by Liz Isaacson
The noise level decreased, and Wes smiled around at everyone. “We’re so glad you could all be here with us.” He lifted Bree’s hand to his lips and kissed her wrist. “We got married on the beach a few months ago, with just the preacher there. It was great and all, but we wish you could’ve all been there.” He cleared his throat and looked at Bree.
She hadn’t written a speech, and she just had one thing to say. “Yes, thank you for coming. Family is so important.” She looked out at everyone, finding her mom and dad. A rush of love filled her, because they’d forgiven her so readily. “We have a ton of food, and it’s all amazing, because we have some of the best chefs here who’ve been cooking all morning.”
Her hand in Wes’s tightened. Her courage almost failed her.
“I just have one thing to say before we say grace.” She swallowed, very aware of every eye on her. Well, some of the kids probably didn’t care anything about what she was saying—or about to say.
“I’m thrilled to announce that Wes and I will be parents soon.”
Nobody moved. Nobody spoke. It was as if a bomb had been tossed into this giant room with two very loud families, and everyone was staring at it to see if it would indeed go off.
Then Wes said, “We will?”
Bree nodded, tears pooling in her eyes and escaping down her face.
He laughed and lifted her right off her feet. Cheers went up, and congratulations started going through the crowd.
Wes finally put her down and looked right into her eyes. “When, Bree?”
“By Thanksgiving.”
“Praise the Lord,” he whispered. “I love you.” He kissed her amid all the chaos, and Bree experience a sweet, pure form of joy.
Then Colton said, “Okay, I’m gonna pray, and then we can eat and find out more about Bree’s pregnancy. Does anyone object?”
No one did, and Bree squeezed Wes’s hand tight, tight as Colton said grace over their wedding feast.
Chapter Seventeen
Elise looked left and right, right and left, the streets in downtown Denver so confusing. She hadn’t been in a city this big in many years, and her blood pressure felt like it might pop through her veins at any moment.
“I think it’s this way,” she muttered to herself, realizing she was now going the wrong way down a one-way street. “Shoot.” She veered off onto another street—more like an alley, really—before anyone could see the bumbling fool from out of town trying to find their way around.
She pulled in a breath and brought the car to a stop. “Please help me,” she prayed. She’d dropped Hutch off at Colton’s house and left Coral Canyon yesterday, and she’d stayed in a tiny town about six hours from Denver before getting an early start on the rest of her trip this morning.
She couldn’t just call Gray and ask him, because he didn’t know she was coming. They’d talked last night, and Elise had asked him more questions about the marathon. Where was it? What time did it start? When would he finish? Would he have his phone with him so she could text him motivational messages?
He’d laughed at that last one, and if there was anything better than Gray Hammond’s laugh, Elise didn’t want to know about it.
She had not breathed a word about her trip to anyone except Patsy and Graham, and they’d both sworn they wouldn’t say anything to anyone. Not telling Bree had been extremely difficult, but she was married to Gray’s brother, and Elise simply didn’t want him to know she’d come to watch him cross the finish line—hopefully with a Boston-marathon-qualifying time.
“Okay.” She took a deep breath and picked up her phone. “I need to get to the Sheraton.” She’d chosen the hotel because it was a familiar brand, and it happened to be located right downtown and only two blocks from the marathon route and Colfax Avenue. Apparently a lot of people gathered at the Civic Center Park to watch the runners, and Elise wanted to be there for Gray. Even if she was just a tiny voice among thousands, she wanted to be there to cheer specifically for him.
She didn’t dwell on the fact that she’d done something eerily similar for Brandt, and he’d broken up with her while she watched from the stands. He hadn’t known she was coming to his rodeo finals—she’d wanted to surprise him.
She’d told herself over and over that Gray wasn’t Brandt, and their relationship was on very sturdy ground. Gray wasn’t going to break up with her.
Her phone rang, and she jumped. She picked it up and saw Gray’s name, and she stayed right where she was though she’d been about to pull out and get herself to the hotel. “Hey,” she said.
“Hey.” He wore a smile in his voice. “What are you doing today?”
“Uh, not much,” she said, and she hoped it wasn’t a lie. All she’d done was drive today, and that wasn’t much. Right? “What about you? How’d your run go this morning?”
“It was great,” he said. “Easy four miles, with five minutes at race pace.”
“Ah,” she said. “Race pace.” She knew all about the time he needed to beat to qualify for Boston, as she’d had plenty of time this winter to look things up on the Internet. Now that spring had arrived in Wyoming, though, Elise had been working a lot more. Her business picked up in the spring, and she had half a dozen clients booked with Two Green Thumbs, her licensed landscaping and lawn care business, that relied on her to come every week.
“You’re not working in someone’s yard right now, are you?”
“No, sir,” she said.
“Have you got a second?”
“Sure.” She glanced out the window, and while the alley would terrify her in the dark, it seemed fairly benign in the light of day. “What’s up?” She made sure her doors were locked just to be safe.
“I know I’m coming for the Fourth of July,” he said. “But it’s been a while since we’ve seen each other.”
