“Inside. Spouse privileges, like I said.” She winked at Jessica over her shoulder.
Right. Because Ethan and the guys owned this building. That was handy. Jessica stumbled as they reached the front door. Seriously, what was the matter with her?
Inside, Gabby led her down the hall behind the reception area. “You know Ethan used to live here, right? There’s a full bathroom in back. The guys shower here all the time.”
“Really?”
Gabby nodded. She went to a closet and pulled out a blue towel, which she shoved into Jessica’s arms. “So go on in and take a long, hot shower.”
Too miserably cold to argue, Jessica did just that.
***
Mark made his way up to the main building around three o’clock, long overdue for some grub and eager to see how Jess and her team had done. He hadn’t seen her since she’d passed by his station on the ropes course hours ago. The yard was filled now with muddy racers wearing finishers’ medals and the friends and family who’d come to cheer them on. Here and there, groups posed for selfies, and all around, he heard happy laughter.
Looked like a successful event, and he’d relax and appreciate that fact as soon as he knew Jess was okay.
“Hey, man,” Ethan called from his position near the finish line, “everything secure on your end?”
Mark nodded. The last team had completed the ropes course about thirty minutes ago. He and a couple of volunteers had just finished securing all the equipment and closed up the area.
“There are sandwiches at the house,” Ethan told him. “Emma brought enough food to feed a small army.”
“Great. How did Team Flower Power do?” he asked, careful to keep his tone neutral.
Ethan broke into a wide smile. “They’re in tenth so far overall. Gabby lost a shoe in the mud pit, but she still finished strong.”
Mark smiled too, relieved to know that the women had finished the race successfully.
“She took Jessica up to the house, said she was really cold or something,” Ethan said with a shrug.
Mark was already striding toward the house by the time Ethan had finished speaking. He’d known Jess didn’t look well that morning. Dammit, if she’d aggravated whatever was wrong with her by racing today or worse…
By the time he’d reached the house, his heart was pounding against his ribs. He shoved through the front door and then stopped in his tracks as the sound of laughter reached his ears. Jess and Gabby sat on the leather couch in the reception area, coffee mugs in hand. They both had towels wrapped around their hair and looked fresh from the shower. Jess glanced up at him and gave him a small smile.
“Hey, uh, everything okay?” he asked.
“We’re great now that we’re warm and dry,” Gabby told him.
Jess nodded, both hands wrapped around her coffee mug.
“Good,” he said.
“I’m just so happy I finished this time.” Gabby held up the medal around her neck. “We’re going out for beers later to celebrate.”
“Okay.” His gaze slid back to Jess. She was awfully quiet. “You okay?” he couldn’t help asking.
“I’m fine,” she said.
“She got really cold in the mud pit,” Gabby added, “so I brought her up here for a hot shower and some coffee.”
“Good thinking.” He hoped that’s all it had been, but at least she seemed okay now. As he turned to go into the kitchen and fix himself a sandwich, he could have sworn he saw Gabby give Jess a high five out of the corner of his eye.
What was that about?
