Cross Country Chaos

by Lesli Richardson

  Kelly studied her coffee cup. Right. Bill was right. Mart wouldn’t have brought her if he wanted a shot with his old flame. And when she’d tried to stay home, Mart practically begged her to come. Kelly glanced at her watch. The alarm would have gone off by now. She should talk to him before the race, apologize for being jealous.

  Kelly finished her coffee. “Thanks, Bill. I need to check on him, make sure he’s awake.”

  “Seriously, he’s crazy about you. I’ve known him for years, and he can’t quit talking about you and your boys. He loves you.”

  Kelly caught the elevator. She paused at their door, thinking she heard voices.

  Must be the TV. She let herself in.

  Brenda was dressed for racing. Mart had his race shorts on but was shirtless. Brenda turned and scowled at Kelly.

  Kelly’s stomach hit her feet. Before Mart could say anything, Kelly bolted out the door. She couldn’t do this. Not right now. She wasn’t ready.

  “Shit—Kelly!”

  Kelly ran to the elevators, punching the button, willing one of the three doors to open.

  Their room opened behind her, and Mart called her name. The stairwell was right there, and Kelly ran for it, trying to fight her tears. She charged down three flights before stopping and leaning against the wall, sliding to the floor as she gave in and cried.

  It was nothing. They were only talking. That’s all.

  But the look on Brenda’s face when she’d walked in—maybe Mart had written Brenda off as his past, but Brenda was trying to write a new chapter as his future.

  Kelly looked at her watch. The shuttle would leave in twenty minutes. If she wasn’t on it, she’d have to find her own way to the staging area. And she had no idea how to get there.

  Did she want to go?

  There was nothing going on between Brenda and Mart. Kelly knew it, instinctively, deep in her heart. After all they’d been through the past few weeks, she knew Mart loved her, was faithful, and would do anything to be with her.

  It was her mind screaming for her to run, trying to protect her from a repeat of David.

  She wanted to see Mart’s race. She didn’t fly here to hole up bawling in a hotel stairwell.

  Kelly took a deep breath, returned to their floor, and stuck her head out the doorway.

  The hall was deserted. She returned to their room and found it empty. Mart’s gear bag and race chair were gone, and he’d left her a note.

  Kelly, please, when you find this, call me! Nothing happened! She stopped by on her way down, I thought it was you knocking when I opened the door. She was only here for a minute. I’m sorry, I know it looked bad. I love you, please, I’m worried about you.—Love, M.

  That triggered a fresh round of tears. Of course he loved her.

  She grabbed her backpack and phone. There was a missed call from Mart and a voice message. She didn’t play it.

  She caught the elevator downstairs. Outside the lobby, through the front windows, she saw the crowd of wheelers by the shuttle. A rental box truck parked behind it held gear and daily chairs, and half the race chairs were already loaded. She didn’t see Mart or Brenda, but watched his green racer go into the truck.

  Steeling her nerves, Kelly started across the lobby when a woman’s voice caught her ear as she passed the meeting room.

  “Give me one day with him. I’ll get him back, make him see how much he missed me. He thinks he loves her. What’s he going to do with her? He’s in a chair, she’s not. The fun will wear off, and he’ll want what he knows. I’ll have him back by the end of the weekend.”

  Brenda.

  Brenda sat with her back to the doorway, talking to another woman in a chair.

  Kelly thought her heart would stop. She should go confront the bitch, tell her to bring it on, but she froze.

  No one will want you, Kelly. You’re a bitch. No one will want to be with you. She couldn’t quiet David’s voice in her head.

  Her cell phone vibrated, startling her. Mart.

  She couldn’t do it, couldn’t face him. Kelly turned and ran for the elevators and dove into the first that opened. She punched the button for her floor, and as the door closed, she leaned against the wall and cried.

  Kelly waited until she was sure the shuttle had left. Her phone rang three more times, each time with a new voicemail. She didn’t play them. Downstairs, she asked the front desk how to get to the staging area. The race wouldn’t start for an hour, and the starting line was twenty blocks away. She could walk that without problem. Maybe it would calm her.