“Yeah,” she said. Bree and Wes’s wedding celebration was almost two months old now. She’d spent an amazing half-hour with Gray tucked around the side of the house, giggling and talking and kissing. He’d only been in town for the weekend, and while she’d also gotten to go to dinner with him later that same night, it hadn’t been a very long visit.
They spoke on the phone almost every day, and they definitely communicated via text every day. They did video chats often, and while Elise got to “see” him, it definitely wasn’t the same as holding his hand, smelling the musky scent of his cologne, or kissing him.
Elise had fallen for Gray, that was for certain. They hadn’t talked about Hunter again, and they hadn’t discussed what their future might look like at all. Right now, they were simply living in the present, and while Elise enjoyed it, she was ready for some harder conversations.
“I know you’re busy,” Gray said. “I was thinking I’d come next weekend. It’s Memorial Day, and Hunt will be done with school.”
“Right,” she said. “Are you going to bring him?”
“What do you think?”
“Honestly, Gray?”
“Always honestly, Elise.”
“I think it’s time to include him in our relationship,” she said. “I know that makes you nervous. It makes me a little nervous too. But…I don’t know. He knows we’re dating. It’s silly to pretend we’re just friends in public and then sneak off behind the garage to kiss each other.”
“I was hoping you’d say that,” he said, a measure of relief in his voice.
“You were?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I think I’m ready for Hunter to start to build a relationship with you too.”
“Wow,” she said.
“You thought I was going to argue with you.”
“Yeah, a little.” Elise gave him a light laugh. “You really think you’re ready?”
“Yes,” Gray said firmly. “And I think he’s ready, and I guess I was hoping you’d be ready too.”
“I’m ready,” Elise said, even though she wasn’t sure what she needed to be ready for. Hunter was a great kid, and she’d always thought so. At the same time,
her mind blanked as to what they might be able to talk about.
“Great,” Gray said, that smile back in his voice. “So next weekend. I think we’ll drive halfway on Friday. Hunt only has half a day of school. So we’ll be there Saturday.”
“I’ll try to get all my clients done early,” she said. She’d already taken this weekend off, and she’d asked a friend who also owned a landscaping company to help with the yards she couldn’t do. She couldn’t take next weekend off too.
“Great,” Gray said again. “See you then.”
“Okay.” The call ended, and Elise leaned back against the headrest. “He probably won’t come next weekend,” she told herself. “Not when you show up at the finish line.”
But he might, and Elise should be ready for that. “Deal with it later,” she told herself, checking her blind spot, though no one had come down this alley in all the time she’d been sitting here. “Get to the hotel.”
By some miracle wrought by God, Elise managed to navigate the narrow, downtown streets to the Sheraton, and she paid for valet parking and went inside. The hotel was simply huge, and thankfully, she got a room in the main building so she didn’t have to cross the street to the other half of it.
She collapsed onto the bed and looked up at the ceiling, her mind whirring and her heart beating double-time. She’d done it. She’d made a hotel reservation, driven the nine hours from Coral Canyon to Denver, and tomorrow, she was going to watch her boyfriend run a marathon.
The following morning, Elise woke before her alarm. She hadn’t slept well at all, because today was race day. She couldn’t imagine how Gray had slept at all, but she hoped he had. She dressed quickly and went downstairs, grabbed a to-go cup of coffee from a shop on the corner by the hotel, and proceeded to walk to the park. She had to cross Colfax to get to it, and it felt like the party was already in full swing.
People had signs and their faces painted, and some wore huge, brightly colored wigs. The energy pouring out of the city was infectious, and Elise grinned around at everything happening. She’d heard on the news last night that there were over twenty thousand runners in today’s marathon, and that set a new record for the event.
She felt proud and excited to be part of it, even if it was just to jump up and down and scream for Gray. She hoped she’d recognize him on the course. She’d never watched a marathon live, and she had a feeling he’d be running fast.
When they’d talked last night, he said his goal was to complete the twenty-six-point-two miles in under three hours. “For my age range,” he said. “I have to beat three hours and ten minutes to qualify for Boston.”
“You can do it,” she’d told him. She’d asked how they kept track of so many people’s times, and he told her he had a tracker in his bib. It would activate when he crossed the starting line and then the finish line. It would record his time, and he’d get a preliminary time that day, and an official time a few days later.
After she watched him run by here, Elise planned to walk the couple of miles to City Park, where the race started and ended. She should have time, as Civic Center was within the first three miles of the marathon. Gray probably wouldn’t even be sweating when he ran by her the first time.
She shivered in the shade, as the sun wasn’t quite up yet. The marathon started at six a.m., and Gray was in Group C. She wasn’t entirely sure what that meant, only that he wouldn’t be one of the very first to run past Civic Center Park.
She wandered down the sidewalk, toward where a group of colorfully dressed drummers were filling the air with a nifty beat. She sipped her coffee and smiled at them and kept going. She found a spot where she had an excellent view of the entire road, and she took up residence there.
Quickly, because she’d forgotten in her haste to get to the park and get a spot, she pulled out her phone and started a text to Gray. Race day! You’re going to crush it. Run fast! She added a heart to the end of the message and sent it without second-guessing herself.
