Playing Games (27 page)

Liam grinned at me. "Sneaky. I love it."

"Let's do it, then," I said, opening the next
box.

It took a few more before we found the large
book that signified our stop in Dublin and the visit to the
University Library. We left it in the box and hauled it up the
stairs, going as fast as we could despite our cramping legs. There
were only seventy-two steps (I counted) but it might as well have
been three hundred. We dumped our box and raced down for the next
one. After that was a chandelier, for the opera house in Paris. As
we headed up again, we passed Tesla and Brodie, who were on their
way back up with their next object. They were slowing down, their
faces covered in sweat. I couldn't blame them - we were on our
third pass up and this task was killing my legs. But we couldn't
afford to slow down. Not when victory was this close.

My heart hammered in my chest as we dropped
off our box, and then took the box containing the small temple up
the stairs. Once we got to the Trojan horse, my legs were cramping
and moving slower and slower. Liam's face was shining with sweat,
his black hair sticking to his brow. I was exhausted, but sheer
adrenaline kept me going.

As soon as we dumped our Trojan horse, I
watched, my entire body tense, as Brodie and Tesla called over the
judge. The woman picked through their pieces, then shook her head.
"No. Try again."

I bit back my squeal of excitement. They had
it wrong. There was time to fix this. We could still win.

We headed down the stairs at breakneck speed,
and I watched as Brodie's gaze moved to our still-boxed objects.
Nice try, big brother,
I thought to myself. There was not
going to be any copying off of my hard work today. Liam and I were
both gasping for breath by the time we made it up the stairs with
the stringed guitar-thing from Cambodia. I glanced over at Brodie's
mat, and they had maneuvered things again, the Trojan horse now
occupying the completely wrong spot.

"I'm sorry, no," the judge said again, and I
smiled to myself to hear Brodie swear.

Excitement made our feet pound down the
stairs, even though we were exhausted at this point. We grabbed the
last box and hauled it onto the litter with weak, trembling
arms.

"One more, Katy," Liam encouraged me. "We can
do this. We can."

I nodded, saving my breath for the climb up
those horrible stairs, and we continued forward. Each step felt
enormous, and I counted them off in my head. Twenty steps, and I
was gasping like a fish out of water. Thirty steps, and my sweaty
hands were slipping on the wooden beams of the litter. Fifty steps,
and my legs were cramped so tight that every step felt like knives.
But I kept going, and Liam hadn't slowed down a bit. Sixty five
steps, and we were close enough to see Brodie and Tesla standing
over their mat. My brother had his hands twisted in his blond hair,
and he looked utterly frustrated. Tesla had her tattooed arms
crossed over her chest, giving Brodie a furious look, as if it was
his fault. I felt a twinge of pity for my brother. Just a
twinge.

And then we were up to the top of the stairs.
I stumbled, my legs giving out on me, and we crashed to the
ground.

"You okay, Katy?" Liam was immediately at my
side, the litter forgotten. He helped me to my feet, his hands
strong and sure as he grasped my arms.

"I'm fine," I wheezed. "Let's finish
this."

We grabbed our litter and dragged it over to
the final place on the mat, just as Brodie and Tesla waved the
judge over again.

I held my breath as the judge considered
their puzzle board. Then, she shook her head and I thought my heart
would burst. "I'm sorry, no."

"Over here," I croaked. "We're ready."

The judge headed over, and I heard Brodie
curse again. A cameraman came over to hover as Liam lifted the lids
on the boxes and set them aside, then moved toward me. His strong
arms went around my waist, and I leaned heavily on him, exhausted.
My every nerve was tight with anxiety, though, and I couldn't take
my eyes off the judge as she studied our puzzle. I knew we had
things right. Liam knew. Had we mistaken something, though?

"Their stuff is still in boxes," Tesla called
out in a whiny voice. "That's not fair."

"There's nothing in the rules that says you
can't do that," Liam said. "Just to take it up the stairs and put
it in the right spot."

"That's cheating," she shot back.

"You're just jealous that you guys weren't
smart enough to do it," I retorted.

