Page 56 of The Sailor

Every muscle in Marit’s body stiffened as they all waited for him to pop up from the water. It only took a second or two, but they felt like the longest moments of Zach’s life.

When Kash’s head finally appeared from the water, he was actually grinning from ear to ear. Upon seeing that, the crowd lost their minds. A roar went up all around them, with everyone cheering at the top of their lungs.

The safety/rescue boat picked up Kash and quickly brought him to the starting platform. Zach, and everyone else, watched as Linc plucked the boy from the boat and hugged him, spinning him in circles as he did.

The cheering was still going on when Linc put Kash back on his feet and urged him forward. Kash shyly took a step toward the end of the dock and raised his hand in a wave to acknowledge the crowd.

Once again, everyone lost it, screaming and yelling for Kash and his extraordinary performance.

Making it across one thousand, eight hundred, and seventy-ish crates wasn’t close to the record of sixty-five hundred, but it was still impressive as hell and seriously awe inspiring, especially when the next best number so far was just over five hundred.

The crowd was amped up, and the cheering for the next contestant was loud and boisterous, even when he didn’t make it across the crates one time.

“Come on, let’s go find them,” Knox said.

He didn’t need to ask twice. Everyone in their group was more than ready to find Kash and congratulate him.

“Told you he was gonna win,” Zach’s mom said smugly as they headed toward the crowded area around the starting platform.

Zach found Linc and Kash first; it helped that he had the height to see over most of the crowd. Kash had a towel wrapped around himself, and he was beaming as a man wearing an EMT shirt stood after putting a bandage on his face.

“That was amazing!” Britt exclaimed as they got close.

“Britt! Did you see?”

“Of course I saw, Bud! I filmed it all to show your mom, although you should probably watch the video without sound because we were all screaming our heads off.”

Kash looked extremely proud of himself, as he should be. Zach could remember how he’d felt when he’d been in the boy’s shoes. He’d been on top of the world. It was a heady feeling.

“The competition isn’t over yet,” Evelyn warned. “Someone could still beat his score, doubtful, but it could still happen.”

“Maybe,” Linc said, putting his hand on Kash’s shoulder. “But it wouldn’t take away from how awesome Kash did. Especially since that was his first time running the crates.”

Zach stood back and let everyone fawn over the boy. Marit leaned against his side, and he put his arm around her shoulders, enjoying her closeness and the fact she had no problem showing affection toward him in this very public place. Everyone was looking at them, since they were huddled around the current leader in the crate race.

She looked up at him, and even though he could see her pride for Kash, her excitement over the moment, he could also see exhaustion behind her eyes. She’d gotten up extremely early this morning to get to the boat, so she could put in a full day of work and still get back in time to see Kash’s race. Her desire to support a kid she’d just met hit Zach hard . . . in a good way. She was unselfish, supportive, and so incredibly kind.

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’m great. Thank you for encouraging me to be here today. I would’ve been so sad if I’d missed this.”

In response, Zach leaned down and kissed her.

It took every ounce of strength he had not to deepen the kiss, as he longed to do. He was keenly aware that Marit had pulled back in the last couple of days. He didn’t really blame her, as they’d been moving very fast in this relationship. He’d had a few misgivings himself. But it wasn’t as if they were getting married in the next week or anything.

He just loved being around her. She made him happy. He looked forward to talking to her, seeing a text from her when he got up, seeing the look on her face when she tried one of the concoctions he made for his shack.

The bottom line was, he wasn’t going to think too much about things. Either he and Marit would work out or they wouldn’t, but he refused to put any roadblocks in their way simply because most relationships didn’t play out the way theirs was.

She stared up at him as she licked her lips, and he could practically see her thoughts in her gaze. She was feeling the same thing he was—the need to be alone.

“We’ll stay to see if Kash does win, then we’ll go to my place, where I can feed you.”

“I’m not a dog,” she said softly with a chuckle.

“I know. But I feel the need to take care of you. I know you’re tired, and you burned a lot of calories working today. How does grilled chicken, asparagus, and peanut butter pie for dessert sound?”

“Not lobster?” she asked, the smile still on her face.