  Checking to make sure she had her camera, Kelly followed the map the clerk gave her. Many streets were closed already, and crowds of runners were working their way to the starting line. She knew where the wheelers’ staging tent was supposed to be and hoped she could get there in time. They were handing out access passes to everyone on the shuttle, so she wouldn’t have that. Getting to the tent might be an issue.

  Her heart sank. What if she couldn’t get to Mart before the race?

  Well, stupid, if you’d acted like an adult instead of a baby, you’d be with him right now. David’s voice in her head again. The sooner she could quiet that, the better.

  Kelly found the starting area, and it was difficult to make her way through the crowd. She still had twenty minutes before the wheelchairs started. She found an information booth and asked about the wheelers’ staging area. They had no idea what she was talking about.

  She tried to remember what was said at the meeting, and before she could get turned around, the police sealed off the starting area, not letting anyone cross the street in front of the starting line.

  “Shit.”

  She tried to get behind the starting line, thread her way through the throng, but it was too thick. She heard the final call for the wheelchair racers over the PA system and struggled to get to the fenced starting chute where they lined up. She spotted Mart through the crowd, tried to wave and shout at him, but he couldn’t hear her over the noise. She saw him scanning the crowd, looking, but he was facing away from her. Kelly yelled louder, and Brenda, whose chair was now next to Mart’s, looked at her.

  Then Brenda smiled at her, cold, chilling, and turned away.

  Brenda made no attempt to get Mart’s attention. In fact, she leaned over to him and said something. He nodded, continuing to scan the wrong side of the street. Kelly spotted Bill in the pack and tried to yell for him, but then the crowd quieted for the National Anthem. Kelly pressed against the fence, frantically waving, the smile on Brenda’s face sickening her.

  She was deliberately ignoring her.

  Kelly finally got Bill’s attention. He realized who she was, but before he could reach over and tap Mart on the back, the starter’s pistol fired and the wheelchairs took off. Mart’s hands hit the push rims, his powerful strokes shooting him to the head of the pack and around the first corner like a rocket sled on rails.

  And then they were gone.

  Kelly’s heart sank, the only person in the crowd sobbing instead of cheering.

  She reached the staging tent before the runners were released. Jim, one of the organizers, recognized her immediately. “We were wondering what happened to you. Mart was worried sick.”

  “I’m sorry. How long until he finishes?”

  Jim consulted his papers. “About thirty-five minutes. It’s right over there,” he pointed, and she saw the finish a half-block away, kitty-corner from their location on an odd-angled street, a small set of bleachers set up next to it. “Oh wait, here—” he handed her a pass on a lanyard. “You’ll want this. I’m sorry you missed the start.”

  She shook her head. “I saw the start but couldn’t get his attention. Brenda saw me,” she said bitterly, “looked right at me and didn’t tell Mart she saw me.”

  Jim nodded. “She’s a vicious bitch, but he loves you. He was worried sick, thought about going back to the hotel on the shuttle to look for you.”

  Her heart sank even further. If she’d just swallowed her p
ride, she could have been there for him. And she’d forgotten to take a picture of the start.

  “You can go over there and wait. They’ll let you into the finish chute with that pass,” he said.

  Kelly made it to the finish after all the runners started, getting a spot on the first row of the bleachers. She could see down the road to the final turn where the wheelers would come through, well before the first runners finished.

  Her heart pounding, she played her voicemails.

  “Kel, please, I’m sorry. Look, call me. I want you here with me. Please, I’m worried about you. I love you. Call me—the bus is about to leave, and I don’t want to go without you.” All his messages sounded worried, concerned, the last nearly frantic.

  She tried to fight her tears, watched the clock, held the camera ready.

  The announcer updated the crowd every few minutes. When the first wheelers made it to the turnaround at the halfway point, Mart was neck and neck in the lead with another guy. Kelly gleefully noted Brenda was not among the top three women wheelers.

  Eventually the leaders approached, and Mart’s green racer wasn’t among them. Kelly waited, and more wheelers in ones and twos trailed in ahead of the runners.

  She heard a flurry of radio activity at the finish line, something about an ambulance being called.

