Clark leaned back in his folding chair, watching Lois and Lana talk animatedly about books, bonding over their love of Pat Conroy and their shared heartbreak over Beach Music. Lana spared him a glare when she talked about the night she spent crying over the book, and he knew she still hadn’t forgiven him for laughing at her.
He reached out and rested his hand on Lois’ back, stroking his thumb along the soft material of the sweater. She glanced back at him over her shoulder, tossing him a quick smile, and his heart stuttered. Then she slid a hand under the table, resting it on his knee and giving it a quick squeeze without missing a beat in her conversation, and he nearly lost the ability to breathe.
Having her with him like this, so sweet and casually affectionate, was a dream come true. And watching her fit in so seamlessly with his family was more than he could have hoped for.
He watched her face as she and Lana debated the culpability of various characters, and he couldn’t help but think that she was never more beautiful than this, when she was passionate about something.
Out of this corner of his eye, he saw his mother watching him watch Lois, and he turned his attention to her with a smile.
“I love her!” she mouthed silently, and he nodded, both acknowledging and agreeing.
They lingered a while longer, the sun slipping low in the sky. In the background, David’s band was back from a break and beginning a second set. Sophie and Caleb heard the music begin again and abandoned the game they were playing with their corn husk dolls to dance enthusiastically.
A group of a half dozen or so of his players sauntered by in a pack, wearing their letterman jackets despite the mild evening temperatures. They nodded to him respectfully, and he lifted his hand from Lois’ back just long enough to wave to them, before returning it to its previous position. She leaned back, apparently finished with her conversation, and nestled against his side.
He shifted, angling his body toward her and dipping his head to whisper in her ear. “Are you having fun?”
She pulled back far enough to look at him, and nodded, her smile confirming that truth.
He bent his head to her again. “I’m so glad you’re here,” he said softly, thrilling at the little shiver she gave in response.
He straightened and looked at her, and her eyes were filled with a tenderness that made him want to soar. She reached up and stroked his cheek.
“Me too,” she whispered. And in that moment, he wanted to kiss her more than he ever had. He darted a quick glance across the table and realized all eyes were on them.
When his mother realized she had been caught staring, she nudged Jonathan who cleared his throat and patted the table. “Well, we better be heading out,” he said.
“Yes,” Martha agreed quickly. “We’ll leave the rest of the night to you young folks. We’d better be getting home.”
“We should go try to find my parents, actually,” Lana said, nudging an obviously confused Pete. “They said they were going to stop by tonight.”
They all stood and said their goodbyes, and before he knew it, he was alone with Lois.
“Lana is always so subtle,” Lois said, eyes twinkling, and he laughed.
“You think they decided we’d had enough of their company?” he asked.
“Something like that,” she agreed.
He slipped his arm around her waist and tilted his head in the general direction of his house. “You want to get out of here?”
She nodded and they made their way through the square and back up the three blocks to his house, where he opened a bottle of wine and poured them each a glass before leading her to the backyard.
“It’s so quiet here,” Lois said, settling into a chair at his patio table. “Peaceful. Even though you’re right downtown.”
He nodded, scooting his chair closer to hers before sitting. “It’s not Metropolis, that’s for sure.”
“My apartment is always loud. Even in the middle of the night. It took me a while to fall asleep last night. I guess I’m used to being lulled to sleep by the sound of cars honking and sirens blaring.”
He chuckled. “I always have a hard time sleeping the first couple of nights in a new place. When I was traveling, I was always surprised by how even the quiet sounds different. Different birds. Different bugs.”
She hummed in agreement, and stretched her hand out on the table between them, palm up, in invitation. He reached out immediately, threading his fingers through hers and raising her hand to his mouth for a kiss, and she sighed happily.
She turned to look at him, and he slid his hand from hers, cupping her cheek instead, and lowered his mouth to hers. Her lips were warm and soft beneath his, and his heart clenched with delight at the way her breath caught in her throat.
“I’ve been dying to do that all night,” he said softly as he pulled away and started to sit back in his seat.
Her hand rose to his neck immediately, and she tugged him back to her. “Don’t stop,” she chided, laughing. “Me too.”