She gave me a narrow-eyed glare that I
ignored, leaning heavily on Liam. My gaze went back to the judge,
who had paced around our boxes again.

After a long, tense moment, she reached into
her jacket and withdrew a bright green disk. "That is correct.
Congratulations."

Liam gave a whoop and grabbed me by the
waist. I shrieked with excitement, wrapping my arms around his neck
as he spun me around.

"The disk," I laughed happily, wiggling out
of his grasp. "Get the disk!"

He set me down, pressed a hard, sweaty kiss
to my mouth that was so fierce that I could feel his lip piercing
digging into my skin. Then he snatched the disk from the judge,
grabbed my hand, and we raced toward that unbroken finish line.

Cameramen hovered, filming us as we headed
toward that long piece of tape, and the host was clapping with
excitement. We crossed the line and I felt the plastic snap as we
pushed through it.

"Congratulations, Katy and Liam," Chip boomed
as The World Races theme music began to play loudly and confetti
rained down on top of us. "You are the winners of this year's
World Games
!"

Liam looked at me.

I looked back at him.

He grinned.

I flung my arms around Liam's neck once more
and pulled him to me in another long, hard kiss.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"Where
do we go from here? Towards a happy ever after, man."
— Liam
Brogan, Post-Races Interview

The twenty-four hours post-race were a blur
of activity. Liam and I were thoroughly interviewed on every angle
of the final leg of the race, and then we did a new series of press
junkets. A check was presented to us, on camera, and Chip gave a
long speech about the challenges of the race and recounted the many
tasks we'd performed.

I didn't hear a word of it. I simply clutched
that oversized check, in a daze.

Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. One
hundred twenty five thousand dollars each. Holy shit. Brodie was
going to be furious at me. I told myself that I didn't care, but he
was my brother. I cared even though he'd played like a jerk. He'd
hate that he came into second place. Absolutely hate it.

The others that had been kicked off the race
at one time or another met for a big wrap party in Philadelphia.
Everyone had been flown in, and they all took turns hugging me and
Liam. Abby was delighted for us, and Dean didn't seem nearly as
upset at losing as I thought he might be, which meant that Abby had
probably told him about the baby. Either way, it was good to see
them again, and I hugged them both for a long, long time.

Tesla wasn't speaking to me or Liam. Brodie
gave me a quick hug of congratulations and then disappeared into
the crowd again.

We hadn't had a minute to ourselves since the
race had ended. By the time the interviews and the wrap party were
over, it was extremely late at night, and the crew had assigned us
separate hotel rooms. I collapsed into mine and fell instantly
asleep, exhausted from endless days of globetrotting and worry. As
I fell into bed, I briefly wondered that Liam hadn't come to find
me. Or were we over now that the race was?

It's reality TV, but it's not reality
.
Abby's warning rang in my mind over and over again.

She'd been right all along. Maybe Liam
figured that now that we were done with the race, me and him were
done as well. It did seem like a natural place to break, I thought
wistfully, if one wanted to break things off.

I didn't, but I wasn't the only one in this
relationship, of course.

~~ * * * ~~

"Katy Short?" Someone pounded at my door.
"Are you awake?"

I sat up, pushing my messy hair out of my
eyes, disoriented. I'd been dragged from an incredible dream about
Liam and Egypt and the hours we'd spent in the hotel room exploring
each other. Waking up and finding myself in my lonely bed? Not the
best way to start the day.

I went to the door and opened it, staring
blearily at the production assistant there. "Yes?"

"Your ride to the airport leaves in twenty
minutes. I'm here to make sure you get there."

"Oh. Okay. Give me a few to shower and get
ready." I shut the door again when I saw her nod, and then dragged
myself to the shower, trying to wake up. I still felt hung over
from the race.

When I wiped the foggy mirror and stared at
my reflection, I considered my wet blonde hair. This was the first
day in a while that I wouldn't have to wear my hair in pigtails
because the race had mandated it. Running my fingers through it, I
grabbed a clip and just twisted it into that. No fuss, no muss.
Back to normal Katy all over again. Race Katy was going to be a
memory soon enough.

