43. Kyle
KYLE
The sharp cold bit at Kyle’s cheeks as he checked over his gear, Dean at his side.
Hard to believe a year ago, they’d been in Breckenridge.
That my left shoulder and rotator cuff hadn’t been in his lexicon.
His shoulder was a bit sore from sleeping—nothing unusual—but all morning long he couldn’t help worrying that he hadn’t done enough. Wasn’t ready. Even with all the race-specific training over the last four months, doubt still crept at the back of his mind.
Don’t worry if you get it wrong. Granny’s words from her letter curled through his brain.
He needed to trust.
Trust that he’d done what was necessary to go about this intelligently.
Trust that he was making the right choice.
For over a year now, he’d been walking around with guilt and pain—pain he hadn’t understood until he’d cracked open that letter from Granny.
But what if it all blows up in my face?
The sound of snow crunching drew his attention. “You ready?” Francesca asked, holding out a stainless-steel mug filled with coffee.
Kyle took it from her with a grateful smile. “I’d say as ready as I’ll ever be, but that always seems like bad luck.”
Dean clapped his hand over Kyle’s good shoulder. “Like I said. You want to quit at any point, you just say the word.”
Kyle shook his head, gesturing toward the girl holding a camera several feet away.
“There are some things we don’t say in front of the cameras,” he teased.
Sipping his coffee again, he glanced toward the spectator’s tent, quickly filling with people here for the teams. Most of them would be making their way back down to the finish line once the race began, but one jumbotron had been set up for people who wanted to stay there.
Keeping track of people was getting more difficult, given the throng.
He’d seen his parents and siblings near the spectator stands at the finish line before he’d caught the lift up here.
He still hadn’t seen Sloan, though. Shouldn’t she have come with them? He’d thought she might come to say goodbye and good luck before the race started.
She promised to be here.
But what if she didn’t come?
She did like to run when she was scared, and she’d told him this morning she was scared about today.
No, she loves me. She’s done running.
He just needed to accept that the amazingness of that—the fact that she’d come back to him after everything—was good enough. They’d be fine.
Tomas came up behind him, holding his pack. “Turn around and I’ll help you get this thing on.”
Kyle gave him a tight smile. “Regretting that you’re not going with me instead of Dean?”
Tomas gave a loud, clear laugh. “Not a chance. Better him than me.” He held the straps out as Kyle turned, letting the weight settle onto his shoulders as he strapped himself in. Ooof.
Heavy, but doable. They’d have to go uphill in skis, then climb. Then ski again.
And try not to crash.
“Be careful, mate, will you?” Tomas said, a look of worry in his eyes that flashed away as Kyle met his gaze.
He couldn’t entirely blame Tomas. He’d seen Kyle in his worst state after the Jet Ski accident, and he’d kept him alive and floating in the water in the middle of the choppy sea while he bled.
Davy sidled up beside Tomas. “Even though I think you’re an idiot for doing this, it is kind of nice to have the three of us all back together again,” she told Kyle. “But next time, can we aim for somewhere that’s not zero degrees? I cursed your name when I got up this morning.”
Kyle chuckled. “Thank you for never holding back your opinion, Davy.”
She gave a small curtsey. “I try.” Then she looked over toward the spectator tent. “Where’s Sloan? I was hoping to have a chance to talk to her a bit.”
Where indeed?
“I . . . I don’t know,” Kyle said, his voice intentionally devoid of emotion. “Maybe she slept in.” He gave Davy a hard look. “Did you give my folks the monitor so they can watch as we stream? I need you to make sure they get to see in real time, but if something goes wrong, cut the feed.”
She nodded. “Yeah, yeah, captain. I did. And I will. I’m not used to you being the boss, you know. You might be more of a pain than Victor.” She winked, then sauntered back toward the camera crew.
“If something goes wrong.” Tomas palmed his face. “You’re giving me confidence.”