He complied happily, bringing his lips back to hers, and then deepening the kiss when she sighed happily. Her hand slid from his neck, over his shoulder to his arm, where she stroked gently, her fingers tracing the muscles through the thin material of his dress shirt.
He slid his hand from her check to the back of her head, his fingers threading through her hair, increasing the intensity of the kiss until they were both breathless and she whimpered his name in a way that shot straight through him.
When she eased their lips apart, he rested his forehead against hers, eyes still closed, struggling to get his breathing back under control. He was stunned, unused to the feeling of being winded, unable to catch his breath.
He pulled back enough to look at her, smiling tenderly as he took in her kiss-swollen lips and the hazy look in her eyes.
“Clark,” she said, his name full of wonder. “This is…”
She trailed off, apparently unable to find any words to describe it, and he nodded, similarly perplexed.
“I know, sweetheart,” he whispered, stroking her cheek and kissing her gently one more time. The endearment just slipped out, like it had once before, when he was overwhelmed by her confession that she missed him.
That time, they had been on the phone and he hadn’t been able to see her reaction. He had wondered belatedly, if it was too much, too soon. If she might have felt uncomfortable, and he had managed to squash any future inclination to use it.
But this time, he could see her face, the pink of her cheeks, her bashful smile as she looked up at him through her lashes.
“Good god, you are the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen,” he said, cradling her cheek again.
She blushed and laughed, turning her head and averting her eyes from his gaze. “You are ridiculous,” she said.
“I’m not kidding,” he said, gently guiding her to look at him again. “I cannot believe…”
His mind stumbled, unsure how to fill in the blank of the sentence. “…that you are here.” “…that you are real.” “…that you let me kiss you like that.”
He shook his head, frustrated with his inability to put into words how he was feeling. No, that wasn’t entirely true. He had words, he just feared they were too much. He wanted so desperately to tell her all the things he was feeling; overwhelmed and overjoyed and hopeful about his future in a way he never had been before. He wanted to quote poetry about her beauty and make bold declarations about the permanence of his feelings.
“This is….special,” he said finally, remembering when he had described their relationship to his parents that way before his trip to Metropolis. His thumb stroked her cheek where the rosy blush lingered. “You are special. So special to me.”
Her eyes closed, and she took a deep breath, and he knew she was struggling with the intensity of the moment.
“You’re special to me too,” she said when she opened her eyes again.
He wanted to say more. He wanted to push her for more. He wanted her to promise him that she would still feel this way when she went home; that she wouldn’t forget about him or decide a long distance relationship was too much work or fall for someone more suitable for her. He wanted to define their relationship. To give it a name. A title. He wanted so much more from her.
But he didn’t want to be greedy. She was already giving him so much more than he had ever imagined they could have.
That night in Miami, in the hotel bar, when she laughed at his stories and shared her secrets and sent sparks skittering up his arm when she touched his hand, he had ached with regret at the idea that he would never see her again. She had been so clear that she wasn’t open to pursuing a relationship. Even the next day, when he had kissed her goodbye with tears in her eyes, she hadn’t wavered.
And now she was sitting in his backyard kissing him senseless and telling him he was special to her. That was enough. That had to be enough.
She waited quietly for his response, and he could see her mind working. A smile spread across his face, and then he leaned forward to kiss her again. He could feel her smile against his lips, and his heart swelled tight in his chest. She made him so happy.
They traded sweet, gentle kisses as night fell around them. When they finally pulled apart, sitting back in their chairs, hands laced together between them, the sky had transformed from sunset to dusk, and the garden lights that lined his patio were flickering to life.
“Your parents seem wonderful,” she said.
“They are,” he said immediately. He smiled, remembering his mom’s whispered aside. “My mom loves you already. She told me so when you were busy talking to Lana. I told you that you had nothing to worry about.”
Lois smiled. “I really enjoyed talking to her. Your dad is harder to read.”
“That’s just my dad,” Clark said with a shrug. “He’s not as…effusive as my mom. And he tends to fade into the background when there’s a lot going on. I bet he’ll warm up and talk to you a lot more tomorrow.”
