“Liam’s going to lose a lot of money if this doesn’t work,” he said.
He wasn’t sure why he said it. The words were out before he’d decided to say them, the kind of thing that surfaced when the defenses had been running too long and gotten tired.
“The event?”
“The whole thing. The running club, the event, all of it.” He looked at the dark beyond the crevice. “Registration opens on the first of January. If the numbers aren’t there—” He stopped. “He put serious money into this. More than I knew when I agreed to it. The staff, the marketing, the infrastructure for an event that hasn’t happened yet. If it flops, that’s on me.”
“Why is it on you?”
“Because I’m the name behind it. That’s the whole model. Liam funds it, and I draw the runners. Except I don’t really matter. Maybe in Michigan, when I set high school and college records in cross-country skiing. Maybe when it looked like I’d make the Olympics in biathlon and America could finally get a medal. But who am I in the running world? Nobody. I knew that, and I let him believe the name meant more than it does, because I needed it to mean something.”
He heard how that sounded but didn’t take it back.
“You didn’t know that until you got here.”
“I should have.”
“You’re harder on yourself than the evidence supports,” she said simply, the way she said things that were simply true. “I looked you up. You have a real following in the endurance community. Not just biathlon people. Elkridge Endurance has been getting attention in places I follow. Some big names are interested. The route lookschallenging, and that’s a huge attraction. That’s not nothing.”
He turned his head slightly. “You were looking for reasons to be right about me.”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “I was, but I didn’t find as many as I wanted.”
He smiled at that. “I’m not as sure of myself as I look, in case you hadn’t figured that out.”
“I figured it out.”
“When?”
“Gear swap.” He heard the small amusement in her voice. “You were watching me the whole time, trying to look like you weren’t.”
He didn’t argue with that as he touched her arm. “I have a confession to make.”
“I know.”
“You know what?”
“Why you’re here. How we’re here . . . together.”
He chuckled softly. “You figured out I didn’t just happen to end up at Silver Mane’s Lodge at the exact time you did?”
“I’m smart that way.” She put her hand on his, her heat coming through her mitten and warming his arm. “When did you figure out I was coming here?”
“Wednesday. I stopped by Irma Brew and had a chat with a lovely woman named Becky.”
She made a sound that was not quite a laugh. “Becky.”
“She was very helpful.”
“I’ll bet she was.” Steph was quiet for a moment. “You could have just asked me.”
“Would you have told me your training plans?”
“Not a chance,” she laughed. “I’m glad you didn’t ask.”
He looked at her.
She was looking back at him, the same way she’d been looking at him before the sound in the dark had interrupted everything. Whatever she’d been about to do before the elk came through, he could still see it there in her face. Not gone. Just waiting, the way the light was waiting.
