“Is he okay?” he asked, holding the door open for her.

“He’s great actually. The new apartment, new school, new friends here on the beach—it’s all working very well for Charlie. For me, too. But I could use some advice. Assistance?”

“Come in and tell me what’s up,” he said. Then he held his breath. What was he to say if she was concerned about Charlie researching his roots? He pulled out a chair at his dining table for her and pushed his papers aside. He’d been gathering up some of his records, getting ready for business meetings next week.

“Well, Scott Grant had a talk with me. A pretty stern talk. He said Charlie has to start strength and endurance training. Charlie has to get control over his asthma to avoid serious attacks like the one he had when he was chased by those creeps from the trailer park. I’ve been reading and it appears this is good advice. I have some ideas and I think I’ve learned plenty, but I’m no expert. Plus, Charlie isn’t always happy to take my advice. It was Scott who suggested I ask you, so if this is a huge imposition you have him to blame. And please be honest.”

Blake started grinning by the time Lin Su had the first sentence out of her mouth and just couldn’t suppress his delight. “Where would you like me to start?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” she said. “I’ve read suggested protocols for this kind of thing but...” She shrugged. “Look, I’m okay in rehab, following instructions, but this is different. It’s Charlie and my instincts want to keep him still and quiet.”

“Then let me work up a protocol for him. I’m good at that sort of thing. All you have to do is explain what Dr. Grant suggested and send him to me. I’ll be here next week, then I’m gone for a week but we can get Troy as a backup. I’ll talk to him. We just have to monitor workouts, take times, keep a running record. Not complicated.”

“Maybe I could do that,” she said.

He shook his head but he was smiling. “Step back, Mom. You’re not doing anything wrong.” He stood and went to the refrigerator, pouring her a drink and taking it to her without asking. “Tea and lime. You’ll love it.” He put it in front of her. “Send Charlie over to see me sometime before he has dinner. I’ll talk to him about a routine.”

“I should come with him...”

“Let him do this, Lin Su. Let him manage his program, his routine and his goals. Let him have control of this.”

“But you have to be in control!” she insisted.

“I won’t be in control, I’ll be a trainer. A coach. I’ll watch his vitals and reactions, slow him down when it’s warranted, push him harder when that’s warranted. But Charlie should feel this belongs to him.”

“What are you going to do?” she asked.

“Nothing fancy,” he promised. “Treadmill, bike, elliptical. We’ll work up to some weights. Your timing is good—my trainer is coming on Sunday. She’s very talented, especially with young people. She runs a training institute in Boulder and gets Olympic contenders in their early years for workshops and summer sessions.”

“You’re preparing for your race! This must be inconvenient!”

Blake couldn’t help but laugh outright. “You’d do anything to get out of this, wouldn’t you? I just told you it was perfect timing. I’ll be starting at 4:00 a.m. every day. Charlie isn’t going to intrude on my training at all. I’m excited about this. I think this is an excellent thing to do.”

“I wouldn’t want to take your focus off your race...”

“Lin Su, this is what I do. When I’m done racing, it’s part of my long-term plan to be a full-time trainer, maybe with a training facility of my own.”

She frowned. “I’m not sure I know what you do. I mean, I know you’re a professional athlete but...” She shrugged.

“Well... I do a lot of things now, but...” He took a breath. “I was on the high school track team and was able to use that to get help with college tuition. I thought that would be the extent of it but I kept racing. I raced after college, picked up some medals, kept racing. I got a job in a lab where they liked athletes so I trained while I worked, kept entering races, won a few, took a couple of years off work to go to the world championships, picked up a couple of medals and moved up to training for the Ironman races. That’s where I started making a living at it. Racing has been my primary job for five years...more like six.”

“Charlie says you have world records,” she said.

“Not in the Triathlon, just in some individual events,” he said. “But I haven’t set any triathlon records. I hold a couple of running records, but I didn’t win the full race. I’m going to before I retire, though.”

“What would that be?”

“The best Ironman time is eight hours, three minutes, fifty-six seconds,” he said. “Someone’s going to break eight hours.”

She gasped at the thought. “Maybe it will be in Tahoe!”

“It won’t be there,” he said with a chuckle. “Not at five thousand feet. But we’ll get there.”

“Is that your ultimate goal?” she asked.

He could see he had her complete interest. “That’s a short-term goal.”

“Why? It sounds so monumental!”

“Oh, it is,” he said. “But I can’t take that one and retire. And I can’t do this forever. At some point my joints or back or something is going to get hurt, slow me down. I’ll probably always race, but not as a full-time job, not as a way to earn a living. I’m transitioning. I’ve done some public speaking and I’ve set up a nonprofit foundation with a partner.”

“Your trainer?”

“No,” he said, and then he laughed. “Gretchen has her own business and our goals don’t exactly match. No, there’s a guy I kind of grew up with. Jimmy. He’s the brains of this operation. We come from similar beginnings and we’re both driven by similar ideas.”

“He’s an athlete?” she asked.

“Not even a little bit. Oh, I think Jimmy walks toward the coffeepot at a good clip and he has a powerful focus but he’s a legal weasel. We did time in a couple of foster homes together as teenagers. Then we landed at the same college for a while. He’s brilliant. I’m a jock.”