The heart didn’t mean she loved him, but…did she?
Elise thought she’d been in love with Brandt, but he obviously hadn’t felt the same. Did she love Gray? On some level, she did. What she didn’t know was if she was in love with him. She knew she sure liked talking to him. She admired him. She liked the way he spoke to her with respect and kindness, and he never made fun of her fears.
Thanks! he sent back. Nervous. Gonna run it off. Haha.
She grinned at his lame joke, even liking that, and focused on the street again. She should be able to see him coming for quite a while, as this was a straight-away on the course. Please bless me to see him, she prayed. She wasn’t sure if she wanted him to know only three miles in that she’d come, but at the same time, she did. Then he’d know she would be at the finish line, screaming for him to finish strong.
Her phone chimed at six a.m. and she swore she could hear a swell of cheering from down the road. The first group should be on their way, and she figured she had twenty or twenty-five minutes before she’d see anyone.
She threw her empty coffee cup away and quickly used a portapotty before resuming her post along the fence facing Colfax. Cheers started at the end of the park, and she tipped up onto her toes and craned her neck to see down the street.
Runners were coming, and they looked so athletic in their short shorts and tank tops. They had muscles for days, and this twenty-six miles weren’t the first they’d run. Men and women started getting closer to her, and so many of them wore sunglasses.
Elise panicked. If Gray was wearing sunglasses, how would she recognize him? She should’ve asked him to video himself running so she could see what he wore and how his gait looked, or at least what his race attire looked like, or what his bib number was.
She gripped the fence and kept watching, trying to look at every single person. Runners of all shapes and sizes kept going by, some of them so fast.
Someone came over the loudspeaker in the park and said, “We won’t see the pacing teams for a few minutes, as our first one keeps people on track for a three-hour, fifteen minute marathon.” The man kept talking, but Elise stopped listening.
Gray wanted to run faster than that.
She concentrated harder, her eyes sweeping people close to her and moving farther back. All at once, there he was.
Running fast—wow, so fast—and wearing a pair of navy shorts and a pale yellow tank top. He was wearing sunglasses, but she knew those shoulders and that beard and everything about him screamed Gray.
“Go!” she yelled without thinking. She jumped as if Gray could see or hear her. “Yay, Gray!” He got closer, and he was ultra-focused, not looking left or right. He wouldn’t see her. He couldn’t hear her. She whooped and yelled his name again.
She knew the moment he looked over and saw her. His stride faltered, and she yelled, “Go! Run fast, Gray!” as she waved both hands above her head.
His face broke into a smile, and he did exactly what she said. He waved as he ran fast past her, and Elise felt warm from head to toe.
She watched him until she couldn’t see him anymore, and then she sighed. “Go, Gray, go,” she whispered to herself, hoping her presence here was motivating for him.
Now she just had to get to City Park and wait a couple of hours to know.
Chapter Eighteen
Gray wanted to quit at mile nineteen, the same way he always did. He wasn’t about to slow down, though.
Elise is here, he thought. Elise is here. Don’t you dare quit. Elise is here.
He held onto the thought, because the mental game at mile twenty always caused a struggle with him. After that, it was five more miles.
Four more miles.
Three more miles.
And three miles was nothing to Gray. He could run three miles in his sleep, and he couldn’t wait to cross the finish line, find Elise, and hug her tight.
He could not believe she’d come to watch him run. That made his smile, and the next mile passed in a blur.
On
e more mile.
He was almost there, and he felt himself picking up the pace. He glanced at the watch on his wrist, surprised to see he’d just barely passed two hours and fifty minutes. If he could get this next mile done in under ten—and he could—he’d make his goal.
And he’d qualify.
The noise of City Park entered his ears, and Gray focused on it. He used the energy of the crowd and the beat from the drums to continue his rhythm. The moment he entered the park, he started looking for Ames and Hunter, then Elise.
“Go, Dad!”
He waved to Hunt, smiling for all he was worth. He was going to qualify for Boston. Gray couldn’t believe it, though he’d worked hard for this over the course of the last eight months. He not only was going to qualify, but he was going to beat the men’s time in his age group by over ten minutes. That would allow him to register early for Boston, and he’d most likely get in.
He couldn’t see or hear Elise, but the finish line was within his view now. Thousands of people screamed and cheered, and Gray stayed right in the middle of the course, wanting to get the best time he possibly could.
So he focused, and he ran as fast as he could push himself, all the way across the finish line.
There was no fanfare for him. Hundreds of others had crossed the line too, and more streamed over it behind him. With so many running this year, that was to be expected.
“Gray!”
He turned toward the magical sound of Elise’s voice, his chest expanding and collapsing so quickly as he pulled in breath after breath. He still managed to say, “Elise,” and jog toward her. She laughed as he lifted her off her feet and spun her around.
“That was incredible,” she said, bracing her hands against his shoulders. “Absolutely incredible.” She looked down on him, and with the sun highlighting her nearly-white hair, she looked like an angel straight from heaven.
He set her on her feet, still trying to catch his breath. She ran her hands down the sides of his face. “Look at you. You’re just amazing.” She beamed up at him. “Watching you run is crazy.”
