Henry nodded. “And everyone has opinions.”

“Yep. Just like assholes.” I slapped my hand over my mouth.

Mr. Sakaguchi barked out a laugh that caught the attention of most people in the room. Ears burning, I tried not to laugh, but it was no use. I guess if you could read lips, the bad words probably came easily.

Henry’s phone rang, and he tapped the screen. “Merry Christmas.” His eyes flicked to me before he scooted his chair closer to his grandpa’s, holding out the phone. Mr. Sakaguchi’s eyes lit up, and he waved.

Well, this was awkward. I guess Henry’s family in Vancouver were awake, so of course they were calling. I jerked my thumb over my shoulder and gave Henry a smile as I stood. He nodded minutely before returning his attention to his phone and the chorus of voices asking questions.

I loitered by the tree, scanning my mom’s texts. Like, yes, fine, I’d do an interview on camera with the network’s human-interest reporter, who’d try to make me cry.

I hadn’t said no, but I was busy. My mom was acting like the fate of my entire career hung in the balance. I scrolled down to the first message from the crack of dawn. She hadn’t even said merry Christmas.

At least during our family Zoom call the night before, my sisters had changed the subject after I gave a short update on how training was going. I’d asked them ahead of time, and they were more than happy to get the family talking about anything else.

I sent off a quick reply saying I’d email the reporter tomorrow. A knot tightened in my gut, but it would be fine. I could talk about Mr. Webber and answer their questions and pull heartstrings for ratings.

Mr. Webber would have hated it. Grief punched me in the throat, my eyes burning with tears as I fought to get my shit together. I could imagine his long-suffering eye roll and biting comment about the network making a meal of his death. Fuck, I missed him so much.

And it wasn’t like I was his only student. Tons of people missed him! His family and friends and people who were way closer to him than I’d been. But as great as Manon and Bill were, I wished so much that I could have finished my career with Mr. Webber at the boards.

The memory of Henry asking about making Mr. Webber proud resurfaced. I did want to make him proud. Even if I didn’t really believe in heaven, I was his last champion, and winning Olympic gold in his name would be a huge accomplishment. I loved winning, but if I could do this to honor Mr. Webber…

I shook off thoughts of the Olympics, feeling strangely guilty about it with Henry right over there. We’d both worked our whole lives for this, but only one of us could win.

“No shit,” I muttered. “This isn’t news.”

“Uh, excuse me?”