Chapter Thirty-Six
Ali thought JT was overreacting. Kyle was a dope who would definitely hate losing to them, but she didn’t think he would get out of control. She watched the next few races, which only cemented the fact that JT was the best athlete the town had ever seen.
While she watched, JT talked to her siblings and their spouses and then lingered at the coffee and refreshment table talking to the women who were running it.
Ali watched her smile at each person she met as if they were the first person she was seeing that day.
Ali knew JT wasn’t always happy or in a good mood, but when she talked to people, she had a way of lighting up as if she were delighted by them and their attention.
Maybe it came with the territory. Maybe she’d had a million hours of interview and publicity prep, but however it’d happened, JT was good with people.
Even the people who had once questioned whether she should be on the ice with the boys, even when she brought home the state championship trophy.
She heard footsteps approaching and turned expecting to see JT holding two cups of cocoa. Instead, she found her mom.
“Hi, Mom. Did you see our run? Set the course record, apparently.”
Her mom made a face. “Yes, very impressive if you want to remain single.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Ali looked over her mom’s head, willing JT to come back.
“Ali, I know something about divorce in this town. When your father left me with you and Tommy, I lost so much. All those couples’ evenings, friends who stopped inviting me over because I didn’t have anyone to watch you two? We didn’t have much and certainly not enough for me to get a babysitter.”
Ali blinked. “What?”
Jean sighed. “Being divorced here isn’t easy. The dating prospects are few and far between. Most importantly, Kyle owns a business. He will keep you secure. You won’t have to worry about how you’re going to afford groceries or heat your house. Trust me, doing this on your own is hard.”
This was the first time anything her mom said regarding the end of her marriage had made any kind of sense.
Ali hadn’t realized how hard things had been after her dad left.
She and Tommy had been too little to remember him being around.
She felt bad for her mom and for not knowing how hard it had been for her.
But she wasn’t her mom. She had friends, she had a good job, she had her own house. She was going to be fine.
“Trust me, Kyle is not going to want you back if you embarrass him in front of everyone.”
Ali sighed. “Mom, I want you to listen to me. I don’t want Kyle back. I was the one who divorced him, remember?”
“Come on, Alexandra. You know he was the best thing to ever happen to you. And if you’re to have any chance of winning him back, you can’t beat him in the final.”
Ali took a deep breath. She wanted to scream at her mom, but this wasn’t the place for that, no matter how good it would feel.
“Mom, I want you to listen to me. I never want anything to do with Kyle Canterbury ever again. I know I am stuck living in the same town as him, probably for the rest of my life, but trust me when I tell you I have no intention of ever getting back together with him. I’m sorry for everything you went through to take care of Tommy and me, I truly am.
But that doesn’t mean I need to be with Kyle.
Honestly, you should be ashamed to suggest it. I’m too good for him and I always was.”
JT stood behind Ali’s mom, her hands wrapped around two paper cups. “Cocoa? Oh hi, Mrs. Porter. Did you want cocoa? You can have mine, and I can get another if you want.”
Ali’s chest ached with what she could only imagine was her heart expanding.
JT was just so good. When she was younger, she didn’t understand why anyone would settle for someone decent and kind, but now she got it.
Not that JT would mean settling. JT was everything she could have ever wanted in a person.
Ali smiled at her, unable to keep the happiness she felt from rushing out.
“No, thank you. I was just trying to talk some sense into my daughter. But I can see she’ll never listen to me.” She made a face like she’d bitten into a lemon. “Someday you’ll regret not listening to me.”
JT looked entirely bewildered, her golden retriever energy scrambled by Ali’s mom’s bitter outburst. “Do I want to know?” she asked, handing over the cup.
Ali sighed. “She warned me that if we kick Kyle’s ass in the final, he’s never going to take me back.
I mean, she has her reasons. Things were really hard for her when she and my dad split up, but…
” Ali sighed. “She refuses to listen when I tell her there is no universe in which I want Kyle back.” Ali’s anger rose inside her, threatening to bubble out.
She decided to focus on the woman in front of her.
“Thank you for this. And for being you. My mom might not have the ability to imagine something better than being married to the owner of the biggest landscaping company in the county, but I can.”
JT frowned for an instant. “Wait, that douche owns the biggest—”
“That’s what you took from what I just said?
JT, I want to be with someone who makes me happy, who listens to me, who makes me laugh, and who for some reason thinks a good time is helping me make my house livable.
” She sipped her cocoa and tried to remember they were in a public place with half the people she worked with.
It was the only way she was going to stop herself from declaring her undying affection to this woman.
“How could anyone choose the Kyles of the world when you exist?”
JT blinked. “Are you serious?”
Ali nodded and watched a grin break across JT’s face like a perfect sunrise. “Ali, there have to be hundreds of reasons not to choose me.”
“Shut up,” Ali said, wrapping her mittened hand around JT’s. “I know you don’t live here… Come to think of it, I have no idea where you actually live. But I want you to know how I feel about you.”
“And that is?” JT asked, hiding a massive smile behind her cup.
“I really, really like you. And I think we should kick the ever-loving shit out of Kyle in the finals. You know if that’s okay with you.”
“Let’s fucking go, Porter.”
* * *
Of course it was Kyle against JT in the final.
How could it have gone any other way? Ali buckled her helmet and noted that Sharon had opted not to wear one until the folks running the event told her she had to for liability purposes.
Sharon protested but as one older woman stated, “We’re not going to bankrupt the town because you’re too stupid to wear a goddamned helmet. ”
Ali smothered a laugh when JT bent down to check on her. “I’m going to win, obviously, but if he starts to act like a douche, I’ll stop before I let you get hurt. Do you understand?”
Ali grabbed JT’s vest in her mittened hands and gave it a tug.
“What the fuck are you talking about? He’s not going to get close enough to us to hurt anyone but himself.
You’re JT motherfucking Cox, and you are going to mop the floor with him.
” It killed Ali not to kiss JT right there on her neon green sled in front of the entire town.
JT grinned. “You better hold on tight, then.”
“Let’s fucking go, Coxie.” It came out before Ali could think twice.
Coxie was what JT’s teammates called her.
She’d heard them on the Olympic broadcast. Ali wasn’t sure it was right for her to use it, but it felt good in her mouth.
She liked the idea that they were teammates.
It might only be for this competition, for this silly sled race, but maybe it could be for more, for longer.
Maybe, if she played her cards right, they could be teammates for a lot longer than one week.