Page 170 of The Route to You

The sound of snow crunching drew his attention. “You ready?” Francesca asked, holding out a stainless-steel mug filled with coffee.

Kyle took it from her with a grateful smile. “I’d say as ready as I’ll ever be, but that always seems like bad luck.”

Dean clapped his hand over Kyle’s good shoulder. “Like I said. You want to quit at any point, you just say the word.”

Kyle shook his head, gesturing toward the girl holding a camera several feet away. “There are some things we don’t say in front of the cameras,” he teased. Sipping his coffee again, he glanced toward the spectator’s tent, quickly filling with people here for the teams. Most of them would be making their way back down to the finish line once the race began, but one jumbotron had been set up for people who wanted to stay there.

Keeping track of people was getting more difficult, given the throng.

He’d seen his parents and siblings near the spectator stands at the finish line before he’d caught the lift up here.

He still hadn’t seen Sloan, though. Shouldn’t she have come with them? He’d thought she might come to say goodbye and good luck before the race started.

She promised to be here.

But what if she didn’t come?

She did like to run when she was scared, and she’d told him this morning she was scared about today.

No, she loves me. She’s done running.

He just needed to accept that the amazingness of that—the fact that she’d come back to him after everything—was good enough. They’d be fine.

Tomas came up behind him, holding his pack. “Turn around and I’ll help you get this thing on.”

Kyle gave him a tight smile. “Regretting that you’re not going with me instead of Dean?”

Tomas gave a loud, clear laugh. “Not a chance. Better him than me.” He held the straps out as Kyle turned, letting the weight settle onto his shoulders as he strapped himself in. Ooof.

Heavy, but doable. They’d have to go uphill in skis, then climb. Then ski again.

And try not to crash.

“Be careful, mate, will you?” Tomas said, a look of worry in his eyes that flashed away as Kyle met his gaze. He couldn’t entirely blame Tomas. He’d seen Kyle in his worst state after the Jet Ski accident, and he’d kept him alive and floating in the water in the middle of the choppy sea while he bled.

Davy sidled up beside Tomas. “Even though I think you’re an idiot for doing this, it is kind of nice to have the three of us all back together again,” she told Kyle. “But next time, can we aim for somewhere that’s not zero degrees? I cursed your name when I got up this morning.”

Kyle chuckled. “Thank you for never holding back your opinion, Davy.”

She gave a small curtsey. “I try.” Then she looked over toward the spectator tent. “Where’s Sloan? I was hoping to have a chance to talk to her a bit.”

Where indeed?

“I . . . I don’t know,” Kyle said, his voice intentionally devoid of emotion. “Maybe she slept in.” He gave Davy a hard look. “Did you give my folks the monitor so they can watch as we stream? I need you to make sure they get to see in real time, but if something goes wrong, cut the feed.”

She nodded. “Yeah, yeah, captain. I did. And I will. I’m not used to you being the boss, you know. You might be more of a pain than Victor.” She winked, then sauntered back toward the camera crew.

“If something goes wrong.” Tomas palmed his face. “You’re giving me confidence.”

Dean rolled his eyes. “Something could always go wrong. The trick is to be ten steps ahead of trouble so that if it chases you, you can still dodge out of the way.”

The teams in the vicinity stilled abruptly as a man with a megaphone began an announcement. Kyle let his eyes wander the other tented areas filled with racers and their prep teams—they were the only one with a camera crew, though, and a set of snowmobiles to film them as he and Dean went. When the crew couldn’t follow anymore, Dean and Kyle would switch exclusively to GoPro footage and then edit it all together in post.

“Five minutes. Please assemble at the starting line,” Kyle heard at the end of the announcement.

This was it then. Time for the race and still no Sloan.

Francesca threw her arms around Dean for one last kiss, then Dean and Kyle made their way toward the other racers, the girl with camera, Lina, following them. The other camera crew waited on snowmobiles, along with Tomas, who’d make his way up the mountain at some point for some commentary on what he could see.