Chapter 6
Jack
The dining room alone was bigger than any apartment or house he’d ever lived in.
Jack had visited Liam before, but he had never seen the room in all its regality.
The table ran long enough to seat twenty without crowding, and tonight every chair was filled.
It looked effortless, like something out of a magazine.
Liam’s family didn’t do things halfway. That was true in business and apparently true in centerpieces.
“More turkey?” Liam’s mother asked, nodding toward a woman standing by the sideboard. She stepped forward and served a portion onto Jack’s plate.
“Thank you,” Jack said.
The turkey was delicious. Everything was.
It was the kind of meal that took days to prepare and a full staff to execute and serve.
The woman who remained to offer seconds was one of three who helped with the original serving.
Everyone around the table seemed completely comfortable being waited on and even knew how to nod just right to get exactly what they wanted.
They should. Other than Jack, they were all related in one way or another.
Liam’s dad sat at one end, Liam’s mom next to him.
At the other end was Liam’s uncle, his mom’s brother, with his wife at his side and two older teen daughters next to her.
The rest of the group consisted of Liam’s sister and her husband, and various cousins and whatnot that Jack didn’t even bother to keep straight.
What stood out to him was how comfortable everyone was with the fancy surroundings and being served as if they were in a restaurant. Jack didn’t hate it, but he knew he’d never be used to it the way they were, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to be.
After dinner, he and Liam ended up in the study with two glasses of something that had been aged longer than either of them had been alive. Someone had started a fire in the fireplace, and Jack instinctively knew it wasn’t Liam’s dad.
“I shouldn’t stay too late.” Jack sipped from his glass and tried not to make a face.
He’d never really developed a taste for the hard stuff.
A beer here and there, especially after an intense training session, often hit the spot, but this stuff burned and smelled like lighter fluid.
He didn’t care how old it was or how much it cost.
“You can stay over, you know. Everyone else is.”
Jack shook his head. “I’ve got plans for early in the morning.”
“Going on a run?”
“That and practicing with the sled. I’ve been watching videos. I need to figure out how to work with it instead of against it.”
“Probably a good idea.”
Jack took another sip as he thought of his next words. Finally, he said, “One of the videos I found was an interview with Steph Pierce. They had footage of her with her sled. She was very graceful.”
Liam chuckled. “I have no doubt she was. You know, it’s not too late to decide to ski or bike instead of run. Bikers don’t pull a sled, and they finish earlier.”
“I’m not comfortable on one of those fat-tired bikes.” Jack rubbed his shoulder. “And skiing still aggravates my arm.”
Liam knew Jack would have preferred tackling The Frozen Divide on skis rather than running it, but running was what his body could handle, and it made the most sense professionally. After all, what kind of running club organizer skipped the chance to run when given it?
“We’ll need to finish getting your gear together. Did you update your list?”
“Updated and emailed to your secretary,” Jack agreed.
It was still odd to him that a business that had brought in absolutely zero income to date had a full staff backing it. Liam had a secretary, a marketing director, and a couple of gophers at their beck and call.
They would open up the registration for the endurance run on the first of January, then they’d see if the marketing director was earning his keep.
And they’d see if the name Jack Swisher carried any weight in the world of running. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the answer. If this flopped, he’d be leaving Elkridge with his tail between his legs and looking for a new opportunity.
“She’s going to be a problem.”
Liam settled back in his chair. “Well, that came out of nowhere.”
“I’m serious.”
“I know you are.” Liam swirled his glass. “Which Steph Pierce problem are we discussing tonight? The running club? The race? The fact that Sheriff Hepner thinks she hung the moon and thinks considerably less of my family name?”
“The fundraiser run,” Jack said. “The one happening next weekend.”
“What about it?”
“We made a huge donation. It made sense—good visibility, good community relations, exactly what we talked about.” He paused. “She’s been running that event behind the scenes for years.”
“And?”
“And you didn’t tell me. I heard about it at the steakhouse last night. The one here in Elkridge, thirty miles from Irma, yet they are still talking about it.”
“Would it have changed anything?”
Jack considered that honestly. “No. But I would’ve handled it differently.”
“How?”
He didn’t have a clear answer for that, but differently. He picked up his glass and swirled the liquid, watching how it made patterns. The fire popped once and settled.
“She thinks I’m trying to take something from her.”
“Aren’t you?”
“No.”
“Jack.”
“I’m not. That was never the intention, and you know it.”
“I do know it. She doesn’t. And from where she’s standing, a guy showed up in her county with a fat check and a famous name and starts building something that looks a lot like what she’s dreamed of building. I’m not sure intention covers the distance between those two things.”
Jack couldn’t argue with Liam’s assessment, and the entire thing left a bad taste in his mouth. It hadn’t bothered him as much when he called her back in September and she was rude on the phone. He could live with that.
