These Battered Hands

*Callie*

Blood, sweat, hard work, and a disconcerting *lack* of tears—my entire life—was meant to culminate in a flourish of glory and significance.

I’d thought I’d always known exactly what that meant.

But I’d had the timing wrong by about three minutes.

I knew now.

This moment *wasn’t* everything. The one person I found myself wanting more than anything during it was.

*Nik*

One preconceived notion can haunt you for the entirety of your life.

I thought I owed it to myself and to everyone who’d ever backed me to do what was expected. What was right. What I was *supposed to do.*

But nothing is forbidden in love. Not circumstances or propriety or the denial of the object of said affection.

I knew now.

*This* was it.

If I wanted it, I had to take it.

This gymnastics love story is more than grips, rips, and battered hands.

For Calia Nickleson and Nikolai Bagrov, *it was everything.*