And then we were up to the top of the stairs. I stumbled, my legs giving out on me, and we crashed to the ground.
"You okay, Katy?" Liam was immediately at my side, the litter forgotten. He helped me to my feet, his hands strong and sure as he grasped my arms.
"I'm fine," I wheezed. "Let's finish this."
We grabbed our litter and dragged it over to the final place on the mat, just as Brodie and Tesla waved the judge over again.
I held my breath as the judge considered their puzzle board. Then, she shook her head and I thought my heart would burst. "I'm sorry, no."
"Over here," I croaked. "We're ready."
The judge headed over, and I heard Brodie curse again. A cameraman came over to hover as Liam lifted the lids on the boxes and set them aside, then moved toward me. His strong arms went around my waist, and I leaned heavily on him, exhausted. My every nerve was tight with anxiety, though, and I couldn't take my eyes off the judge as she studied our puzzle. I knew we had things right. Liam knew. Had we mistaken something, though?
"Their stuff is still in boxes," Tesla called out in a whiny voice. "That's not fair."
"There's nothing in the rules that says you can't do that," Liam said. "Just to take it up the stairs and put it in the right spot."
"That's cheating," she shot back.
"You're just jealous that you guys weren't smart enough to do it," I retorted.
She gave me a narrow-eyed glare that I ignored, leaning heavily on Liam. My gaze went back to the judge, who had paced around our boxes again.
After a long, tense moment, she reached into her jacket and withdrew a bright green disk. "That is correct. Congratulations."
Liam gave a whoop and grabbed me by the waist. I shrieked with excitement, wrapping my arms around his neck as he spun me around.
"The disk," I laughed happily, wiggling out of his grasp. "Get the disk!"
He set me down, pressed a hard, sweaty kiss to my mouth that was so fierce that I could feel his lip piercing digging into my skin. Then he snatched the disk from the judge, grabbed my hand, and we raced toward that unbroken finish line.
Cameramen hovered, filming us as we headed toward that long piece of tape, and the host was clapping with excitement. We crossed the line and I felt the plastic snap as we pushed through it.
"Congratulations, Katy and Liam," Chip boomed as The World Races theme music began to play loudly and confetti rained down on top of us. "You are the winners of this year's World Games!"
Liam looked at me.
I looked back at him.
He grinned.
I flung my arms around Liam's neck once more and pulled him to me in another long, hard kiss.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
"Where do we go from here? Towards a happy ever after, man." — Liam Brogan, Post-Races Interview
The twenty-four hours post-race were a blur of activity. Liam and I were thoroughly interviewed on every angle of the final leg of the race, and then we did a new series of press junkets. A check was presented to us, on camera, and Chip gave a long speech about the challenges of the race and recounted the many tasks we'd performed.
I didn't hear a word of it. I simply clutched that oversized check, in a daze.
Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. One hundred twenty five thousand dollars each. Holy shit. Brodie was going to be furious at me. I told myself that I didn't care, but he was my brother. I cared even though he'd played like a jerk. He'd hate that he came into second place. Absolutely hate it.
The others that had been kicked off the race at one time or another met for a big wrap party in Philadelphia. Everyone had been flown in, and they all took turns hugging me and Liam. Abby was delighted for us, and Dean didn't seem nearly as upset at losing as I thought he might be, which meant that Abby had probably told him about the baby. Either way, it was good to see them again, and I hugged them both for a long, long time.
Tesla wasn't speaking to me or Liam. Brodie gave me a quick hug of congratulations and then disappeared into the crowd again.
We hadn't had a minute to ourselves since the race had ended. By the time the interviews and the wrap party were over, it was extremely late at night, and the crew had assigned us separate hotel rooms. I collapsed into mine and fell instantly asleep, exhausted from endless days of globetrotting and worry. As I fell into bed, I briefly wondered that Liam hadn't come to find me. Or were we over now that the race was?
It's reality TV, but it's not reality. Abby's warning rang in my mind over and over again.
She'd been right all along. Maybe Liam figured that now that we were done with the race, me and him were done as well. It did seem like a natural place to break, I thought wistfully, if one wanted to break things off.