And I thought of Liam again. Would I have
time to say goodbye? I dressed quickly, shoving my things into my
bag. We'd had to travel light for the race, so luckily I didn't
have much to pack.

When I opened the door to my room, though, I
was surprised to see Brodie there. "Hey, sis," he said cheerfully.
"You up?"

"I am," I said in a wary voice. This
cheerfulness after losing the race? That wasn't like Brodie. My
brother was known to sulk for days on end. "You going to the
airport with me?"

"Well, I was supposed to, but I came to say
goodbye."

"Goodbye?"

He grinned again, unable to contain his
excitement. "The producers met with me last night. They liked me so
much on The World Races that they want me to be on
Endurance
Island
, which starts taping in two days. So I'm flying from
here directly out to the filming location. Isn't that awesome?"

"Wow, that is. I'm surprised, honestly."

He laughed. "Because I played like a dick?
Apparently the production crew loved that. They don't have nearly
enough villains for good TV so they're throwing me onto
Endurance Island
in the hopes that I can stir things up
there, too. And they even mentioned the show
House
Guests
."

"
House Guests
?"

"You know, the one where they stick a bunch
of strangers in a house together? Apparently they're about to do an
all-star version in a few months, and they're considering casting
me." He gave me an excited hug. "Isn't this amazing?"

"It is," I murmured, still dazed. "Wow. I'm
really happy for you, Brodie. Things are looking up. You're not mad
that I won?"

"Oh, I'm annoyed I didn't win," Brodie
admitted, and gave me another brotherly noogie that I barely
escaped. "But Tesla totally fell apart in that last challenge and
she drove me crazy. As soon as she started whining about going up
the stairs, I knew we'd lost it."

I said nothing, ignoring Brodie's revisionist
history. Tesla's whining hadn't lost the challenge for them - their
lack of puzzle skills had. But whatever got my brother through the
day. "Speaking of Tesla, how's she taking the loss?"

Brodie shrugged. "Don't know. I heard they
flew all the other teams out about two hours ago."

My jaw dropped. "They…what?"

"Yeah. I didn't get to say goodbye, but
that's fine." He grinned. "I knew it was just for the show
anyhow."

But I was still reeling in shock. All the
other teams were…gone? Liam hadn't come to say goodbye? Had we just
been for the show, too?

I feel like I've already won
, Liam had
told me in that last cab ride. I blinked rapidly, fighting back
tears. "Oh."

"Sorry you didn't get asked to go on
Endurance Island
, Katy. They told me they only had room for
one person." My brother gave me a mock-sad look that told me he was
trying really hard not to be excited, but failing.

I waved a hand idly at that, my chest still
aching at the thought of Liam flying out without even bothering to
say goodbye to me. "I don't want to be on
Endurance Island
anyhow. I just wanted enough money to give my business a
boost."

"Well, you've got it," he said
cheerfully.

I did. I had the money and the win. I just
didn't have the guy. I should have been thrilled.

But instead, I just ached.

~~ * * * ~~

A half hour later, the cab dropped me off at
the airport and I headed inside, ticket in hand. Being in the
airport again after all the running around of the past few weeks
made me instantly tired, and I couldn't seem to muster any
enthusiasm as I headed to my gate. It felt weird to sit down at a
gate and not have a cameraman hovering to tape my every movement. I
slumped in my chair and tried not to think about how weirdly lonely
it felt to be on my own for the first time in weeks.

Maybe the loneliness was because I'd been
discarded romantically? I kept telling myself that it wasn't
important. My brother had been callously dumped by Tesla and wasn't
upset because he'd known it was short-term. I told my brain that I
shouldn't be upset, too. But I couldn't help it.

I had stupidly fallen for a guy that hadn't
even wanted to be my partner in the beginning. Unhappy, I stared
off into space, resisting the urge to tap my fingers on the bag
like Liam had, always with a melody in his head.

Whispers and giggles drove me out of my
reverie. "You think that's really him?" someone said nearby.