Payson fell into her seat with a sigh and a smile. The church portion of the Kmetko-Tanner wedding had very much been the "Tanner" part, while the reception was all Chloe Kmetko. Forty people lined up on the dance floor of the swankiest resort in Boulder, dressed in tails and evening gowns, doing the Cupid Shuffle was proof enough of that.

"I can't believe we just did that," Emily said, sitting beside her, before taking a large sip of the ice water at their place settings.

Payson nodded towards where Damon and Sasha were leaning up against the bar ordering drinks, "I'm pretty sure they can't believe it either. They look like something out of Gatsby."

They really did; their casual posture, the tuxedo jackets, the drinks in their hands, it was a departure from their everyday personas, but they wore it well. She wasn't sure if Emily told Damon about her and Sasha, she'd guess not, but they seemed to be getting along pretty well. They'd both watched in amused horror as they'd made idiots out of themselves on the dance floor.

"We're pretty lucky aren't we?" Emily said, keeping her voice low, though there was no one around to hear her.

Payson nodded and smiled, "We are." She took up her glass and watched as Austin joined the other two, a tumbler in his hand and the smile grew as one of the many roaming photographers snapped a picture of the trio. "I want one of those," she murmured to Emily who smiled and nodded.

"So it's really coming down to the wire for you guys, huh?" Emily asked and Payson's eyes jerked away from the men towards her friend whose face was a mix of sincerity and curiosity.

Payson nodded, "Yeah, we're getting there." She sighed. "If I tell you something…"

"It stays here," Emily cut her off and Payson knew it was true.

"We're going to New York," she said, a smile lighting up her face. "I got into Columbia and he's going to start up a new gym in the city."

"Columbia, wow, Payson, that's amazing," Emily said and nodded. "New York, I can see it. You guys will come out and visit right?" Payson looked oddly at her friend. She seemed almost desperate for confirmation and Payson realized just how close she and Emily had grown over the years. There was a bond there, a strong one. She hadn't recognized its existence until this moment.

She reached out and put her hand over Emily's, "Of course and you'll have to come to New York. I'm sure Damon'll be doing something or other that'll require a few visits."

They both broke out into large smiles. Not only were the Olympics looming, the most important moment of their lives, but they'd both be moving on to completely separate and completely different lives afterwards. It was frightening, but despite the knowledge they'd be on separate coasts, the idea that they'd be going through that change together was something. It was the 21st century after all; constant contact would be easy enough. She squeezed Emily's hand again and sat back in her chair as familiar notes to a well loved song struck a chord in Payson's ears. She sighed as the smooth voice of band's singer echoed through the room. She felt his eyes on her immediately from over at the bar, but she didn't meet his gaze.

Damon was already at Emily's side and Payson turned to give her friend a tight smile. She watched them move to the dance floor and then stood, wanting to escape the room for at least as long as the song was playing. She moved through the French doors just behind the dais, back where they'd taken photographs earlier in the evening. She leaned against the door, hearing the satisfying click as it shut behind her, though it didn't drown out the music entirely. Closing her eyes she let the warm summer breeze wash over her.

She caught his scent as his approached, heard his footsteps and as her eyes flickered open she took in his face. He tilted his head in question, simply holding his hand out to her. She took it lightly and he closed his around hers, stroking his thumb gently over the top of her hand as he pulled her closer. One hand pressed into the small of her back, stroking gently over the silk of her dress. She rested her free hand on his shoulder, the tips of her fingers lingering at the nape of his neck.

"It's not fair," she whispered to him softly and she felt his lips press against her forehead for a moment before he pulled her closer.

"I know," he murmured back as they swayed together.

Before she knew it, the song was over and the crowd inside was applauding politely. Sasha pulled back the hand that held hers letting go only to cup her cheek gently and kiss her lips briefly. He gave her an encouraging smile and then moved away again, back around a corner, to whatever door he'd used to sneak away. Payson sighed and turned to go back inside when the door clicked open and her sister stepped out onto the patio with her.

"Hey Becca, it was getting really warm in there, wasn't it?" she asked, trying to play it off as coolly as possible, but her sister bit her lip and shook her head.

"I guess," Becca said with a shrug, taking a step closer. "I saw you Payson, you and Sasha."

Payson swallowed roughly trying to stay calm and collected, "We were just…."

Her younger sister, who Payson realized wasn't really all that young anymore shook her head, "You were dancing and he kissed you, but I saw you earlier too, in the library. You were kissing, not just kissing, you were. I don't really…." It was Becca's turn to trail off, obviously not being able to find the words.

Payson sighed and then took a deep breath.

"I won't tell anyone," she said quickly. "I swear."

That wasn't going to happen. It was one thing for her to keep something from her parents, even another for her friends to do it, but she couldn't ask that of her little sister. It just wasn't right.

"No, that's not…Becca I can't ask you to lie. I'll talk to Sasha tonight and then we'll tell Mom and Dad tomorrow." She took a shaky breath.