Dean rolled his eyes. “Something could always go wrong. The trick is to be ten steps ahead of trouble so that if it chases you, you can still dodge out of the way.”
The teams in the vicinity stilled abruptly as a man with a megaphone began an announcement.
Kyle let his eyes wander the other tented areas filled with racers and their prep teams—they were the only one with a camera crew, though, and a set of snowmobiles to film them as he and Dean went.
When the crew couldn’t follow anymore, Dean and Kyle would switch exclusively to GoPro footage and then edit it all together in post.
“Five minutes. Please assemble at the starting line,” Kyle heard at the end of the announcement.
This was it then. Time for the race and still no Sloan.
Francesca threw her arms around Dean for one last kiss, then Dean and Kyle made their way toward the other racers, the girl with camera, Lina, following them.
The other camera crew waited on snowmobiles, along with Tomas, who’d make his way up the mountain at some point for some commentary on what he could see.
He was tempted to glance back and look for Sloan again, but he needed to stop thinking about her absence before it rattled around in his mind too much. That might mess him up more than he needed right now.
As they neared the starting point, the weight of the pack settled more fully onto Kyle’s shoulders, the straps biting in, the familiar pressure tugging at his repaired shoulder in a way that wasn’t pain so much as a constant, pointed reminder. He adjusted the fit without breaking stride.
“You okay?” Dean asked, clocking the movement.
“Fine,” he said with a grunt. “If I can’t last longer than the first ten minutes, I give you permission to push me off the closest cliff.”
“I do that, and I may as well jump too. Your family would make me pay for it.”
Kyle flashed a smile, then turned his gaze away. Around him, all he heard was the jostling of bodies, gear, and the clatter of feet. That would fall away quickly enough once the race started, and then he would feel swallowed by nature.
Even here on the mountains, the peaks of the Tetons rose ahead in stark, jagged lines, their scale impossible to ignore no matter how many times he’d seen them.
Breathtakingly beautiful.
Impossibly dangerous.
He tried to lighten his spirits and glanced at Dean. “We should probably talk or this will be some boring-ass footage.”
Dean laughed. “True. About what?”
“The terrain. The way this altitude’s air makes your lung hurt. Whatever.”
“Remember that time you nearly wrecked my brand-new snowmobile?”
Kyle made a cut sign against his neck. “Yeah, not that. I don’t need you giving away all my secrets.”
“Dude, if you wanted someone who won’t tell the public everything you don’t want them to know, you should have put that in the application.” Dean grinned at him.
“Kyle!”
Kyle froze for a moment, his heart thudding as he turned back to look.
Sloan ran toward him, pink jacket standing out among the racers, the pouf on her beanie bouncing with each step.
A grin broke out on his face. Thank the good Lord.
“Hey gorgeous,” he said as she reached him. He bent as she threw her arms around his neck, almost knocking him over with the forcefulness of her embrace. “Whoa.”
“Sorry.” She laughed, her cheeks pink. She kissed him, hard, then stepped back. “I didn’t want you to go before I had a chance to talk to you.”
He straightened, shrugging to balance his gear better. “Don’t worry, I wasn’t beginning to think you wouldn’t show,” he said in a joking tone that betrayed his insecurity.
She rolled her eyes and set her hands on her hips. “Listen here, mister, I had something important to do.” She produced her phone from her pocket. “First of all, I want you to take a look at this—”
She logged into a bank account and showed it to him.
“This is yours. I auctioned off everything from my mom’s storage unit .
. . everything of value that I didn’t want.
Then Quinn helped me set up a company, and this is what we have so far.
I also took out a loan, using my trust as collateral.
Between this and the loan, we should have enough to make a good offer to Helixnet for the IP of Pathways. ”
What?
Kyle blinked at her.
“Sloan—”
“No.” She shook her head. “I know what you’re going to say and listen, I’m not asking my dad for money. And I know you’re not asking your family for money. But you’re my partner. It’s not the same for me to help you.”