  Still no Mart, and no Brenda either, as more wheelers finished. Then the lead runner finished, followed by three other elite runners. And another wheeler.

  Unable to take it anymore, Kelly went to the announcer’s booth where she heard more radio traffic about emergency services. The official was going to ignore her when he saw her pass.

  “I’m trying to find my fiancé, Martin Rawlings. He’s a wheelchair racer, he should have finished by now. Is he okay?” The official’s expression changed. Kelly’s stomach dropped. “What happened?”

  “Calm down, he’s being transported—”

  “What happened?” she demanded.

  He swallowed. “There was an accident. They’re taking him to the hospital. They said his girlfriend, another racer, rode with him.”

  Brenda. “She’s his EX-girlfriend. I’m his fiancée. Where did they take him?”

  “Hold on.” He spoke into his radio. “Come with me—I’ll have someone take you to the hospital.”

  They walked a block over, and an official car pulled up. He talked to the driver and opened the door for her. “He’ll take you.”

  “Thank you.”

  The shakes hit her a few blocks away. She didn’t know whether to be upset or mad or scared or sick to her stomach. By the time they pulled up to the emergency room entrance, her gut was knotted as badly as it had been at Denny’s surgery.

  When Mart had been by her side, supporting her.

  She ran into the ER and saw a race official standing by the desk. “Martin Rawlings, where is he?”

  “Are you Kelly?”

  She nodded.

  “Come with me, I’ll take you. He’s been asking for you.”

  Relief, then guilt washed over her. She should have been there. Did he wreck because his mind was on her and not focused on his race?

  She followed the official to a triage room where Mart lay on a gurney. Brenda sat in a regular hospital push chair by his side. She looked up and glared as Kelly walked over to her.

  Kelly was done running. “Get away from my fiancé, you bitch.”

  Mart looked up. “Kelly—”

  “Hold on.” She turned to Brenda. “I heard your conversation at the hotel. ‘Give me one day,’ my ass.” Brenda blanched, but Kelly continued. “Then at the start you heard me, saw me waving and trying to get Mart’s attention, and you didn’t tell him. And then you told the race officials you were his girlfriend.”

  Mart glared at Brenda. “Is that true? Is that what you told them? So you haven’t been trying to call Kelly for me?”

  Brenda glanced down, stammered. Mart looked at the race official and pointed at Brenda. “Get her the hell out of her.”

  “You’d better get her out of here,” Kelly said, “because I’ve never hit a person in a wheelchair, and I don’t want to start now. But so help me God, I will.”

  Brenda left. She turned at the doorway. “You’ll want me back. You know you will.”

  “Don’t hold your breath,” Mart spat, “you had your chance and you blew it, years ago.”

  Brenda left. Kelly went to Mart. “Are you okay?”

  He nodded. “I’m fine. Screwed up my arm and shoulder.” She realized his left arm was wrapped in a temporary splint.

  “What happened?”

  “Oh, damn photographer stepped out in front of me. I didn’t see him at first, and when I looked up I swerved, caught a wheel on a manhole cover and flipped. I landed on my arm wrong, and snap.” He squeezed her hand with his good one. “I was so worried about you, babe. What happened?”

  She broke down, sobbing, and told him what she heard Brenda say in the hotel lobby. He squeezed her hand again. “Look at me, Kel,” he said softly. She finally met his eyes.

  “You are my fiancée. And you’re going to be my wife. Understand? Not her, not anyone else. You. I love you. I’ve loved you from the moment I met you. I love your sons, and I even love your mom.”

  She smiled, but he wasn’t done. “I am not David. I know you love me. Please, learn to trust me.”

  She nodded and kissed him. “I’m sorry. I froze when I heard her talking. Then I walked over to the start and tried to get your attention. She saw me. You should have seen the look on her face.” She started crying again. “Bill saw me, but by the time he realized who I was and tried to get your attention, you guys took off.”

  He pulled her hand to his lips and kissed it. “I’m sorry I didn’t see you.”

  Another official walked in. “Mart, we’ll get your stuff from staging and bring it and your chair here, and take your racer back to the hotel for you, okay?”

