Anna looked up and saw him. He looked as incredible as he always did. James gave her a small tight smile before heading for the door. Anna turned around to thank William for making her see sense, but he was gone. Anna smiled to herself as she stood up and watched James waltz through the door. People in the café instantly recognised him. James grinned at them as if he didn’t have a care in the world as he approached Anna’s table. Without exchanging a word, they fell into each other’s arms. The customers in the café cheered and clapped as Anna blushed from head to toe. She could see everyone’s gaze following their every move.
As much as she didn’t want to let go, reluctantly, she did. James looked at his watch, he had just less than an hour before his first race. Anna knew what he was thinking and nodded her agreement. James grabbed her suitcase in one hand and took Anna’s in the other and stepped out onto the street. Hesitating, Anna raced back inside, straight to the counter where William appeared. Anna leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate everything you said.”
“Anytime, Aussie. Anytime.” William smirked and with that Anna rushed back to James’s side.
The taxi ride was silent. James sat with an arm tightly around Anna’s shoulders, his eyes closed, breathing steadily. Anna was so relieved to be back in the comfort and safety of James’s strong arms. They both knew everything had changed but neither wanted to acknowledge it. James and Anna both hoped that if they ignored it long enough, then it would simply go away and everything would go back to the way it was. It was every child’s false hope, and one Anna shared.
James and Anna ran up the stairs to his hotel room. He was running out of time. Joel would kill him if he failed to show up. He threw Anna’s suitcase onto his bed. By the time Anna caught up with him, he was already stuffing his swimming gear into his bag. “We really need to talk, but I have to be at the pool in ten minutes. Can we do it after the finals tonight? I’m really sorry but there’s just no time,” James apologised, dropping everything and wrapping his arms firmly around her waist.
“Tonight will be good,” Anna reassured him.
“Promise you’ll be at my races. I can’t do this without you.” He looked deep into her eyes, pinning her.
“Promise.” Anna kissed the end of his nose lightly. “Now go, you’ll be late.”
***
Michael
Diana and Michael had been at the pool for over an hour and were becoming increasingly concerned. Where was James? Why wasn’t he here yet? What could he be doing? Joel had worked himself into a frenzy. Michael had spent the early part of the morning searching for Anna but had come up empty-handed. He had his suspicions that James was still out doing the same but he had no proof. Michael held a not so secret desire for his son to find Anna rather than turn up to swim without her.
James ran through the doors and crashed straight into Joel almost knocking him on his arse. After helping him up, James scurried into the change rooms. Joel looked up into the stands to where Diana and Michael were sitting and nodded silently. They all knew what that meant. James had arrived and everything was going to be okay.
A few moments later, after having received her official accreditation pass, Anna clambered into the stands and sat down next to Michael. “Hi,” she cooed sweetly. She didn’t know how they would react to seeing her after everything she had put them through in the last twenty-four hours.
“Thank God he found you,” Michael said, letting out a sigh of relief. He stood up and gave Anna a huge hug. Just then James appeared on pool deck and shot his father a disapproving look.
“Hey! Hands off,” James called to his father. Both men’s face broke out in wide smile. Diana stood and gave Anna a hug before they all took their seats waiting for the first race to start.
“Would you please welcome the competitors in the first race in the Manchester 2001 World Championships? The men’s four hundred metre freestyle. In lane one, representing America, Bronson Smith. In lane two, Charles Clancy, representing Britain. In lane three, Kenneth Brennan, representing South Africa. In lane four, representing Australia, James Thompson. In lane five, Jiro Takashi, representing Japan. In lane six, Ian Gray, representing Australia. In lane seven, Giovanni Van Bronkhurst, representing the Netherlands. And in lane eight, Pedro Sosa, representing Brazil,” a sultry voice boomed over the microphone system.
It was only the heats and no one really expected anything extraordinary from anyone. This was simply a race to ensure they qualified for tonight’s final. In the men’s four hundred metres there were only four heats, each containing competitors from every corner of the globe. James had drawn heat one alone with Ian. This was the first time James and Ian had been pitted against each other at an international meet. They often raced each other at training but this time it was serious. Just as Ian knew all of James’s strengths and weaknesses, James knew his.
They dived in and James came up stroking first and in front. This was what everyone had learnt to expect from James. To lead early and maintain that position the entire race. By halfway James held only a slender lead over Ian, but it was the back half of James’s swims where he would usually bury a competitor. At the final turn James had moved two body lengths ahead before he eased off and glided into the wall. When he spun around and looked at his time, something that was an ingrained habit, he saw that he had just broken the meet record by more than a second. James was in sensational form and now all that was left to do was wait for his competitors’ times to be registered and make sure he was in the top eight. Even eighth would secure him a place in tonight’s gold medal final.
As it turned out, James had nothing to fear. He was safely through, ahead of all the competition by more than a second. A wave of relief flushed over both James and Anna’s faces simultaneously. In the past twenty-four hours they had overcome so much and now everything was as it should be. James was doing what he did best. Swimming. Competing. Winning. And Anna was sitting in the stands ready to stand by his side no matter what. Now that he was through to the finals they could breathe again.
***
Anna
After the heats had all finished, Anna decided that she needed some air, just to calm her nerves. Michael insisted that he accompany her for her own safety. Together they walked through the cold, damp streets of Manchester, past an oval where small kids tried to play soccer but kept tripping over their own feet, before arriving at a small church. Anna’s face lit up as she marvelled at the beautiful sixteenth century chapel’s stained glass windows.
“Come on.” Michael smiled, grabbing her hand and leading her towards the door. “Let’s get out of this cold for five minutes.”
Blowing on her hands to warm them, Anna didn’t hesitate to agree.
Chapter 13
Anna
The old wooden doors groaned as they forced them open and stepped through. Inside the church, Anna saw a minister standing in the centre of the aisle dressed in his white robes. A tall man stood just off to his right, while a woman was standing in the second row of pews. It only took a brief moment for Anna to recognise them. James and Diana were here. As they headed down the aisle, Michael took Anna’s arm in his own and walked her slowly down as the bridal march began.
James saw Anna and Michael walking down the aisle arm in arm and simply smiled widely. Ian appeared beside him and Joel lingered further back. When Anna reached James, Michael leaned over and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “This is your official welcome to the family.” He grinned before taking his place next to Diana.