Page 19 of Ugly Duckling
With a smile on my face, I pushed myself to my limits, causing Lottie to squeal in joy and excitement.
I could see a runner finishing up ahead, and I focused on the finish line.
We crossed, causing Lottie to laugh in delight as we crossed over the bumps that concealed the wires that determined your time with your timing chip.
“Fifth place male finisher, Gunner Penn with a time of two-thirty-five-fifty-three!”
I hurriedly moved out of the way for the woman that I could hear pounding my way.
She crossed the finish line and started to collapse almost the second that she crossed over.
I caught her before her knees could hit the unforgiving concrete.
“First place female finisher, Sutton Sway with a time of two-thirty-five-fifty-nine!”
Shock tore through my system.
“Sutton?” I asked in confusion.
Just as fast as the shock tore through me at seeing her again, anger followed.
She’d done something to her face.
She looked nothing like the unique woman that I’d once known.
Three
I’m sorry if I offended you by using facts and logic.
—Sutton’s secret thoughts
SUTTON
“Pause.” I gasped for air. “My.” Another gasp. “Watch.”
He reached down and hit every button there was on my watch before it paused.
I noticed then that he had no watch of his own.
Hell, I’d been watching him for the last six miles once I realized who he was.
He barely looked like he’d been running at all.
“Daddy!” a little girl—his little girl—screamed. “Down!”
But if he let the little girl down, he’d have to let me go, and if he did that, I was going to hit the ground because my legs were no longer working.
He hauled me to the side where there was a low bench to sit on just shy of the finish line, and plopped me down onto it.
He whirled the stroller around to face me, and I got my first good look at his little girl.
She was gorgeous.
And she looked a whole lot like his son, Jett.
Rocky and I didn’t talk very much about Gunner.
Not because I was mad at him, or because he was a bad person. But because Rocky always had her head in the clouds, and unless that person was directly in front of her, she didn’t think about them at all.