“Pete seems nice.”
He looked over at her, confused for a minute, and then started laughing. “I just realized that was the first time you met him. I didn’t even introduce you. I’m sorry.”
Lois laughed too. “It’s fine. I think we figured it out.”
Clark shook his head in amusement at his oversight.
“I’ve met Lana so many times, I’m sure it feels like I’ve met them both.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “They’ve been Pete-and-Lana for so long, it almost feels like they are a single unit sometimes.”
“Did you ever imagine they would wind up married when you were younger? When you were growing up?”
“Hmm,” Clark said, casting his mind back to a childhood caught between his two best friends. “Not when I was young. I thought they hated each other. I didn’t understand the way they fought and sparred. I didn’t understand then that it was their way of relating to each other. By high school, I was starting to understand, but I still wasn’t sure they would ever figure it out. Or if they did, whether it would last.”
“You didn’t think they were serious?”
“Lana was always trying to talk to me about boys, and relationships, and who she had a crush on…no matter how many times I asked her to stop,” he went on. Lois snickered, and he rolled his eyes. “But she never talked to me about Pete. I don’t know if she didn’t know how to talk about those feelings, or if she was scared I would turn around and tell him…. I don’t know. She would tell me…way more than I ever wanted to know about most things. But Pete was just this unspoken off-limits topic.”
“So you weren’t sure if she really liked him or just liked tormenting him?”
He chuckled at the accuracy of her assessment and nodded. “Lana dated half the football team our junior year. At first I just thought she was Lana being Lana. But then I realized…she was trying to make Pete jealous. It almost backfired though. Because Pete doesn’t get jealous. He just thought that meant she was over him, and he was quietly heartbroken for a while, and then tried to move on.”
“Oh, no,” she said, obviously concerned for that teenaged boy, even though they both knew he grew up and got the girl. “What happened?”
“I told her to knock it off,” he admitted.
“You did what?” she asked, clearly surprised.
“She was going on and on about junior prom. A couple of guys had asked her, and she wouldn’t shut up about how she couldn’t decide who to go with. And finally I just told her…if she wanted Pete, she needed to tell him. And if she didn’t, she needed to leave him alone and stop rubbing her millions of suitors in his face, because she wasn’t making him jealous – she was hurting him. And he wasn’t going to compete in a competition he didn’t think he could win.”
“What did she say?” Lois asked, leaning forward, fully invested now.
Clark laughed ruefully and shrugged. “She said there was never any competition.”
Lois inhaled sharply, and Clark nodded, smiling at this long-buried memory.
“The next day, she sat down next to him at lunch and said, ‘Here’s what’s going to happen: you’re going to take me to prom. And I’m not going to date anyone else anymore. And next year, wherever you apply, I’ll apply too. And when we’re done with college, we’ll come home, and you’ll work for your dad, and we’ll have babies, and live happily ever after.”
“Oh my god,” Lois whispered. “And they did?”
“And they did,” he confirmed. “That was that.”
“He didn’t…? He wasn’t…shocked? Overwhelmed by that? His whole life just…planned out?”
Clark smiled and shook his head. “You’ve met Lana. She gets what she wants. And that life she offered him? That’s the only life Pete’s ever wanted. Since we were little boys. She knew that. And he knew that.”
“And they’re really still happy together? They seem happy, but…you know….”
“They still love to spar and snark at each other, but it’s all for show. They’re very happy. Lana doesn’t hesitate to tell me more than I want to know about her relationship with Pete now,” Clark said with a wry smile, and Lois laughed.
Lois was quiet for a minute, and when she finally spoke again, her voice was full of laughter. “I can’t imagine marrying my high school boyfriend. I just can’t even imagine what my life would look like now.”
He laughed at her obvious amusement. “You don’t think you’d still be madly in love?”
“God, no,” she said with a little shudder. “He was a nice guy. He was. He was sweet to me. But he was not particularly smart or interesting. We really didn’t have anything in common. It was honestly a relief when we went to different colleges and just ended things mutually and amicably. I have no idea where he is today or what he’s doing. I haven’t thought about him in years.”
