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Pace looked at ratefully

“Yes A hundred times yes”

After Pace had been released fro what he wanted to do—which was run And noas about to run his first half-marathon while he was here

I was going to be running the 10K and would be waiting for him at the finish line when he was done—hopefully Pace was fast Way faster than he’d ever thought he would be There was a distinct possibility that he’d beme at the finish line

Ithere

After the third time that Pace had lapped me on the small two-mile track that wound around the hotel, we called it quits

That was, of course, when I met his aunt for the first time

It didn’t taketo notice her

She looked exactly like Rana, Pace’s mother

I shook Pace’s hand to get his attention, and he followed the direction ofecstatic

She didn’t coged the hell out of her, either

When Pace pulled back, Diana, Pace’s aunt, looked at his chest with a scowl on her face

“If that woht now, I’d find her and shoot her in the same exact spot,” Diana hissed

Pace laughed

“You’ll have to get in line Oakley said that if she ever gets out, Moo

Diana looked at ht me for her”

I grinned “Chances are I’ll find out before you…and with you living out in the Alaskan Wilderness, I don’t see you getting there before me”

Diana threw her head back and laughed “Oh, Pace You picked a good one I love her”

Pace threw his arm around me “I love her, too”

Two days later, ere married

Two days after that Pace won his half-marathon and his face was splashed across almost every newspaper in Alaska

I h that I could turn around and watch hi up the last one hundred meters between us

Two years later

“Daddy, Daddy!”

I grinned ather father’s picture