Page 65 of Ugly Duckling
“Well, Mr. Can’t-Be-Done. I will bet you a year’s worth of cooked dinners that I can run a marathon!”
“I’ll help you,” Milena offered.
Creole smirked at her husband. “Sounds like a plan.”
“Oh, boy,” Webber said. “You should probably apologize for whatever you just did, Audi.”
“Don’t call me Audi.”
“Why not?” Webber asked. “You have to have a road name, brother. And since you don’t like Detroit anymore…”
“Just anything but Audi,” he mumbled under his breath. “That’s her name for me.”
I smiled. “That’s sweet.”
“Sweet, but still not getting him out of this.” She narrowed her eyes. “I’ll bet I can run it faster than you can.”
Audric blinked. “I don’t think…”
“That’s right, brother. You didn’t think.” Gunner chuckled darkly. “Looks like you’re about to be signed up for the next race.”
“There’s one this month, actually.” Milena already had her phone out. “It’s a Monster Mash one. The city of Plano puts it on.”
“I think that might be a little too early for me,” Creole admitted. “But if it were in December…”
“There’s a Christmas one. Literally on the twenty-fourth put on by the same people,” Milena said. “Or a New Year’s one.”
“What about something in February?” Audric sounded nervous now. “I think I might need more than eight weeks to get on board with this.”
Creole looked at her husband, an almost evilly excited look on her face. “You’ll do it?”
“How about everyone just runs one,” I teased. “Unless y’all are just too chicken.”
The oldest of the bunch, but definitely one of the sexiest with his silvery-gray hair—my god, the man was fine as hell in a debonair biker kind of way—looked at the crowd. “I’ve made it through fifty-five years of life. I think I’ll live.”
“Oh, come on, Dad. You have to set an example for the young ones,” Aella, Cakes’s daughter, teased.
Cakes’s eyes sliced to his daughter and he said, “You gonna run one?”
Her face flushed. “I just went off birth control. I’ll probably be pregnant by then.”
“Jesus Christ.” Cakes’s gaze swung to his son-in-law. “There are things that we discussed that should never come up between us.”
Chevy held up his hands. “I didn’t say a word!”
“Sure you didn’t,” he grumbled darkly. “I’ll run one if my kid runs one. I think if you started now while you aren’t pregnant, you should still be able to run one. Just my opinion, though.”
Aella curled her lip. “That’s a cop-out if I ever heard one, Dad.”
Cakes’s grin was unrepentant. “There’s always the half marathon, Aella. We could all make a trip of it and go somewhere fun on vacation. I think that there’s one in Hawaii in February if I’m not mistaken.”
“Hawaii?” I squeaked. “That’s a little bit too expensive for my tastes. I went there once with my mom and dad when I was a teen. I swear I saw a little bit of my dad’s heart break every time he had to swipe his card for lunch or dinner.”
Audric chuckled. “It’s definitely expensive. But we got the house thing covered, at least. I have a buddy who lives in Maui. His place is rather large. I’d offer up my place, but it’s not quite big enough to house more than ten. Plus, we can rent the place next door to my friend’s place, they’re both usually empty that time of year.”
“Hmm,” I said, “but what if it’s on the Big Island?”
“It’s not,” Milena squeaked. “There’s one in Maui in February. Mid-February. Perfect. Both half and full options.”