But something changed that day on Grand Avenue. The way she was looking up at him with her sunglasses all askew and wide eyes—she was cute. More than cute. Once she figured out exactly who he was and had politely told him off, she ran off, and everything changed.
For Jack, at least. Steph seemed just as irritated with him at the gear swap as she’d been after he kept her from getting run over. He had little doubt next weekend at the Jingle Run would be more of the same. She would glare at him with those brown eyes that seemed to pierce right through him.
Liam set his empty glass on the side table. “You could talk to her.”
“I’ve tried talking to her.”
“You’ve tried telling her your intentions. That’s different from talking to her. From what I can see, she’s very reasonable. She just doesn’t trust you.”
“She doesn’t trust you, either. Your family specifically.”
“No,” Liam agreed, without apparent offense.
“She doesn’t. That’s a separate problem and one I’m working on.
Steph is loyal to people she cares about, and she cares deeply for Sheriff Hepner and his family.
You’d be smart to never underestimate her loyalty.
By the way, my dad had a conversation this week with someone at Game and Fish. High up.”
“Okay? And?”
“The poaching is real. Multiple wilderness areas, like Hepner’s son said. They’ve been tracking it for weeks. Don’t know who’s behind it, haven’t caught anyone in the act yet. But it’s not rumors.”
Liam picked his glass back up. “They think it’s a fur operation, which means, even if they don’t catch them, it’ll be over before our event in August. But we need to keep it on our radar, especially if we decide on a winter event for next year.”
“Agreed.” Jack filed it away. It was the kind of thing that could complicate their future plans. “What about The Frozen Divide?”
Liam shook his head. “It’s far enough from here there’s no concern. The poachers are operating in the local mountains outside of Irma. The park, maybe.”
“Seems pretty bold to poach in a national park.”
“Definitely not smart. But with most of the park being closed for winter, they essentially have the place to themselves. People have been caught poaching in there before, so it’s not unheard of.
” Liam was quiet for a moment. “The wilderness areas Steph plans to run in for her training, they’d be the same areas? ”
“Might be, yes.”
“You thought about that?”
Jack had thought about it. He’d thought about it more than made sense given that she’d made her position on him fairly clear.
“She mentioned solo overnight runs,” he said. “She told Chris Hepner she’d be doing one in December. A couple more after the new year.”
“In areas where someone is actively poaching and the task force hasn’t identified anyone yet.”
“Yes.”
The fire shifted. Outside the tall windows, the sky was the deep black that only happened this far from a city where lights were limited.
After a while, Liam said, “You know, for a man who describes her exclusively as a professional obstacle, you track a lot of details. The solo runs. The training schedule.” Liam’s tone was even, not pushing. “That’s a lot of data points for someone you’re indifferent to.”
Liam wasn’t wrong, and he didn’t even know the half of it.
Jack hadn’t told him about the deep dive he’d done into Steph, her career, and her hobbies.
Explaining it would make it seem like he’d crossed a line from professional interest to obsession.
It wasn’t an obsession exactly, but he certainly wanted to get to know her better.
“I’m not indifferent to her. She’s a direct competitor as far as The Frozen Divide is concerned. Besides, I have training to do too. I need to know where it’s safe and where it isn’t.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“It’s true.”
“I’m not saying it isn’t.” Liam looked at him sideways. “Thing is, you don’t strike me as a man who thinks about his competitors the way you think about her.”
Jack looked at the fire.
“You’ve never made room for it,” Liam said. “Before now, I mean. Training, the biathlon, going for the Olympics, building this. Always something. Always easier to be alone than to adjust.”
“It’s not easier. It’s simpler.”
“You sure about that?”
Jack turned the glass in his hand. A long moment passed before he said anything. “There was someone. Years ago.”
“I know,” Liam said quietly.
“She was— ” He stopped. “You know what happened?”
“I do.”
“Then you know why simpler makes sense.”
Liam didn’t argue with that. He had the decency not to. The fire burned down a little, and Jack finished what was in his glass.
“She’s not her,” Liam said finally, not unkindly.
“I know that.”
“I know you know it. I’m just saying it out loud.”
Jack set his glass down and looked toward the window. Nothing to see out there but dark and his own faint reflection in the glass. He looked away from that. “The poaching,” he said. “If it escalates— ”
“Chances are good the task force will wrap it up.” Liam recognized the subject change and let it happen. “Keep your runs in the mountains around Elkridge. You should be fine.”
“And Steph?”
“She’s a smart gal. Besides, she has the sheriff watching out for her. My guess is he’ll make sure she does what is smart.”
Somehow, Jack doubted Steph would let the sheriff or anyone tell her where she could train and where she couldn’t.
“I should head out,” he said, standing.
Liam looked up at him. “She’s not going to make this easy.”
“She’s made that clear already.”
“I’m not just talking about the business.”
Jack knew it but didn’t bother admitting it.