Jeah, Whatever

[Epilogue]

Rio: 2016

“Where is he?!” she asked me, getting far too excited.

“Emma Grace, patience, honey, he’s back there warming up,” I smiled, picking up our three year old daughter, so she wouldn’t run away. I gently pushed the stroller of our 1 year old little boy, William who was sound asleep inside.

“Mommy, mommy there he is! Go daddy!!!!!” She screamed in my ear. Ryan came out of the backroom, headphones on with his goggles resting on top of his head, swimming caps in place.

He still had it. He was more in fit than before, if even possible.

Thus why we had two children.

Ryan looked up at us and smiled, waving to Emma, he came up to the stand and held out his hands to take Emma into them. Her blue eyes that matched his got bigger as he took her in his arms over the stands. Her hair was curly, just as Ryan’s was when it would grow out (which he thankfully never did anymore), I bent down over the bar to kiss him softly on the lips.

“I want you to get gold and nothing less,” Emma said to him very seriously.

“Yes coach, and what should I do if someone catches up?” He asked just as if she was his coach.

“Punch em out,” she giggled.

“Emma Grace, we don’t say those things,” I said at her with a gasp. Ryan gave her small hand a fist bump and handed her back to me.

“Ryan don’t encourage that,” I said to him, he rolled her eyes and leaned up once more to kiss me.

“Do I get lucky if I go gold?” He asked in my ear. I pulled away and put Emma down.

“Oh I’ll give you more than lucky,” I bit down on my bottom lip, as if it were like the first time I was meeting him back in London four years ago.

We wished him luck one last time before he went to his block to do his 400IM. I knew that William would probably be waking up at any moment as the noise was increasing more and more.
Emma stood on her seat as Ryan jumped in the water to get in position for his backstroke. I watched as Emma got extremely excited to see her father in the Olympics for her very first time. She wore a sparkly gold dress, for “golden luck” in her words. I picked William up from his stroller. I had him in a red Ralph Lauren baby polo and blue shorts. His bright blue eyes bore into mine as I rubbed the sleep away from them. I kissed him on the forehead as he rested his head on my shoulder.

Ryan re-adjusted his cap and goggles once more before we heard the familiar beep, Ryan pushed off the wall forcefully and quickly, gaining as much as he could for the race. Emma was screaming for her father, I held onto William tightly as I cheered as well. Andrea ran down to meet us so she could cheer as well, wearing her newly polished engagement ring.

Ryan was in the lead the whole race and as he touched the wall, he knew he had won, we all hugged in the stands, happy that Ryan had done it again.

“I want to see him,” Emma demanded. Andrea picked her up for me so I could take care of William.

“He’s gotta do interviews and stuff, Emmils,” Andrea explained. She looked at me and pouted.

“It’s true sweetheart, he has to talk to all the people that like him a lot,”I tried to explain.

Many of times, we have had to deal with Emma’s attitude about her father’s work and how busy he is. Especially now with the Olympics, he has been insanely busy. But Ryan ALWAYS made time for his children.

And me as well of course.

I took Emma and William down to the podium for the medaling ceremony. We watched together as Ryan stepped up to receive his gold. He looked at us and motioned that we come over to the actual podium.

“Come here, sweetheart,” he said to Emma and picked her up so she could stand with him. He also took William into his arms.

The judges and officials were about to protest and stop the scene, this wasn’t the way things usually worked. You can’t just bring your kids up there with you.

But no one stopped it, the press was loving it, the crowd was loving it. Everyone was eating up the fact that Ryan Lochte was now a family man. As they played the national anthem, he held on tightly to William and Emma stood next to him, holding his hand, I stood with my sister to the side.

“He’s truly a great husband, Natalie,” Andrea said to me. I nodded, as I watched the media focus all their attention on my children, making me nervous.

“And Nathan will be too,” I assured her, knowing she took a long time to open up to him after so many years.

“Yes, he will be, and tonight, we’re taking your children away for y’all to have a night alone,” she smiled. The anthem ended and I watched as Ryan helped Emma off the podium.

He came to me and put his gold medal around my neck.

“Because without you, I wouldn’t have gotten it,” he smiled, giving me a loving kiss.

The media also ate this scene up.

For four years, Ryan and I had been going strong. We had been loving one another the best to our abilities, working things out without freaking out and being the best parents we knew how to be. Our marriage of course had its up and downs but neither of us faltered on being loyal nor about putting our kids first. Ryan was mine and I was his. And that was far more I could ever ask for.

I placed my hand inside Ryan’s and smiled.

“Come on, let’s make tonight even more golden than it already is,” I said. Ryan grinned and led me out of the aquatic center.

Four years and this is how far we’ve come, and we’ve only got farther to go.