Just That Easy (26 page)

“Why are you handing me all this?” They’d just left the
pre-race meeting, and Grant was piling the waterproof map case, the compass,
the passport, GPS and a whole pile of the other mandatory gear in her pack. He
took the first-aid kit, the bike kits, the cell phone and some other
miscellaneous things.

“You’re navigating.”

“Oh no, I know enough to know that’s the shit job, uh-uh.”

“Come on, you beat my ass the other day when we went out on
the trail. I’m geographically challenged. I’m a point-and-shoot guy, you point,
I move.”

“One afternoon with an orienteering map and I’m an expert?”

“You did great, and you know it. I’m the brawn, you’re the
brains, baby.”

“Shit. Fine.” Inwardly a little thrilled he trusted her with
the job, her nerves exploded. This job was both seemingly simple and crucial.
One wrong choice and another team could blow by while you were looking for your
missing control point.

“All right, we have to do gear check. Then we’re going to go
scope the canoes, that’s the first leg. We’re pulling off to the side of the
crowd for the gun, I hate getting stepped on.”

“You’re just trusting I know what I’m doing in a canoe and
on a bike you know. This is getting a little nerve-racking. I’ve never even
been on this damn bike you got for me other than to sit on it. You going to
freak out on me if I fuck this up?”

“No, baby. But just don’t fuck it up.” He grinned at her.
“It’s all good, we’re going to be fine. I’ve seen your competitive streak.
Besides, just you doing it with me means a lot, I couldn’t care less if we
finish.”

“Yeah, yeah, right. All right, then what?”

“We run like hell, I think it’s only about one hundred yards
to the canoes, but the faster we get there, the faster we get the hell out of
the traffic jam. I’ll pick the canoe, we portage, then once we’re at the water,
you jump in front, you’re the grunt.”

“Great. Okay, then?”

“We paddle like hell. Don’t need to pace, this is a sprint,
it’s fast and furious, speed is the name of the game. There’s bound to be some
shit in the water, they always try to make it interesting. I think after that
is the first test. Transitions can be a bitch, if you need to stop and change
socks, or re-do your pack or something, that’s cool. I’m usually balls to the
wall, I don’t like to stop.”

“Okay…we’ve been over all of this like a hundred times, but
right now, I feel like I’m going to puke.”

He leaned in and rubbed her shoulders. “You are going to be
fierce, like you always are. Grab it by the teeth and shake the shit out of it
just like you do everything. This is going to be a blast. I’m going to love
watching you become an addict. Adventure racing is kind of like crack.”

“Grant? Grant, is that you?” Grant whirled around at the voice
so fast she thought the wind coming off him might knock her over.

A tall man was trotting over. “How the hell are you, man?
What the fuck are you doing at a sprint?” He caught sight of her, and cocked a
knowing eyebrow at him. “Oh. Breakin’ in a new partner, eh? Finally get tired
of spooning Nolo at the puppy pile?”

“Nah, I’ll be racing with Nolo in New Zealand, this is a fun
run.”

Grant seemed friendly, but uneasy. He finally turned to her.
“Teryn, this is Jericho.”

“Teryn, nice to meet you. Name’s Jim, actually. They all
just call me that because they claim I’ve been conquered more times than the
city has.”

“Nice to meet you too, Jim. Puppy pile?” She smiled, giving
Grant a sideways glance, watching him shift on his feet, looking tense.

“What they call it when we have to have down time at a long
race, when we sleep. We kind of pile together to keep warm.”

She couldn’t suppress a giggle, picturing the image of Nolo
Grant had given her, spooning with him in the middle of nowhere in the dark.

“Funny, ain’t it? I know, I’ve seen it.” Jim was grinning at
her.

“So what brings you here, Jericho?”

Grant seemed impatient as he asked the question, although
she wasn’t sure if she was just not used to him in this environment, or if she
was getting used to sensing the subtle changes in his attitude.

Jericho smiled, put his hands on his hips and pulled himself
up to his full height, which was considerable. “Stretching my legs, like you.”

“Right. Well hey, man, it was great to see you. I’m going to
get my girl here set to go. We’ll see you out there, eh?”

