Chapter Ten #2
When Kash’s head finally appeared from the water, he was actually grinning from ear to ear. Upon seeing that, the crowd lost their minds. A roar went up all around them, with everyone cheering at the top of their lungs.
The safety/rescue boat picked up Kash and quickly brought him to the starting platform. Zach, and everyone else, watched as Linc plucked the boy from the boat and hugged him, spinning him in circles as he did.
The cheering was still going on when Linc put Kash back on his feet and urged him forward. Kash shyly took a step toward the end of the dock and raised his hand in a wave to acknowledge the crowd.
Once again, everyone lost it, screaming and yelling for Kash and his extraordinary performance.
Making it across one thousand, eight hundred, and seventy-ish crates wasn’t close to the record of sixty-five hundred, but it was still impressive as hell and seriously awe inspiring, especially when the next best number so far was just over five hundred.
The crowd was amped up, and the cheering for the next contestant was loud and boisterous, even when he didn’t make it across the crates one time.
“Come on, let’s go find them,” Knox said.
He didn’t need to ask twice. Everyone in their group was more than ready to find Kash and congratulate him.
“Told you he was gonna win,” Zach’s mom said smugly as they headed toward the crowded area around the starting platform.
Zach found Linc and Kash first; it helped that he had the height to see over most of the crowd. Kash had a towel wrapped around himself, and he was beaming as a man wearing an EMT shirt stood after putting a bandage on his face.
“That was amazing!” Britt exclaimed as they got close.
“Britt! Did you see?”
“Of course I saw, Bud! I filmed it all to show your mom, although you should probably watch the video without sound because we were all screaming our heads off.”
Kash looked extremely proud of himself, as he should be. Zach could remember how he’d felt when he’d been in the boy’s shoes. He’d been on top of the world. It was a heady feeling.
“The competition isn’t over yet,” Evelyn warned. “Someone could still beat his score, doubtful, but it could still happen.”
“Maybe,” Linc said, putting his hand on Kash’s shoulder. “But it wouldn’t take away from how awesome Kash did. Especially since that was his first time running the crates.”
Zach stood back and let everyone fawn over the boy.
Marit leaned against his side, and he put his arm around her shoulders, enjoying her closeness and the fact she had no problem showing affection toward him in this very public place.
Everyone was looking at them, since they were huddled around the current leader in the crate race.
She looked up at him, and even though he could see her pride for Kash, her excitement over the moment, he could also see exhaustion behind her eyes.
She’d gotten up extremely early this morning to get to the boat, so she could put in a full day of work and still get back in time to see Kash’s race.
Her desire to support a kid she’d just met hit Zach hard .
. . in a good way. She was unselfish, supportive, and so incredibly kind.
“You okay?” he asked.
“I’m great. Thank you for encouraging me to be here today. I would’ve been so sad if I’d missed this.”
In response, Zach leaned down and kissed her.
It took every ounce of strength he had not to deepen the kiss, as he longed to do.
He was keenly aware that Marit had pulled back in the last couple of days.
He didn’t really blame her, as they’d been moving very fast in this relationship.
He’d had a few misgivings himself. But it wasn’t as if they were getting married in the next week or anything.
He just loved being around her. She made him happy. He looked forward to talking to her, seeing a text from her when he got up, seeing the look on her face when she tried one of the concoctions he made for his shack.
The bottom line was, he wasn’t going to think too much about things. Either he and Marit would work out or they wouldn’t, but he refused to put any roadblocks in their way simply because most relationships didn’t play out the way theirs was.
She stared up at him as she licked her lips, and he could practically see her thoughts in her gaze. She was feeling the same thing he was—the need to be alone.
“We’ll stay to see if Kash does win, then we’ll go to my place, where I can feed you.”
“I’m not a dog,” she said softly with a chuckle.
“I know. But I feel the need to take care of you. I know you’re tired, and you burned a lot of calories working today. How does grilled chicken, asparagus, and peanut butter pie for dessert sound?”
“Not lobster?” she asked, the smile still on her face.
“I can mix it up every now and then,” he said with a shrug.
“That sounds awesome. Thank you.”
“You’ll stay?” Zach found himself asking. He wouldn’t take it for granted that she’d spend the night with him, especially after the last couple of days, when he’d felt her pulling back.
