A moment went by and then …
Pop.
The gelding responded to Nate as if the two were one, doing what quarter horses had been bred to do, exploding into a gallop, its hooves kicking up clods of icy snow.
Jesse was ready for the sudden acceleration, sailing over the snow, through the first gate and toward that first jump—a four-footer. The ramp was icy, but he’d been warned. Careful not to catch an edge, he flew up and over, nothing but air beneath him for a good fifteen feet, adrenaline making his blood sing.
But now for the hard part—the rings.
He swerved to the right, bunched up his fist, held out his arm.
One, two, three.
He had them.
The crowd cheered.
He held up his arm so the judges could see the rings, then dumped them onto the snow, his gaze focused on the next gate, which came up hard and fast. He made it then swung to his left, his skis scraping over ice as he flew up the six-foot ramp and into the air. “Woohoo!”
The crowd cheered when he stuck the landing.
Three more rings.
One, two…
He bumped the third with his fist, knocked it to the ground.
Shit.
A two-second penalty.
He didn’t have time to think about it as the third gate was ahead of him and to the right. He swung over, just made it through, then turned hard for the final jump. Up and over he went, soaring, his skis landing on blood-stained snow, only three rings between him and the finish line.
He raised his arm, clenched his fist.
One, two, three.
Fuck yeah!
He sailed across the finish line, fist in the air.
“Fifty-six seconds, folks! That’s Jesse Moretti and Nate West on Buckwheat, ladies and gentlemen, and we have a new SnowFest skijoring record! Fifty-six seconds with a two-second penalty!”
The crowd roared.
Jesse skied to a stop, stepped out of his bindings, and met Nate, who leaped from Buckwheat’s back, for a full-on man hug.
Nate slapped him on the back. “I told you we could do it. No one’s going to be that. We’ve won.”
And then Ellie was there.
She jumped into his arms, laughing and crying at the same time. “You’re a lunatic! I am so crazy proud of you.”
He held her tight, inhaled her scent, his heart filled with her.
* * *
It wasthe first time Jesse had gone to Knockers and hadn’t sat with the rest of the Team. Jack had invited him and Ellie to join them at the restaurant, which had set aside a table for ten with four high chairs in a quiet corner. But that didn’t keep his fellow Team members from finding him. They came over in ones and twos to rib him, congratulate him, and generally be pains in his ass.