Page 18 of Take Me Home for Christmas

“No, you’re not.” Livi linked her arm with Elle’s and tugged her closer. “You can’t give up before it has even started. You really should consider joining a running club when you get back to New York. There are lots of fun people in mine. I’ll hook you up.”

When you get back to New York.

Their friendship might be mended, but the physical distance would still be there. He hated how the thought made his chest ache.

“Are you ready to kick everyone’s ass, Blade Runner?” Miles clapped Hayden on the back.

“Blade Runner?” West asked.

Miles pointed at Hayden’s left leg. The prosthetic blade he wore when he ran was partially obscured by Xander’s beefy calf. “Even as a wounded warrior, he smokes the field.”

West’s face paled. “You lost your leg? In Afghanistan?”

Gavin McAlister wrapped an arm over Hayden’s shoulders. “He gave that leg to save two other soldiers. And don’t think we let this guy win this thing every year. He kicks our asses fair and square.”

The bullhorn squeaked when Bernice turned it on, causing the crowd to grimace. “Okay, we are almost ready to start,” she shouted into it. “Everyone be safe and have fun.”

West shot Hayden a pained look as the others jostled for position along the starting line. Hayden swore. He hated the pitying looks he got when people found out about his injury. And it especially stung coming from this man.

“Show me what you got,” Hayden challenged.

A slow grin formed on the reporter’s face. The horn went off, and the sea of bodies surged forward. West had the smooth stride of a man who ran for the joy of it. He easily kept pace with Hayden and Elle’s brothers.

The high school runners sprinted to the front. A rookie move. They’d tire out before the halfway point.

Livi wasn’t lying when she said she was in a running club. She kept an easy pace beside him without breaking a sweat. He glanced over his shoulder at Elle who was huffing and puffing several yards back. When their eyes met, she gave him a pathetic thumbs-up before waving her hand as if telling him to shoo.

At the halfway point, West had settled in with the high schoolers. The McAlister brothers peeled off—Miles for a photo-op with his constituents, and Ryan and Gavin for an iced coffee Lois was handing out. Livi lengthened her stride.

“Come on, Hayden. You don’t want to let that old man beat you,” she said, gesturing to West.

No way was that old man beating Hayden. Neither was anyone else, for that matter. Time to make his move. He let Livi have the front for a few strides before taking one last look back at Elle.

Just in time to see her go down in a heap.

“Ow!”Elle cried as her body hit the pavement.

Several hands were already reaching down to help her up when all she wanted to do was crawl away in embarrassment. Preferably back to the inn where her mother’s famous spiced rum waited.

“This is why I don’t run,” she muttered to no one in particular.

“Let me through,” a familiar voice demanded.

The crowd parted, and Hayden eased down beside her.

“Elle, where does it hurt?” He reached for her throbbing ankle.

She swatted his hands away. “What are you even doing right now? The race is that way, silly.”

He ignored her, aiming for her leg again. “Which ankle is it?”

“It doesn’t matter. My sister—the one with the medical degree—will be along in a few minutes. She’ll check it out. You need to get back in the race.”

“The strollers are a good fifteen minutes behind us. And judging by the way Kate was gabbing at the starting line, she’ll be the last one to come by.”

She let out a hiss when his fingers gingerly examined her tender ankle.

“That’s what I thought.” He scooped her up as though she were a sack of corn chips and not one hundred forty pounds of out-of-shape ballerina.

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