“Yeah, not everyone is ready for a lifetime commitment with the person they thought was cute at sixteen,” he joked, choosing not to think too deeply about why it made him feel so good to hear her laugh at the idea of still being in love with a past boyfriend.
“What about you?” she said slyly, turning the full force of her gaze on him. “You didn’t want to do like Pete and Lana? Marry your high school girlfriend and settle down in your hometown? Am I going to run into a string of broken hearted high school girlfriends still pining for you tomorrow?”
He hesitated, caught off guard. “I… No, you aren’t going to run into any exes tomorrow.”
She laughed, eyes twinkling in the moonlight, and she looked so beautiful he wanted to go back to kissing her and forget about this conversation.
“They all left town? Too heartbroken to stick around?” she teased.
“Lois, I didn’t date in high school,” he said softly. “There are no high school girlfriends.”
“None?” she asked gently, tugging their joined hands from where they laid on her arm rest into her lap, bringing her free hand to join them, stroking the back of his hand.
He shook his head in confirmation.
“What about that horde of girls-”
“Oh, god,” he said, cutting her off. “I hoped you had forgotten about that.”
“Not a chance, farm boy,” she said with a laugh, and his heart fluttered the way it always did when she called him that.
“There was no horde of girls. I mean…” he ran a hand through his hair, embarrassed. “There were…girls. Who liked me. But I didn’t… I didn’t want to lead them on.”
He paused for a minute, and she waited, stroking his hand and giving him time. The way she always did.
“I never felt like I fit in here,” he said finally. “I loved Smallville. It was my home. It was…the only home I’d ever known. But I felt different. I felt…like I belonged somewhere else. I knew I wasn’t going to stay. I wasn’t Pete. I never dreamed of coming back right after college and settling down. It just seemed easier not to date. Not to build those bonds. To stay…free and untethered.”
He sighed and laughed softly at the irony. “Of course, I wound up back here after all.”
“Do you regret it then,” she asked softly. “Not dating back then? Settling down with someone you met in high school? You could be married with a couple kids by now too….”
His eyes went to her face immediately, and found her watching closely for his reaction, brow furrowed.
“No,” he said, without hesitation. “No, I don’t regret that at all. There was no one I- No. I’m happier now than I’ve ever been. I have no regrets on that front.”
She leaned over and kissed him, and his heart leapt in his chest. He kissed her back, his mind awhirl with the feeling of her lips on his, her hand on his cheek.
When she pulled away and sat back in her chair, a little smile played at her lips, and she regarded him again with an impish look on her face.
“I understand not wanting to get married and settle down at seventeen. But you really didn’t want to take one of those cheerleaders to the barn and make out with her in the hayloft?”
“I’ll take you to the barn and make out with you in the hayloft,” he countered, winking at her.
She laughed, long and hard, completely caught off guard. She looked down at her lap, cheeks pink again, and then looked at him over her shoulder.
“I’m gonna hold you to that, farm boy,” she said, still laughing, but with a look that told him she wasn’t kidding. And he had never wanted anything more.
*****
Clark listened to Lois’ footsteps, moving back and forth between the bedroom and the bathroom upstairs, as he sped through thousands of pushups on the living room floor. Last night – all of yesterday really – had been amazing, and he was flying high emotionally. He was worried that if he didn’t burn off some energy fast, he was going to be flying physically too.
The Corn Festival 5K started in an hour, and he needed to run it at a normal speed. Right now, he didn’t trust himself not to tear through the course in a blur of raging hormones.
He heard her step on the top stair and slowed his pace significantly. She descended quickly, slowing to an abrupt stop on the last step, and he knew by the way her heart sped up that she had spotted him. He stifled a smile. At least he wasn’t the only one affected by this crazy tension between them.
He stopped, hopping to a standing position, and turned to face her.
“Is this how you start every morning?” she asked, her eyes wandering his body slowly before landing on his face.
He grinned, allowing himself to revel for a minute in her obvious desire for him. “Usually,” he said. “Sometimes I run.”
