Tonight had started off amazing. The way they worked together. How she gently coached him on what worked for the sled and what didn’t. The way she showed him how to ride the sled to get in a rest. Just the dark and the cold and the two of them moving through it together.
He could almost even forget about the circling snowmobiles and the men hunting them as they huddled here, close together. He’d glimpsed something in the last several hours that he had yet to take the time to explore. Not fully, anyway.
They could be together. He and Steph.
The thought landed with more impact than he was ready for.
He’d been telling himself for years that simpler was better. That making room for someone meant making room for the things that could go wrong, and he’d already learned what that cost.
He’d been careful. Deliberate. He’d built the kind of life that required nothing from anyone except himself and occasionally Liam, who was not the sentimental type and made everything easier by being completely incapable of it.
This wasn’t that. Whatever this was, it wasn’t simple, and he’d known it since the morning he pulled her out of the path of that car, when she looked up at him from the sidewalk. He’d been struck by her beauty. Not just her beauty, but the look on her face. She’d been grateful, that much was obvious. But there was something more in the way she looked, something he hadn’t stopped thinking about since.
At least, that’s what he liked to think.
Then everything changed. Someone mentioned his name, and she knew who he was. The look on her face had turned to contempt. Now he knew why. Steph blamed him for ruining her dreams. Did it matter that crushing her dreams was never his intention? That in his mind, they could work together?
Basin County Running Club and Elkridge Endurance Group could form a coalition that could one day be a household name in running circles. They could bring in people from around the world, as all the best races did. This year was a trial, a way to make sure everything worked, to show the competitors an amazing course and treat them right.
The plans were in place for three different distances, offering something for newer runners, intermediate, and those with experience and wherewithal. He’d insisted on that. Liam wanted to do only the ultramarathon, a hundred miler for only the most rugged competitors. Jack knew better. He knew giving options would bring in more people, that it was the best choice.
But now he wondered if it really was the best choice. Maybe the best choice would be to back off, to tell Liam he was out and Liam should partner with Steph. Steph deserved it. She’d worked hard for years to achieve exactly what Liam’s money could offer.
Would she accept it?
Jack doubted it. He didn’t understand the situation between Liam’s family and Sheriff Hepner, but he knew there was something. He’d tried to ask Liam about it, but he’d waved him off, saying, “Old news with no resolution. I don’t let it bother me.”
Steph made no secret about her closeness to the Hepners. That right there told him no way would she take Liam’s money. And Jack had no money to give her. If he did, he would. He’d happily give her everything if it fulfilled her dreams.
Jack hadn’t felt this way in a long time. He hadn’t let himself.
“I think they’re gone,” Steph said.
“Maybe.”
“You don’t think so?”
“I can’t imagine they’d give up. But I think they might be considering their options. They’ve got product to move and a task force working the area. They might even assume we have a beacon on us. Staying out here looking for us starts costing more than it’s worth.”
She was quiet for a moment. “That’s what I think too. The tracks are the problem. Maybe they won’t be sure exactly what they’re looking at. In the dark, at least.”
“Maybe.” He thought about the flat-voiced man standing at the timber’s edge, about the methodical sweep of the spotlight. “But I doubt it.”
“Yeah. They know.”
He shifted, trying to find something in his legs that still responded the way legs were supposed to, and the emergency blanket crinkled faintly between them. Steph pulled it tighter across their shoulders without comment.
“How’d you know about this place?” he asked.
“During the summer months, I try to get up here a few times, either with friends or with students for a special class. The trails are excellent. We’ll sometimes camp outside the park and do day trips in. I’ve explored this area more than once. A couple of years ago, I thought the meadow would make a good turnaround spot, the way we were supposed to use it tonight.”
She paused and shook her head. “Where the poachers have their camp is another meadow. This rocky section makes a nice place to get a little sun and rest.”
“You spend a lot of time outdoors.”
“It’s my job. And my passion.”
The quiet stretched out, and he let it.
