The snack table was straightforward. Keep things filled, keep things organized, keep the kids from dismantling the candy cane display. Smile when people spoke to him. He’d done harder things.
The girls in elf suits stayed longer than necessary, as they went on about the race, the decorations, the candy canes, and his jacket, which one of them said looked like something her dad would wear.
He laughed at that and realized hecouldbe her dad. He guessed they were around sixteen, and the math worked. He could’ve had a kid when he was twenty. Plenty of people did.
Across the park, he caught Steph’s eye for just a second before she looked away. She was attractive, even bundled up against the cold, cap low, insulated pants, and a jacket that swallowed most of her shape. Amazingly attractive.
He’d never been to a community event like this. Night had settled in, and everything was lit up, even the people. Some, like the trio of elves, were in seasonal costumes. Others wore festive headgear or light-up necklaces. Everyone seemed happy to be there.
He watched Steph after the elf teens drifted off to find the starting corral. She stopped to crouch down and talk to a kid who looked overwhelmed by the crowd and the noise. She stayed down there until the kid smiled.
Jack refilled the cocoa packets and watched her straighten back up and move on.
She crossed toward a man standing near the lit-up starting corral table. They came together easily, heads angled toward each other, and the man said something that made her laugh. Jack turned and straightened the napkin stack.
He wasn’t jealous. Why would he be? He had no standing to be jealous.
Jack turned back. They were still talking, close enough that their breath mingled in the cold air. The man had an easy way about him, comfortable in his own skin, comfortable with Steph, and she was comfortable back, and it was none of Jack’s business.
He restocked the candy canes.
The man touched Steph’s shoulder and then turned to the crowd and called out that it was time to move to the starting corral for the one mile. His voice carried authority and familiarity in equal measure, someone who knew this event and these people. He gave a few instructions, and the crowd began to move. Steph stood where she was for a moment, watching them go, and Jack watched her.
The one milers went off at five sharp, the noise of several bells carrying through the park.
Steph came to the snack table a few minutes later, moving around to his side to check what needed refilling. He caught a whiff of her hair. Floral yet subtle.
She looked up at him to say something, but whatever it was, she didn’t say it.
He was aware of exactly how close they were standing. He suspected she was too.
She took a sideways step before asking, “Everything okay over here?”
“Good. I restocked the cocoa twice.”
She nodded, looking at the table rather than at him. “The mile runners will start coming back soon. Fast ones finish in under seven minutes. We’ll have a rush. Most everyone will be finished by the twenty-minute mark.”
“Sounds good.”
Steph looked up again. Something shifted in her face, some small recalculation happening behind her eyes that she didn’t put into words. Loud applause and cheering broke out. “There’s the first finishers,” she said, and the moment ended.
The rush was real. He worked, and she worked beside him, and it was the most natural thing that had happened between them since she’d landed on the sidewalk and looked up at him with her sunglasses knocked sideways, each of them repeating “good race” over and over.
She reached across him to hand things to someone on his left, and he stepped back to give her room. They moved around each other without collision or comment, the way people do when they fit in the same space.
He was impressed with how many people were running both races. The milers who came back to the table were already recapping their time and eyeing the 5K corral.
The crowd thinned. She assessed what needed restocking and handed him a box with more cocoa.
“You good?” she asked. “I need to get to the start line.”
“Go.”
She nodded and smiled. He watched her cross the grassy area and stop at the man again, the same easy exchange. And then she moved toward the starting corral, and he found things to straighten on the table that didn’t need straightening.
She started the 5K and then came back.
“Twenty minutes before the front-runners return,” she said, coming around to his side of the table again. “It’ll be quiet for a bit.”
