Page 89 of Hero's Prize

“Have you considered that your panic attacks are about you feeling trapped in your own career?”

She half expected him to laugh or scoff, but he didn’t. He sat there staring at the space in front of him for a long time.

A really long time.

“Colton?” she finally asked, hoping she hadn’t offended him. “Are you okay?”

He looked over at her slowly. “I think you’re right. I’ve been going through my panic attacks in my mind, and yeah, early on, they might have been a little centered around the avalanche?—”

“Understandable.”

“—but I think they’re really about how I was feeling before theaccident. That I was done with the constant treadmill of stunts just for the public glory of it. That I’m ready to retire.”

“Retire completely?” She hadn’t been expecting that.

“I don’t know. Maybe notcompletely. But simplifying everything. Getting back to the basics.”

There was no tremor in his hands now.

“It sounds like you know what you want to do, you just need to do it.”

Again, he stared out in front of him. But instead of looking lost like he had a few minutes ago, he looked determined. In charge. Ready to take on the world.

Like the Colton she’d known and loved almost her whole life.

“You are one hundred percent correct about that.” Almost before she saw him move, he’d picked her up and deposited her across his lap. “And right now, I know what I want to do anddefinitelyneed to do it.”

“Oh yeah?”

“You, Butterscotch. I want and needyou.”

He laid her back against the couch and proceeded to prove it to her.

CHAPTER

THIRTY-ONE

Colton couldn’t remember the last time he felt this good. He was on his way to Fancy Pants. Ella had offered her office so he could talk to Tony about his retirement idea and they could formulate a plan.

Retirement. He’d been thinking about that even before the accident. He wouldn’t get totally out of the game—he loved the action too much. But there definitely needed to be a shift.

No more pandering to the public. No more continuous pressure of what would get the most likes or views or potentially go viral. No more planning stunts shot by shot until it was nothing more than a rote exercise.

And maybe not so many stunts by Colton at all. If the last couple of weeks with the campers had taught him anything, it was that he enjoyed teaching and training along with the action. Maybe he could open his own camp and gym for kids here in Oak Creek.

He stopped walking at the thought, struck by how right that felt. A chance for kids like Marshall—or any kids who had a desire for adventure—to come train with him for a little while?

Hell yeah. That felt more right than anything had for the past couple years.

He started walking again, considering what all this meant. He took the jobs of his team seriously. He didn’t want to put anyone on the unemployment line. But if he did something like this camp, or a mobile version where Colton traveled around, there could still be jobs for them. Not all of them would want to make the transition to this new vision, but if they did, there would be a place for them.

His phone buzzing in his pocket interrupted his thoughts. It was Callum.

“Hi, Sheriff. What’s going on?”

“I wanted to give you an update on Jeremy Ritter. I brought him back in today to re-question him. See if all his facts stayed the same.”

“Anything interesting?”

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