Frozen Heart

Chapter 70 ~ "Me And You 'Til The End"

Nik

"Let's go, baby!" I call as she steps up to take her place at the starting blocks. It was a hot day outside, the sun was shining and there wasn't enough wind, but Grace looked completely determined to win. 

I knew she was a good runner, I'd seen her run a couple of times before but I'd never seen her race. This was a first for me, I'd never even been to a sporting event that didn't involve skates. 

"Runners take your mark." I hear the announcer say. "Get set......" Then the beep echos through the field and the runners take off. Grace is near the front, she tells me all the time that she tries to stay in second or third and then speeds up on the last lap. 

"Let's go Grace!" Her dad calls and her mom chuckles a bit.

"Brian hasn't seen Grace run in a few years, he's just excited." She assures me and I laugh.

Her dad had made a full recovery and had been discharged from his work overseas. Grace was really happy about it, she got to spend a lot of time with him and they were getting to catch up more. Denise had swapped back to day shifts and as much as it bothered me that we weren't spending the night all the time or that we weren't alone, it made me happy that her family was getting the chance to be together. 

"Let's go honey!" He yells again and I laugh. 

"It's very sweet of you to bring her today and come watch." Denise insists and I shrug.

"She watched all of my games." I tell her. "Besides, it's the day after prom and she's running a track race....I didn't want her to suffer that alone." She laughs a bit with a nod.

Grace finishes her first lap and I cheer for her. This was just the qualifier, she'd go on to do other races this month and it was my plan to be there for them.

She starts pulling ahead though on her second lap and I furrow my eyebrows. She told me herself that she didn't normally do that when she'd race, but I had to trust that she knew best.

I had the beach stuff ready to go for this afternoon but I promised her we could go back to her house so she could shower before we left. She also begged me to take her through a drive through once the track meet was over. 

I learned two things when I started dating Grace, number one was there was never a wrong time to get her food or to eat. Number two was never to get in between Grace and a meal, as skinny as she was she ate like a truck driver. And I loved her for it, it was what let me know she was comfortable around me.

She starts her third lap and she keeps the lead, looking very determined. I could see the concentration on her face and how badly she wanted to win. She was always competitive and never did anything halfway.

The fifteen hundred was weird because it wasn't quite four laps, just shy at three-and-three-quarters. On the fourth time around the other girls were giving it everything they had, but to my surprise Grace just kept pushing and actually started to run faster than all of them. 

It was an early morning after prom to pack up and come to a track meet. We'd been here all day and she'd already run her four-by-four, this was the last thing today and then we could get home. 

"Go Grace!" I yell. "Bring it home!" She's more than three yards ahead of the other girls when she crosses the line.

"Number twenty-seven, Grace Lukaisak, first place." The announcer says and she starts to slow down and walk, pumping her fist in the air. "Four minutes, forty-seven seconds."

Holy shit. 

How the fuck did she do that so fast? After she talks with her coach and gets everything sorted, her parents and I walk to the school's tent.