They'd gotten careless, both of them, sneaking away with so many people around. They were lucky it was Becca who'd seen them and not her father or Lauren or countless other people.

Becca looked away and then back at her, shaking her head, "You can't do that. I'm sorry I told you then. Were you going to tell them, I mean eventually?" she asked.

"After the Olympics. We were going to tell them after the Olympics." She sat down on one of the benches, and buried her head in her hands.

She heard Becca move closer to her, "I don't get it, Payson. He's our coach and he's so…so old. He's always yelling at us and just, I don't get it."

Payson looked up at her sister, "He's not that old, Becca."

"He's like thirty," Becca retorted, "that's old."

"Twenty nine," Payson corrected and then cringed at how stupid it sounded, even Becca rolled her eyes. "Well he is; he won't be thirty until December."

"He's our coach though, Payson. I mean he's like in charge of us, isn't that kind of weird?"

Payson shook her head, "It's not like that, when we work together, it's just different, it's not like working with a coach. It's like having a partner." She shrugged, "I don't know how else to explain it."

Becca took another step closer and sat down on the bench next to her, "Do you love him?" she asked. "I saw the way you guys were dancing and before in the library, it just, it looked like, you know, when people in the movies, it looked so perfect."

Payson breathed out harshly and shook her head, "We are so far from perfect, Becca, but I do love him and he loves me."

"He loves you?" Becca asked, obviously shocked. "How do you know? I mean people say that all the time and they don't mean it."

Payson smiled at her sister's curiosity, "Well, he did say it, but it's a lot of other things too, little things." She tried to think of a way to describe it so her sister would understand. "We had a snow storm last winter, one of the many," she began, "but this one kind of caught everyone by surprise, the weatherman said it was going to rain and the temperature dropped and it snowed instead, like eight inches. Do you remember?" Becca nodded. "Anyway, when I woke up the next morning, I looked out the window and he was out there, clearing the driveway because he knew I would be unhappy if I couldn't make it to the Rock to train. He got up at three in the morning to go out in the freezing cold and shovel the driveway, just to make me happy."

"You know he loves you because he shoveled your driveway?" Becca asked, her face a complete mask of confusion. "Wait, did he like stay over? Are you guys having sex?" as the words passed her mouth she wrinkled her nose in disgust.

Payson rolled her eyes and glared at her sister, "That's none of your business," she said.

They sat in silence for a moment and then Becca said, finally, "Don't tell Mom and Dad. You don't even have to tell Sasha I know."

Payson sighed, "I already told you, Becca, I can't ask you to lie to them. It's not right."

"I won't be lying. I'm just not going to say a word. If I hadn't told you I saw, you wouldn't even know that I know, so telling them just because I told you would be stupid. Did that make sense?" she asked and Payson laughed.

"I think so," she said and put her arm around her, pulling her sister in for a hug. "Thank you, Becca. We wanted to wait until after the Olympics so…"

"So that when Dad punches Sasha there won't be any TV cameras around," Becca said bluntly.

Payson snorted, but then shrugged. It wasn't far from the truth. "It won't be pretty," she admitted.

"You really love him?" Becca asked. "I mean really, the forever kind of love?"

"I do."

"Then I'm really happy for you, Pay. That's kind of huge."

Payson smiled and felt the prick of tears at the corner of her eye. She blinked them back quickly, "Yeah, it kind of is. Thanks Becca."

"Just don't tell Mom and Dad that I knew," Becca asked quickly. "I'd be grounded forever."

Payson laughed, wiping away the one tear that escaped. "I won't."

Austin remained at the bar as Damon walked off to claim Emily for a dance and then as Sasha watched Payson leave the room and left not long afterwards in the opposite direction, but ostensibly to follow her. He turned to the bar tender and ordered himself a whiskey sour and sipped it slowly as he observed the room around him. The floor was filled with couples as the band slowly strummed the notes to "When I Fall in Love". The singer wasn't bad and the mood of the room shifted from the party atmosphere of just moments earlier. His eyes searched her out, he couldn't help it. He caught a flash of light green at the far edge of the dance floor, but that was Lauren pressed up tightly against Carter Anderson. Two whole months in a row for them now, which might be some sort of record, now that he thought about it.

He drained his glass and motioned to the bar tender for another one, as her continued his survey of the room. That's when he saw her, dancing with some guy. He'd seen her dancing with a lot of guys tonight. Each time the knife twisted a little deeper into his gut. She was trying to hurt him, he knew that. It was so unlike her and that's what hurt the most. The Kaylie he knew, the Kaylie he'd fallen in love with, she wasn't spiteful. She was one of the kindest people he'd ever met, sweet, a little naïve maybe, but genuine. They had a rough start, but beneath the bickering had always been a deep rooted sense that they were somehow important to each other.