“Yep, hopefully you’ll see my ass running full tilt about a
hundred yards in front of yours.” Clapping Grant on the back and giving her a
nod, he left. Grant seemed to ease back into his old self.

“Was there something about him you didn’t like?” She
couldn’t resist digging.

“No, why?”

“You seemed kind of uncomfortable he noticed us.” She dug
her toe into the dirt. “Is it me? It’s not like I fit in here. I’ve never done
this before.”

His hand was on her chin in an instant, lifting her face to
look into his eyes. “It would never, ever be you. Ever. Don’t forget it.” His
eyes seemed almost angry, his face hard to read, and his voice had gone rough
and with an edge, as if it hurt him that she might think he’d be embarrassed by
her. He kissed her, deep, hard. “If you knew what I feel, Teryn—” A sudden
sharp announcement that the race was starting in fifteen minutes broke them
apart.

“You ready for the ride of your life?” His smile returned,
wary, but back nonetheless. Like always, it gave her a sense of confidence she
never knew she had.

“Oh hell yeah.”

* * * * *

They started really well, staying to the outside as he’d
said. He led the way, but she kept up with him surprisingly well considering
she had five pounds of shit strapped to her back and a canoe paddle in her
hand. She was certain he had slowed up for her, but she went all out,
determined to try not to slow them down. They made the canoe about mid-way
through the crowd, and hefted it easily. He adjusted his carry to make up for
her height difference to him, and they made it to the water quickly. Just as
he’d told her, she jumped in as soon as the tip hit the water and he gave it a
huge heave, jumping in behind her as soon as it cleared the bottom.

They paddled like hell. Her heart raced, not just from the
exertion, but because they made an excellent team. It seemed like even though
he was way above her skill level, they anticipated each other perfectly, moved
in synch. She saw other teams struggle, grabbing at the wrong time, one person
fumbling, the other bitching, but they were moving like two gears locked
together. All that incredible sex had been good for something after all.

“Shit, here we go. Obstacle course.” He saw it before she
did.

“We’re good, just keep steering.”

He did. They kept up the chatter, he told her when to hit it
hard, when to stop, back paddle. They were through it like nothing. Damn, no
wonder he loved this shit.

They reached the shore, threw on their gear, she got the
passport punched and they moved on to the skills test. Target shooting.

“You shoot?” He stood as the race attendant got the gear
they needed, towering over her, shadowing her in the now-familiar way.

“I can. You don’t?”

“I can.” It sounded like a challenge.

He went first. The target was collected, then she did her
rounds. Hers were better.

“I just beat your ass again, why do you have that stupid
grin on your face?”

“’Cause every time I turn around you’re some kind of all new
crazy.” He leaned in and kissed her quickly.

“Who’s crazy, who brought me here?” Smiling at those big
blues, she felt her belly twist in a rush of adrenaline. Crazy all right. “Come
on, let’s move.”

The next leg was running. God she hated running. At least
this was trail running, that she didn’t mind so much. A short trek through a
sort of hilly, wooded area, and they had to find two control points.
Orienteering. She had the map out, plotted the course, hoping like hell her
instincts were right.

After the second checkpoint his grin hadn’t left, even with
the running. “Damn, you’re good at this, I told you.”

“We aren’t done yet, I still have a good chance of some
monumental fuck-up, don’t forget. I will probably crash on the bike.”

“Little road rash never hurt anyone. That’s why we have
helmets right?”

“Yeah. Right.”

The next test was just down the hill from the second
orienteering. As they got closer, and she could see the teams ahead of them
working the challenge, her heart sank into her gut.

“You can do this. We practiced getting though the fear,
remember?”

A warm flush ran through her. “Yeah, I remember, but I don’t
think you’re going to have your hand on my ass to give me incentive this time.”

“No, you got this. Don’t let your head mess with you, know
you’ve got it, and you will.”

She took a deep breath. They headed for the tunnel slide.

