What Matters Most by Jillian Hart

Author:Jillian Hart
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2011-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Throughout the day the same hard-edged, shaky feeling overtook her, as if she’d made a terrible mistake. It wasn’t that she’d spoken of times she’d rather have kept to herself, because the burden of her mistake still troubled her. It was made five times worse that Ben knew.

Ben, who’d left her because he couldn’t hold either of them back. Ben, whom she’d told out of hurt at his need for freedom that she had bigger and better dreams than marrying him. Ben knew how hard she’d worked and trained, how earnestly she believed a rural Montana girl who loved to dive could be like the athletes she saw on the old black-and-white TV.

He would never know how she’d still succeeded, and if she had little to show for it, then working earnestly for what she’d excelled at had somehow made her whole. She’d grabbed her dream, and it wasn’t a gold medal. No one could take away what she’d earned. What she’d done. What she loved.

After the hours of public swim she stayed late, enjoying the lull before water aerobics, swim team practice and then the evening schedule. With the doors locked and Peggy in the office doing paperwork, Cadence was officially off the clock as she climbed the ladder.

The higher she ascended, the calmer it became. The slosh and gurgle of the pool water became a pleasant background noise. High up in the rafters the sound echoed like a hushed blessing. She breathed in the peace. The calm.

The platform’s textured surface was dry and rough against her bare feet. For her, it was the closest thing to bliss as she curled her toes over the edge and stretched her arms overhead. The energy pulled through from the soles of her feet to the tips of her fingers. For one long moment she visualized the dive in her head before she pulled her arms down and sprang with just enough power.

Her feet left the platform, and she flew through the air toward the rafters in one perfect moment before gravity caught her, pulling her down to the smooth water below. She tucked without thought, bringing her nose toward her belly button and her arms to her knees.

Weightless and free, she somersaulted two full revolutions, gaining speed, weightless as she saw the water fast approaching through the tiny space between her pointed feet. She stretched out again, pure joy, feeling her fingertips slice through the water, cool and refreshing as it welcomed her home, sluicing across her skin from forehead to toes. She heard the smallest splash and popped to the surface, smiling from the inside out.

Her life might be far from what she’d envisioned while training in this same pool when she was in junior high. The long hours. The grit and sacrifice and discipline. The injuries she’d come back from and the losses.

Oh, the losses. Her father’s death. Her chance for happiness with Ben. The rejection by those she was closest to when she’d failed to bring fame and more money to them.

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