Kate smiled, stopped, and left a space for Zoe to come the rest of the way if she wanted to. Some people left those careful empty spaces for others, just the right shape to accomodate them. These people, Tom knew, were rarely champions.
He watched as Zoe smiled back, coldly, then cut Kate down with her eyes and turned away.
Tom wished she wasn’t right, but he could’t argue with her conclusion. Kate’s results were the best of any of the girls on the (cycling elite prospects) program, but the fact was that she was the kind of girl who would stop training when her dad died. Zoe was different. She struck Tom as the kind of girl, who, if her family ever got in between her and training, would kill them herself.
It didn’t matter if Kate beat her this week. Bit by bit, race by race, year by year, a girl like Zoe would stay afloat in the sport while Kate slowly sank under the weight of real life. Tom had seen it a hundred times…
Chris Cleave, Gold, Simon & Schuster, Inc.