at the entrance to the cafeteria. “Let’s get some food. Then we can go over the game plan.”
“Sure.” Caleb shook hands with him. “You been having a good time?”
Tyson chuckled. “Well, you know I’ve been working with a couple of the younger guys. It’s been a bit of a pain in the ass, but they’re good kids. They’ll do well next time.”
“Good thing I’m hands-off.” He winked and theyheaded in to grab a tray and fill a plate. He laughed when he saw the big warming pans of chicken and broccoli pasta because they made him think of Hawk.
“Hey, I don’t want you to think I’m not on the ball with you. I got all your training run times booked, and I want to go over the course with you via video tonight.”
“Can’t be any worse than it was at Sochi, right?” Caleb hadn’t been at Sochi, but he knew Tyson had, and by all accounts, that had been one of the most dangerous halfpipe courses in the history of the Olympics. They’d had to redo it mid-prelims, if he remembered right.
“Harsh but true.”
“So, tonight, we’re going to watch tape. Is that what you’re saying?”
“If that works for you, I know you’ve been staying down in Milan, so I thought I’d give you tonight to get back up at altitude.”
They sat together, both of them digging in. The food stunned him with its flavor and quality, and he sucked down some risotto with tons of veg and a thin omelet with crispy edges. He loved how they cooked eggs here.
“It works for me, man.”
Tyson gave him a long, searching look. “How is all your physical stuff going?”
Caleb fought not to roll his eyes. Sometimes he really missed Brandon. He was pissed off that the guy had retired on him before his last gold medal run. And that was super stupid, because Brandon had his own life too.
“It’s okay. It’s been a little rough. The cold has really been bothering my joints, but it’s not going to affect my performance.”
“Okay, do you need to work with the trainer at all tomorrow before you do any practice runs?”
“Yeah, I think it probably would be helpful to get somework in to loosen everything up before I go out and do my first test of the course.”
“Okay, I’ll put in for that on the schedule tonight.”
“Cool. Okay, so tell me about the course.” He just needed to get on with it. Get his mind in the game and hunker down with the coach to figure out what his best combination of error was going to be.
He didn’t need to be wondering what Hawk was doing right now because he knew Hawk would be waiting for him when he got done with this first set of practice runs. The man had promised, and he had a feeling Hawk didn’t break promises if he could help it.
Sixteen