The challenge was designed for several things. Personal
size—hopefully you had a team member who could easily wriggle through the
narrow tubes they had set up to crawl through. If you didn’t, you could take a
penalty and move on. No way they were going that route. Adults small enough to
make it would have to shimmy, or drag themselves through. She knew some of the
people here were cavers so they would likely have no trouble with this. She
would. The sheer narrowness of the tube meant she was going through, no way
Grant could. The teamwork only went so far, the other team member could only
help you into one end and out the other, but encouragement was crucial, talking
you through it would make or break it.

She dropped her pack and shucked off her jacket, down to her
Under Armour T-shirt and Lycra running pants, and faced her biggest fear.
Confinement.

“How are you going to do it?”

Instead of dwelling on her terror, she focused on tactics.
Winning. Grant. “Do you think you can push my feet once I’m far enough in? Give
me a little shove to move me along?”

“No problem.”

“Okay, I’m going in head first, the guy that went feet first
looks stuck so that strategy isn’t working. I’ll put my arms up over my head,
I’ll have to just pull, I guess, the best I can.”

“You’ll do it.” The confidence in his voice made her believe
it.

She slid her hands, shoulders and head into the narrow tube.
It was fine until she got in up to her waist, almost no room to maneuver. It
became difficult to keep any movement going, and the feeling of being immobile
was crawling over her like an army of ants. Her breath came thick and heavy,
her body squirming. It wasn’t doing any good.

“Breathe, Teryn. Feel me, I’m right here with you.” He
encouraged into the end of the tube, talking to her, trying to keep her
focused.

She remembered those exact words when he’d had her pinned
just like this, except her hands were behind her back then, she had been even
more immobile than now. She swore she could feel his warm breath on her neck.

Squeezing her eyes shut, she swallowed the fear. “I’m okay.
I just can’t figure out how to move!”

“Wriggle those hips, baby. You know how. Believe me I know
you know how!” His voice echoed through the hollow concrete, even with her
jammed into it.

She wondered if the other teams even noticed or cared about
what he said. She doubted it. She liked being somewhere that people used
whatever raw energy they had to make it through something. Together. She
wriggled. Undulating her body back and forth, she inched forward. Finally she
felt his hands on the bottom of her shoes.

“Here we go, ready?”

“Yeah!”

He shoved. Hard. She felt her skin scrape hard on the
concrete of the narrow tube, but she moved forward at least two feet. Her
fingers were at the top edge. She grabbed just like she had at the rock wall
and pulled hard. She moved forward another foot, and at the point where she
couldn’t bend her elbows inside the tube to pull anymore, he reached in and
pulled, sliding her out to her hips.

“Whoohoo!” he yelled, kissing her hard.

She scrambled up. “Move your ass!”

Grabbing her pack, she looked back at the big, silly grin on
his face as he chased after her.

Another half mile of trail running, at about the time her
lungs were burning out of her chest, they rounded the corner to the bike
transition.

“Break. Hydrate.”

“I have been. I’m good, let’s just move.” They were both
wearing CamelBaks, so water was right there whenever. She hadn’t forgotten the
warning about not remembering to drink regularly.

“You sure?”

“Balls to the wall, remember? Come on!”

The bike leg was easier than she thought, the track not that
difficult, no big technicals for her to crash on. Other than the all-out moving
as fast as possible, it was fun, kind of relaxing after the running. She
wouldn’t be thinking that on the second round she was pretty sure.

Once the biking was over, there came another transition,
then more trail running and two more checkpoints. Once that was done, the last
bike round, one last challenge, and the race was over.

They barely stopped for the transition after biking, just
long enough to refill the CamelBaks, arrange a couple things and move on. She
was half afraid if she stopped, she wouldn’t move again. That’s exactly what
she was thinking a mile into the next trail run.

“I fucking remember why I hate running.”

“I like it.” He grinned, barely breathing hard, looking as
if he could run circles around her if he felt like it.

“Kiss my ass,” she grumbled.

“When we stop.”

“Fuck you.” It still made her laugh. His enthusiasm, his raw
appreciation for how well she handled this, and her own thrill at her
accomplishment infused her.

“That will have to wait ’til later. But I will fuck you, I’m
pretty certain of it.”