  “How’s my racer?”

  The official smiled. “Just a little paint. Nothing major.”

  “Good. I put those dang rims on last week. Listen, I want you to tell everyone what Brenda did.”

  “Mart, that’s between—”

  “No, Dave, she’s a conniving bitch. Everyone knows it, and it’s time someone called her on it. She wants to be that way? She can do her own thing. I know Bill and Shauna will back me up on this.”

  Dave paused. For the first time, Kelly realized how much pull Mart had.

  Dave nodded. “Okay.”

  When they were alone again, Mart looked at Kelly. “I mean it. We’re getting married when we get home. Next week. You won’t have to worry about this bullshit anymore. We’ll go to the courthouse on Monday and get a license and have a clerk do it if we have to.”

  “What about a wedding?”

  “We can still do a ceremony for everyone else.”

  “Okay.” She touched her forehead to his. “I was so worried. I didn’t know what happened to you, and then they said you wrecked…” She started crying again.

  “Shh, it’s okay.” He wiped her tears with his good hand. “David really did a number on your head, didn’t he?”

  “My gut kept telling me that nothing was going on, but then I heard her and it was like a switch flipped inside me.”

  He squeezed her hand again, quieting her. “It’s okay. This is why I want you to talk to someone. I want you to be able to trust me.”

  “I do trust you. I don’t trust Brenda.”

  “That makes two of us.”

  Mart asked the doctors to let Kelly stay while they set his arm. There wasn’t much they could do for his shoulder except give him a sling and tell him to take it easy. Fortunately his arm only needed a cast, not surgery. Kelly sat next to the bed, her forehead touching his, holding his right hand. A few times he winced, squeezing her hand tighter from the pain. When they were done, he laid back and closed his eyes.

  “Oh man, that brings back bad memories.”

  “What?”


  “Haven’t had anything set in a while.”

  “You okay?”

  He nodded. “Mostly the shoulder. The arm’s not too bad.”

  The doctor looked at him. “You can’t put any weight on that shoulder and arm for at least a couple of weeks. Do you have anyone to help you at home?”

  “I’ll be with him,” Kelly said.

  Mart looked at her. “Yeah?”

  She nodded and brushed the hair out of his eyes. “Yeah.”

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Two orderlies helped Mart into his chair. The doctor gave Kelly Mart’s prescriptions and discharge paperwork. “Get him to his regular doctor—”

  “Hey, sitting right here.” Mart waved his good hand.

  “Hush, you,” Kelly said. “I get to play nurse.”

  “Naughty nurse, I hope?”

  The doctor cleared his throat but smiled. “These might make him loopy. Don’t let him drive or operate heavy machinery,” he joked.

  “Don’t worry. I’ll take him back to the hotel and put him to bed.”

  “Whoo-hoo, yeah, baby!” Mart crowed.

  Kelly and the doctor both laughed. “We gave him a shot of painkillers too, by the way,” the doctor said.

  Kelly smiled. “I could tell.”

  Bill and a couple of Mart’s teammates met them in the waiting room. “Hey, you okay?” Bill asked.

  He patted Kelly’s hand. “I’ll be fine.”

  They got Mart back to the hotel and into bed. The concierge called the courtesy van to take Kelly to the drugstore, and she got his prescriptions filled. When she returned, Brenda was waiting outside the hotel lobby with her luggage and race chair.

  Kelly walked up to her. “Aw, leaving so soon?”

  “It’s been made perfectly clear my presence isn’t welcome.”

  “Well, if you weren’t trying to steal my fiancé and then lie and tell people you’re his girlfriend, maybe everyone wouldn’t be pissed.”

  “What does he see in you?” Brenda snarled. “Look at you. You’re fat, and—”

  Kelly laughed, cutting her off. “What, my momma dresses me funny?” She’d been afraid of this bimbo?

  Kelly leaned in, dropping her voice. “I’ve had two kids, hon. Just because I actually have boobs, unlike you, doesn’t make me fat. I was married to the king of the assholes. You can’t say anything to me that he probably hasn’t already said.”