Page 18 of Ugly Duckling
“Good, tell me if you need anything, baby.”
“Yes, Daddy,” she promised.
It was at mile twelve that the men started to show up.
Copper on his bike, sitting at the corner of Lexington and Fourth.
Cakes was next, tossing me a small package of Oreos. Which I ate while running, then regretted it because I was thirsty as fuck until I got to the next water stop at mile thirteen.
That was the mile marker that Webber and Eedie were now at. Eedie held her sign up high with a huge smile on her face, while Webber shook his head at me and said, “You don’t even look like you’re sweating.”
He was right.
I should probably be pushing myself a little bit harder.
But pushing myself a little bit harder meant that I’d lose the woman that I’d been running behind.
Which, honestly, sounded pretty sucky.
At least if I was going to be made to run, I wanted to run with a great view.
And let’s be honest, running in Los Colinas wasn’t all that exciting.
“Hey, sexy daddy!”
I turned at mile seventeen to see Chevy showing me his tits.
I shook my head at his scrub-covered body.
Chevy was an anesthesiologist at the hospital that we were running past now.
“Get out of here.” I threw my trash at him.
He laughed and caught it, flipping me off.
The woman who was running in front of me turned back to look at me, and her eyes widened.
I got that a lot.
Being an ex-professional baseball player, I was noticed everywhere.
Add on top of that, my face was plastered everywhere when Jett died, and I rarely went anywhere where I wasn’t recognized by someone.
Taking that as my cue to pass her now since I was now caught, I forged ahead.
I had no clue what pace I was running, but when I looked back at one point, the woman that I’d been chasing was behind me a couple of yards, her face red with exertion now.
We passed a ton of people over the last six miles.
In the last mile, I really lengthened my stride, pushing my legs hard.
I’d be sore as hell tomorrow, but it might be worth it.
I’d never run a marathon before, and I liked the burn that I was feeling.
I also couldn’t wait to eat, and the people at the start line said that there’d be spaghetti and pancakes after the race.
An awful wheezing sounded behind me, and I looked back to see fit girl running hard.