“But your mom’s stuff . . .”
She shrugged. “It’s just stuff. People are more important than things, silly goose. Trust me, I know that better than ever. I almost lost my dad over this stuff.” She gave him an encouraging smile. “Don’t worry. I kept my favorite things.”
“But I can’t possibly accept this.”
“Yeah, you can. Because I’ve decided I’m going to marry you, Kyle Winnick. Even if you haven’t figured that out yet.” Her eyes glimmered. “Oh, you should know one more thing.”
“Two minutes,” an announcer cut in through a horn.
Kyle didn’t bother to turn to look toward the starting line. “What other thing?”
She gave him a hesitant grimace. “The reason I was late . . . is that I met with my lawyer and a journalist from The DC Gazette, as well as a reporter from Headlines at Cheyenne’s house for an hour this morning.
I set the record straight on what happened last January with you, me, and Evan with tons of corroborating evidence I’ve spent the last four months gathering. ”
Hoooooly fuck.
“What?” He stared at her.
She held her palms up and shrugged. “You don’t deserve to bear the burden for the shit that Evan did.
You never did. And I’m an idiot for letting him get away with so much because it hurt you.
I will say, I did accept my dad’s help with covering the lawyer’s fees for this, because I’m probably going to have a small battle on my hands.
I don’t want to lose our home, but there’s a chance I might.
But I know you and I can rebuild. And I’d rather rebuild from the ground up and give you your reputation back than sit on a house that I paid for with my silence. ”
The horn cut through the morning air, and the mass of racers surged forward.
But Kyle remained where he stood, rooted and unable to move as he stared at the beautiful woman standing in front of him.
Another friend and teammate might have told him they should get moving, but Dean didn’t. He took a few steps farther away, leaving Kyle and Sloan standing there alone in the snow.
“Well, say something,” Sloan said with a smile that seemed suddenly frail.
Something?
He couldn’t even string two words together right now.
Evan. The NDA. Last January.
One big blur that, truthfully, he couldn’t regret.
Because it had all brought her back to him.
“You know what?” Kyle lowered his pack from his shoulders. “Fuck it.” He unzipped the pack, pulled his gloves off, and dug into it. His fingers collided with the soft velvet box and, as he pulled it out, Sloan gasped.
“I was going to do this after the race, but the race can wait for a minute. This can’t.” He opened the box to display the diamond ring inside.
She covered her mouth as she started to cry. “You want to marry me?”
“You kidding?” Tears stung his eyes. “I wanted to marry you the first time I kissed you. Sloan, I haven’t spoken to you yet about the letter Granny left for me.
It took me a while, but I finally understood what she meant.
Sometimes the road we tread isn’t direct or easy.
Sometimes the route is bumpy, but those bumps and turnarounds grow and change you, often for the better.
And often for the right person at the right time.
I think my route to you just got a little bumpy, but it’s no less important.
I love you. I will always love you. So, will you marry me? ”
She nodded, teary-eyed and smiling as he pushed the ring onto her finger.
He pulled her into his arms, kissing her hard, and this time, Dean gave a quiet clap.
They laughed and glanced at him, and Kyle felt his face flush. His camera crew had been rolling the whole time—his family watching things live.
So much for surprising them with the news we’re engaged.
“I take it we’re not moving forward?” Dean asked, gesturing back toward the starting line.
Kyle hesitated. “Um—”
“Of course he’s going.” Sloan bent and grabbed his pack from the snow. “Hurry up, Kyle Winnick. I’ll be waiting for you at the finish line.”
“Promise?” he asked as she helped him put his gear on.
“Always. Now go and get them. I’m proud of you. And I love you.” Sloan kissed him again, then released him.
As Kyle started forward, into the bright white, the perfect day, the mountains, he knew Granny would be smiling.
Because he’d found the love of his life. Peace.
And he was finally ready to let go.