Her eyes moved down again, and he watched her assess the sleeveless Smallville Tigers Football t-shirt and athletic shorts he was wearing.
“Is that what you are wearing?” she asked, eyebrows raised.
He looked down, suddenly self-conscious. “Why? What’s wrong with this?”
She smirked and let out a huff of laughter as she walked toward him. “There’s nothing wrong with it. Except every woman there is going to be tripping over her own feet trying to get a better look.”
He laughed and shook his head, flattered and embarrassed. She stopped in front of him and hesitated. He watched her, curious and amused, as her eyes traveled past his shoulders and over his arms.
She reached out tentatively, curling her fingers lightly around his arm. Her hand was cool against his skin, and his heart raced at her touch. She held still there, glancing up at him, as if checking to make sure he welcomed her touch. He grinned at her, and her gaze fell back to her hand, and she trailed her fingertips over his tricep, tracing the hard knot of muscle.
He flexed and heard her inhale. Her eyes flew back to his. “You did that on purpose,” she accused.
He laughed, not even pretending she was wrong. “Seemed like you might appreciate that,” he teased.
“God, Clark,” she said, her eyes following her fingers again.
She let her hand fall to her side, looking up at him, mock suspicious. “How is it that you are smart, and sweet, and successful and you look like…this,” she said, waving a hand vaguely in his direction, “and you’re still single? Am I missing something? Do you have some big flaw I’m missing?”
He hesitated, wanting desperately to tell her that he didn’t want to be single. He wanted to belong to her.
“Just picky,” he said softly, settling his hands at her waist. “I was waiting for someone special.”
“Good answer,” she teased, lifting her other hand to curl around his neck, pulling him down for a kiss.
“We could just skip the 5k,” he mumbled against her mouth, not remotely ready to let go of her.
She laughed, pulling out of his embrace. “Not a chance, Coach. I don’t need all the little old ladies in Smallville gossiping about how I corrupted Mr. Perfect and made him abandon his duties.”
He laughed and looked her up and down far more blatantly than he normally would, figuring turn about was fair play. She was wearing a light purple racerback tank top, tight black leggings that came to mid calf, and running shoes.
“Are you going to run?” he asked. She had been ambivalent about running when they made their plans for the weekend, claiming she might sleep in since it was her vacation.
“If I’m awake, I’m not going to miss my chance to show you up,” she said with a challenging look.
“Lois, I told you. We aren’t racing. We are running as a pack. It’s a team bonding activity.”
“Well, then I’ll just be at the front of the pack,” she said, a glint in her eyes.
“You are the most competitive person I’ve ever met,” he said, not for the first time.
They ate a quick breakfast and then headed down to the square to get her registered. Then they hung around the start line, letting the team gather around them. The race was full of kids from the high school. His wasn’t the only team that ran together – the girls soccer team and the track team were there together as well, and he saw a handful of kids he recognized from class who weren’t on any teams there as well.
Recent alumni were gathering too, catching up with friends who hadn’t yet graduated. Across the sea of faces, Henry gave him a wave, and Clark smiled and waved back.
“Do you remember Henry?” he asked Lois, nodding in his direction. “He was in your master class.”
Lois followed his gaze and smiled. “Sure,” she said. “Sarah’s crush. Did that ever…?”
“They went to prom together,” Clark said, laughing that this was what Lois remembered and was curious about. “But I have no idea what happened beyond that.”
“Didn’t he graduate?” Lois asked. “He was one of your seniors last year?”
Clark nodded. “He’s at Wichita State now. But everybody comes home for the Corn Festival,” he teased, parroting Maisie’s words from the first night of her visit. Lois had repeated the phrase in the same sing-songy voice every time someone mentioned seeing a friend or relative who had moved away but was back in town for the weekend.
Clark looked up again and saw that Henry had made his way through the crowd, gathering Travis and Alex along the way. He could see them talking in whispers and nodding in their direction.
“We’re about to have company,” he said, ducking his head and speaking in Lois’ ear. She looked up at him puzzled, and then she followed his gaze and understood it was a reunion of the kids from the conference, no doubt very curious to see her in Smallville.
