Me:My middle name isn’t even Marie.
Unknown Number:Maybe not. But I can get it if I want it. Be ready when I show up or I’m leaving you. If you wanna embarrass yourself in front of the citizens of Jackson Falls and Chinook Woods on race day, that’s your business.
I laughed before replying.
Me:I’ll be ready, bully.
Chapter
Four
Brighton
I metup with Beckham and Brewer for breakfast the next morning. I tried to get up with my brothers as often as possible, and mornings were always a good time to make that happen. Brewer was always, always going to be atGood Ashesbefore the sun came up. And Beckham almost always had an early morning tour group to take up into Cascada Noir National Park.
“What you got going on this morning?” Beckham asked as he devoured his steak, eggs, and breakfast potatoes.
I took one last sip of my pre-workout smoothie. “Signed up for the 5k yesterday. Me and Bailey. I’mma head over to her spot, grab her, and we’re gonna do a few miles or whatever on the track over at the high school.”
“Bailey does marathons?”
I shrugged. “She says she used to run cross country in high school and loved it. When she got up with her clown ass husband he wasn’t into running, so she stopped.”
“That motherfucker.” Beckham shook his head.
Brewer eyed me. Of the four Strong brothers, he was the most introverted and the most intense. He was also the least talkative, so I was kinda surprised when he spoke. “You out here playing Mr. Steal-ya-girl on the fuck boy’s wife?”
“What?” I chuckled. “Nah. I’m out here trying to be friendly.”
Brewer waved me off with a laugh. “Whatever, young gun. You’ve got eyes. It’s obvious that she’s pretty.”
He wasn’t lying. Ever since hanging out with her the day before, I couldn’t get her off my mind. Those full lips did it for me every time. I wanted to kiss them and find out for myself what the hell that mouth did. I kept those thoughts to myself. As the youngest of the clan, I was the one my brothers liked to mess with the most. All they needed was a little bit of ammunition and they could tease me for weeks. I wasn’t giving it to them. “None of the Kingsley women are hard to look at.”
“Facts.” Beckham emptied his glass of orange juice in one swallow.
“But this one is mean and closed off. She ain’t looking for nothing and I’m not looking for nothing. All we’re doing is running a race together.” I quickly shut up. I knew that the more you talked, the more guilty you looked.
“Yeah,” Beckham said. “I’m sure she’s still dealing with the loss of the baby . . . and the loss of her marriage.”
We all agreed that the hand she’d been dealt lately sucked.
“I’m up.” I stood from the bar where we’d gathered. “Later.”
The factthat Bailey was dressed and ready to go when I got to the house surprised me. I drove us over to Jackson-Chinook High School. After leading us through a few stretches, I set an easy pace for us to make our way around the track. We did fourlaps, each lap being a mile. We alternated between walking and running. I was pleasantly surprised by the way Bailey kept up with me.
“Your stamina’s good,” I told her as the two of us waited in line at Jackson Falls Juice Company to get juice shots.
“Thanks. I surprised myself.” A proud smile lit up her face. “I haven’t run in a really long time. I thought I would be passed out on the track somewhere.”
I chuckled as I handed her the red shot that had tart cherries, strawberries, cucumber, lime, and celery. Then I grabbed my own green juice shot. The celery, green apple, and kale combo went down easily.
“Oh, that’s good.” She looked at her empty cup.
“Yeah, I come here all the time.”
“Okay.” She nodded her head. “I’ve never had a juice shot before. I never even thought about getting a juice shot before.”
“I’m sure they have places like this in Chicago. You’ll just have to seek them out.”