“If you want me to,” she told him.
“I definitely want you to,” Zach reassured her.
“Always. And for the record, you have an open invitation. You don’t have to wait for me to invite you over.
There will be some evenings I need to work late, but for the most part, after the festival, I’ll have more time.
And when the cold weather hits, I’ll have to decide what to do with the shack.
It’s not as if people will be coming to grab something to stand around and eat in the cold. ”
“You could offer takeout,” Marit suggested.
Zach blinked. Duh. Of course he could. He’d been so fixated on the fact that no one would come to a lobster shack in the winter that he’d been considering closing down, the way most businesses like his did.
But if he could keep his customers throughout the winter, it was likely they’d continue to come by when the weather warmed up.
“Yeah. I could even offer delivery. At least maybe during the dinner hours. As long as the weather isn’t bad and the streets are safe, Casey, Karen, and Bill might even be willing to deliver for me after school hours,” Zach mused.
“I know if I could get lobster mac and cheese and those pot pies delivered to my door when it’s freezing cold outside, I would do so in a heartbeat,” Marit told him.
“You’re going to offer delivery? That’s an awesome idea!” Knox said, obviously overhearing the conversation between Zach and Marit.
“There aren’t enough places that deliver around here,” Britt agreed.
“You’re going to have to set boundaries, though. You don’t want to be driving all the way to Waldoboro or Camden. That’ll eat into your profits because of the cost of gas,” Chad chimed in.
“If you deliver to Lobster Cove, I’d definitely order,” their mom said.
“Mom, you know if you ever want anything, all you have to do is ask,” Zach told her wryly.
“Do you have pizza? We haven’t had pizza delivered in forever,” Kash piped in.
Everyone laughed.
“You like lobster, Bud?” Zach asked.
In response, Kash wrinkled his nose.
“Right,” Zach said with a smile. “I bet I could whip up a pretty decent pepperoni with extra cheese for you one night.”
Kash grinned—but then his smile immediately dimmed. “Oh, well, that’s cool. But never mind. Mom can’t really afford for us to eat out.”
It took everything within Zach not to ask why Victor couldn’t pay for it. The man had money. He might not be a millionaire, but he definitely had enough to buy his daughter and grandson a fucking pizza now and then.
Linc was obviously thinking the same thing, because he was frowning ferociously.
Just then, a cheer went up around them, and everyone turned to look at the crates. A girl, probably around nine, was running back and forth over the course like a gazelle.
Kash’s brow furrowed as he watched her intently, waiting to see how many trips she’d make over the crates.
Linc squatted down next to Kash and said, “Even if she beats your score, that doesn’t take away from how awesome you did.”
“I know.”
Zach supposed he did know, but he was probably still wishing the girl would fall. He’d been in his shoes once upon a time. Trying not to be a bad sport but still wanting to win.
The girl had just passed the fifteen-hundred mark, and the crowd was cheering wildly, when she stepped off the platform for another lap.
Unfortunately, she misjudged where the crate was, or she just landed wrong, because she lost her balance and her arms windmilled as she desperately tried to stay upright.
It was no use. She fell sideways into the water, all but securing Kash’s first-place position.
“Is it wrong that I feel bad for her, but also good for myself?” Kash asked Linc.
“It’s normal,” Linc reassured him. “It feels good to win.”
“I’ve never won anything. Except a science show when I was in the fourth grade, but that doesn’t count.”
“Why doesn’t it count?” Evelyn asked. “Seems to me a win is a win.”
Kash shrugged.
Marit straightened from where she’d been leaning against Zach, breaking body contact with him, but immediately reached for his hand, which Zach eagerly took.
He used to think people who held hands all the time were .
. . strange. But now he couldn’t get enough of touching this woman.
Having some sort of connection with her all the time.
The line for contestants got shorter and shorter as people took their shot at running across the crates. There were a couple of other kids who did well but didn’t make it above a thousand crates.
It looked more and more like Kash really was going to be this year’s winner. Zach was thrilled for him.
When the last person stood on the platform, hamming it up for the excited crowd, Zach couldn’t stop smiling. Kash had done it. He’d won. The last contestant was in the heaviest weight category. There was no way he’d be able to cross more than a dozen or so crates before wiping out.