Andy lifted a finger. “Be prepared and on time—always for everything.” A second finger joined the first. “Be respectful. Not only to your coach and teammates, but to the judges and competition.” Finger number three. “Listen first; talk second.” He added a fourth finger. “Ask: If you have a question. If you don’t understand. If you need help.” All five fingers stood tall. “You will work as hard as we do, so if we give 100 percent, you will too, and 200 percent always wins.”
With a lift of his chin, Will said, “Those are the rules here too. We both follow them.”
Andy frowned. “Be prepared meanshomework, huh?”
Will nodded, leaning onto the beige counters. “And if you need help. All you do is ask.”
Dark brown eyes flicked away from Will to glare at the wallpaper.
“I know you’re mad at everything right now. Probably frustrated and hurt too.” Will took a breath, hoping to get the words out correctly. “When I get that way, I pour it into my swimming. I go out and swim laps. Let the problems go with every turn I make.”
Andy’s gaze shifted slowly back to Will then, but he remained silent.
“Thought we could put some laps in before practice.” Will lifted a hand before Andy could protest. “Together. Swimming side by side. I’d like to make that a thing. When you need an outlet, you tell me, and we go swim.”
The corner of Andy’s mouth began to lift before he caught himself. “You’ll take me anytime?”
Will nodded.
“Even at midnight?” His brows lifted in challenge.
“Even at three a.m. or at five in the evening, when the pool is packed. It’s my gym. I can close two lanes at any time.”
With that, Andy finally let the smile flood his face.
“But I’m adding a sixth rule.” He’d never seen a smile disappear so fast. “Don’t lie. Not to me. Not your sister. Not to your teachers. Break the rules? There will be no swimming.”
Andy’s mouth fell open. “But Coach—”
“Will.”
“The team needs me.”
Will gave a clipped nod. “I agree.”
Andy started to smirk, but Will wasn’t finished.
“So follow the rules, or they’ll have to do without you.”
Andy’s jaw locked and his nostrils flared.
“I want you to be the best swimmer you can be. You know that. But more than that, I want you to be the bestmanyou can be. And it would be a disservice to you if we acted like some things in life—doing your schoolwork, being a good person, telling the truth—are less important than a swim meet.”
Andy glanced at the green liquid in his cup, and he glowered before he finally focused on Will again. A deep challenge shone in his brown irises. “And the rules apply to you too?”
“Of course.”
“Why are you letting me stay here?” The question was a demand for honesty. He wanted the truth.
“You know my mom was sick too, right? I was older than you by a couple of years.”
Andy didn’t respond. Just gave him that cold look he’d gotten so good at over the last year. Will had thought maybe they could bond over their experiences, but maybe not.
“Over and over, people told me it would be okay.” Will picked up his smoothie and took a long sip as Andy watched, waiting for him to swallow. “It wasn’t okay for a long time for me though. My family struggled, and a year later, my dad died too. Nothing was okay.”
“Nothing’s been okay for me either.” Andy mimicked Will, grabbing his smoothie after the admission and wincing slightly as he swallowed.
“My sister, Mrs. Demoda, she helped me a lot and made things okay again after a while,” Will said.