Maybe that was gone now, at least for her. The song ended and he sighed, looking down in the amber liquid in his glass. Rolling his eyes at himself, he downed it in one gulp and slammed the tumbler down on the bar, walking away. He stormed across the dance floor and out of the room, down the hallway and nearly careened head long into Sasha who was on his way back towards the ballroom.

"Austin?" he asked, looking concerned.

Austin raised his hands in mock surrender, "I'm done. I'm nearly drunk. I'm gonna get a room and just yeah, I'm gonna get a room," he said, motioning vaguely in the direction of the lobby.

"You need some help?" Sasha asked, the concern not leaving his face.

"I'm drunk," Austin said, "but I can still take my credit card out of my wallet and use the elevator." He was drunk, not fall down and sober enough to know his words were slurring. It was an odd state to be in and he intended to remedy that using the minibar in his room as soon as he got there.

Sasha nodded, "Alright, Tucker. See you tomorrow."

Austin moved away from his coach and waved a hand vaguely in the air. "Probably not," he called back and he heard Sasha's answering bark of laughter.

It was easy. He pulled his wallet out, handed the nice lady behind the desk his credit card and smiled and two minutes later he had a room. He wandered away from the front desk and towards the elevators when he saw something he didn't quite believe at first. Kaylie Cruz headed towards him at about a hundred miles an hour.

"Where's the fire?" he asked, as she approached him, though she hadn't caught sight of him yet.

She looked up and stopped dead in her tracks, like a deer caught in the headlights she simply froze, staring at him wide eyed. "I umm...I was just going…" she trailed off.

He nodded, "Yeah, me too," he said.

He looked at her, studying her carefully. She looked beautiful, though it was strange to see her in a green dress, it looked beautiful on her. Her dark hair was piled at the top of her head, though it seemed to have begun its inevitable descent. Her light mocha skin looked as soft as ever. It was only a few weeks before he'd been allowed to run his hands over that skin. He'd discovered it was even softer than it looked. So were her lips come to think of it. They still were.

He pulled away from her, wondering how they'd begun kissing and then wondered why he stopped. He moved in again, their mouths meeting. He tasted something on her tongue, fruity and sharp at all once. He tried to bury his hand in her hair, but was hampered by something already in his hand. Then he remembered his hotel room keys. He pulled away and looked down at his hand. She looked as well and then smiled at him crookedly. He smiled back as she took his hand in hers and began pulling him towards the elevators.

Vaguely in the back of his mind, a tiny voice said that maybe this wasn't a great idea, but as they entered the elevator and she pulled his mouth back down to hers, the voice disappeared as quickly as the elevator door closed.

Kim Keeler's feet were killing her. She hadn't danced this much in a very long time and the shoes she'd worn to the wedding were more for show than for comfort. Mark was next to her, their hands still joined. She couldn't remember the last time they'd slow danced, but when the band began to strum the opening notes to "When I Fall in Love" he'd extended his hand to her and raised an eyebrow in question.

She took a sip of water and looked around as the band began a faster tune. She saw Payson and Becca up at the dais, where the bridal party, along with the bride and groom had their seats. They both looked happy, obviously having a good time.

"We have beautiful girls, don't we?" Mark asked from next to her, having followed her line of sight.

She smiled and turned towards him, "We do." She watched as Becca left Payson, moving out towards the dance floor, where many of the guests close to her age were doing a dance she didn't recognize.

Her eyes moved back to Payson who sat down at her seat. The content expression was gone from her older daughter's face, replaced by something else entirely, a weariness that someone that young shouldn't possess. She'd given up trying to figure out what was going on with that girl. She knew Payson was hiding something, but it somehow had ceased to matter what that something was. There were moments where it seemed she couldn't be happier and then others when it looked as if she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders. Whatever the cause of one, the other or both, she was immensely proud of her. In two weeks she'd compete for a spot on the Olympic team, though that was almost a given at this point and then less than a month later, they would be in London. Her daughter's dreams were about to come true and in the end, that was the most important thing. She watched as Emily and her boyfriend sat down beside her and they struck up a conversation, then oddly enough, Sasha approached and pulled up a chair. The conversation seemed to flow freely for the foursome, laughter echoing down from their seats. Kim narrowed her eyes. Not so long ago she'd entertained the thought that Sasha and Payson's relationship had somehow shifted, either for one or both of them, but she hadn't had solid proof. She watched Payson's eyes light up as she looked at Sasha and her breath caught at the pure adoration in his gaze as he looked back at her.

Mark squeezed her hand and for a moment she thought he saw what she did.

She turned to him and he smiled, "C'mon, they're playing our song."

Snapping out of her daze she listened and realized that the band was in fact playing the song they danced to at their own wedding, twenty years before, Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World." She took his hand again and let her husband lead her onto the dance floor, her eyes moving back towards the dais where Payson was still sitting with Sasha, Emily and Damon having risen, likely to dance. She saw Payson smile at her coach, her…what else? Mark pulled her close and she rested her head on his shoulder, like she'd done twenty years before, vowing to talk to her daughter, again, as soon as possible. This time she would get some answers.