Page 16 of Ugly Duckling
Aella’s eyes twinkled as she dropped down to her haunches in front of Lottie and said, “I brought you some donuts, baby. You’ll be good for Daddy while he runs, won’t you? You’ll be in that stroller for a while.”
Lottie nodded her head enthusiastically. “Oh, yeah!”
I snorted out a laugh. “Want donuts?”
“Yep!” She paused, remembering that we were working on manners. “Peas!”
I nodded, happy with her quick correction.
Not that she was a rude kid, but she was given everything in the world. At least she could be appreciative about it.
“Tanks!” Lottie said when Aella dropped a bag of donut holes onto her lap. “Love you!”
That I didn’t teach her. She taught herself to love all these people I called family.
It also made my heart happy to hear.
“I love you, too.” Aella picked up Lottie’s hand and kissed it. “Have a good run, my girl.”
“Yes!” She pumped her tiny little fist.
The announcer called out that the anthem was about to start, and for runners to find their starting spots.
I moved to the pacer that was holding the 4:00 sign.
I probably wouldn’t stay with her the whole time, but I’d at least start there.
The anthem started to play, a young man in his teens singing it for the group, and I took my hat off and placed it over my heart.
My eyes started to tear up, too, because the kid looked a lot like my Jett would’ve looked, and around the same age, too.
He had the same dimples my boy had, too.
“Fuck,” I breathed as I rubbed my heart where it ached.
“Of the free!” Lottie sung.
Unlike the young man, Lottie couldn’t hold a tune, but that didn’t matter. She sang with her whole heart, really belting it out.
The racers around me started to join in, because who could resist singing with a three-year-old?
By the time it was finished, damn near all of the racers around me were singing off tune.
“Racers, are you ready?” the announcer called out.
“Yes!” everyone called around me.
I didn’t.
I didn’t necessarily want to be running.
Like the others, I was slightly hungover.
But, being an athlete all of my life, and a damn good one at that, I didn’t turn down a workout challenge.
“What is the pace you need to run to qualify for Boston?” I heard someone ask.
A husky female voice replied with, “For a woman, you generally need to get about a three hour and thirty minutes. Men need to be about three hours.”
