Page 133 of Twisted Trails
That’s not just loyalty, history,or guilt.
That’s love in the kind of language only Finn Greer knows how to speak.
I don’t know what to do with it.
We unload quickly at the top. Everything is faster for qualifying, no warm-up on top or delays, just rider after rider dropping in.
“Don’t crash this time, okay? I kinda like you.” Otis laughs before he fist bumps my good hand when we make our way to the start. “See you at the bottom.” Then he’s gone, tires spitting gravel as he drops into the course.
Mason steps up beside me. “You ready?” he asks,glancing down at my left hand. “Think you can do it with that?”
“Yeah,” I breathe out. “Gotta thank your dad big time for this.”
Mason’s brow arches slightly. “Pretty sure that gratitude should land on Greer.”
I nod, but my emotions are too tangled to make sense of them right now.
He leans in so only I can hear him. “Don’t ride to prove anything today. You’re riding because you love it. So do that. Forget everything else. Keep the wheels down.”
His fingers squeeze my forearm once before he gives me a soft smile, puts on his helmet, and rolls up to the start gate, leaving Luc and me behind as he drops in.
I can feel Luc’s eyes on me before he speaks. “Do you think you could forgive Greer?”
“I…” I glance over my shoulder. “I don’t know.”
Luc taps the hot pink helmet tucked under his arm. “Still feeling hurt when you see him?”
I think about that. I think about how the pain isn’t sharp anymore. It’s not betrayal. It’s not heartbreak. It’s an ache.
“Not in the same way.”
“You’re allowed not to forgive him, you know. But you’re also allowed to.”
I don’t know what to say to that, so I put on my helmet, just as the marshal waves me forward.
“Whatever it is, think about it when you’re safe at the finish. Just enjoy how he made you feel right now. Focus on what you love.” Luc leans in and taps the top of my head. “Send it,Petite.”
I take some deep breaths as I roll up to the start, and then I do.
My tires hit the trail, and the world narrows. The pain in my hand flares the second I hit the first root section. Everyjolt, every shift makes the fractures burn. It’s different from my hip. My hip is old pain. Familiar pain. I’ve gotten used to feeling it while riding.
This is new.
But the glove and hook hold. My grip is supported and secure, and I don’t have to fight to stay connected to the bike. It fightsforme, and with every corner, every drop, I rememberwhyI’m here.
I reach the bottom with my lungs burning and adrenaline right where I like it to be, and when I glance up at the time board, I blink hard.
Third place.
I won’t stay there. Luc is still up top, so he’ll push me into fourth place. But still, fourth.With broken fingers.Fourth with pain like this and everything stacked against me.
I tug, and the hook lifts, and the Velcro gives before I step off and roll toward the barriers. Dane meets me and reaches for my bike, but I don’t even register what he says as I pull my helmet off and hand it to Piper.
Because Finn is there, too, standing off to the side in the grass, watching me. There’s a soft smile on his lips, but his eyes send me running straight to him.
My gloves slap against my thighs, heart pounding for an entirely different reason now. I launch myself into his arms, and he wraps me up without hesitation. One arm around my waist, the other sliding to the back of my head like he wants to shield me from the entire fucking world.
He’s never stopped being where I land.
