Elm Creek Quilts [09] Circle of Quilters by Jennifer Chiaverini

Author:Jennifer Chiaverini
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Adult, Historical, Contemporary
ISBN: 9780743260213
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 1995-09-06T05:00:00+00:00

Russell

Russell met Elaine at the Torchlight Run at Seafair. He had run the race every year since relocating from Indiana, but this was the first time he had signed up as part of a team from work. A coworker had talked him into it, insisting that Russ was the computer systems engineers’ key to finally snatching victory from the marketing department’s team, whose names had been engraved on the winners’ bronze plaque in the employee lunchroom three years in a row. A techie team had never won, except for the year that an overly competitive manager in the software division had hired three college track stars as summer interns, which didn’t count.

The self-appointed coach of Russ’s team told him and their other two teammates that their best strategy was to stick together, shadowing the marketing guys until the last four hundred meters, when they could sprint ahead to the finish line. Rather than hold their faster runners back, Russ thought they each ought to strive for a personal best time and gamble that their average would beat the marketing guys’, but he saw some merit in staying together so they could push one another. Then he spotted Elaine a few yards away in the pack, and all thoughts of the competition vanished. He instinctively slowed to get a better look.

“Move it, Russ,” the coach called as he fell behind.

“Okay,” he called back, weighing victory against getting a second look at a very attractive racer. He quickly decided bragging rights were just not that important and feigned a sore hamstring.

When his friends pulled too far ahead to witness his sudden recovery, Russ maneuvered through the pack toward the woman in the pink tank top, close enough to see the freckles on her pale shoulders. Her black hair was cut so short it barely moved in the breeze, but what struck him most was that of all the runners surrounding them, she was the only one smiling.

They crossed the finish line at nearly the same time, and he stayed close enough so that he did not lose her in the crowd at the postrace party. He squeezed into the buffet line behind her and handed her a plate as she gathered her napkin and plasticware. She thanked him, which gave him enough encouragement to speak to her. “You must love to run,” he said, immediately regretting it. They had just finished a 10K race. Russell McIntyre, Master of the Obvious.

To his relief, instead of bursting into derisive laughter, she looked up at him, curious. “What makes you think so?”

“You were smiling exactly like that even at mile five.”

She turned away to continue moving through the buffet line, but she seemed pleased. “I must have been thinking about how glad I was that the race was almost over. I really pushed myself today. I usually go at a slower pace.”

“Were you after a personal best time?” Since they were technically in a conversation, Russ did not think she would mind if he accompanied her as she chose a table and sat down.

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