“Ms. Lane?” Henry said, obviously appointed the spokesperson for the group.
Behind him, he could see Travis mouth “told you it was her” to Alex.
“Hi,” Lois said. “It’s nice to see all of you again. How college, Henry?”
“It’s great!” he said enthusiastically. “So…you’re in Smallville….”
“I am,” she said with a laugh. “Surprise.”
Clearly emboldened by the boys breaking the ice, Elise and Hannah appeared in matching track uniforms, whispering excitedly.
“Hello, girls,” Lois said.
“Hi!” Elise said, ever bubbly. “We heard you were here, but we didn’t believe it!”
Lois laughed, and Clark shook his head in resignation.
“Believe it,” Lois said. “How are you?”
“I’m editor this year,” Hannah said immediately, bursting with pride at her newly elected position.
“I heard!” Lois said immediately. “That’s wonderful. You’re going to do a great job.”
Clark’s heart swelled in his chest watching her with his kids, talking to them, encouraging them. They had talked about her nonstop after returning from the conference, and they still mentioned her from time to time and perked up when he used her articles to illustrate concepts they were working on. His girls especially, he knew, worshiped her, and watching her now with them reminded him of how awed he had been by her that first weekend.
She glanced over at him and caught him watching her, and judging by the sweet smile she gave him, she had pretty well guessed the gist of his thoughts. She started to reach for him, and then stopped and dropped her hand back to her side, realizing, he guessed, that they were in front of his students and his team and he might not want to show affection in front of them.
He reached out and rubbed her back, earning him another smile, but this time one that made him wish very much that this race was over and they could go back to his house. Alone.
Behind him, two of his defensive backs were engaged in some sort of argument that seemed to be heating up, and he had no desire to deal with a bunch of hotheads today. He turned his back on the conversation with his newspaper staff and sorted out the conflict between his players.
When he turned back to the conversation, sliding his hand back to its previous position on Lois’ back, his blood ran cold.
“It was crazy,” Elise was saying. “No one else even saw them out there. The lifeguards totally wouldn’t have seen them if he hadn’t taken off.”
“And he was so fast,” Travis added. “One second he’s standing there looking out to sea like some dude in a sad movie, and then BOOM he’s gone.”
Lois turned and looked at him. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?”
“It was nothing,” he said quickly, trying to laugh it off, though he felt like doing anything but laughing.
“Nothing? You saved two little boys?”
Over her shoulder, he could see his kids shifting nervously, and he could tell they were wondering now if they had done something wrong by telling her. He needed to get control of this situation. It was suspicious enough that he had done it, it was more suspicious that he hadn’t told her.
“I just did what anyone would do,” he said, realizing belatedly that those were the exact words he had said when he pulled the baby stroller from the intersection outside The Daily Planet.
She raised an eyebrow, and he knew she recognized those words too. He took a slow breath, trying not to panic.
“He told me to work on my sprints in the off season if I wanted to be that fast,” Travis piped up. “And it totally worked. You should have seen last week’s game. We kicked butt!”
Lois laughed, and Clark had never wanted to hug that boy as much as he did in that moment.
“I heard all about it,” she said. “You got 151 yards in the game? Sounds like you deserved that game ball.”
Travis’ face was practically glowing with pride.
“And a 72 yard touchdown on a wheel route?” she added. “I wish I’d been there to see it.”
Travis’ jaw dropped and he looked from Lois to his coach.
“Don’t get her started,” Clark said, teasing. “She has a lot of opinions on which routes to run. She thinks she can do my job better than I can.”
“I never said that!” she insisted. “I just said you rely too heavily on flat routes, which are the safe choice but aren’t going to get you to State.”
“I think I’m in love,” Travis said, and Lois burst out laughing.
Clark just shrugged and smiled. He knew the feeling.
The whistle blew, indicating it was time to line up, and they drifted to the start line. Elise and Hannah made their way back to their track teammates, but Travis and Henry stuck close as other members of the football team both past and present filled in around them.
“You going to run with us, Ms. Lane?” Henry asked as they stretched, smiling when she nodded in the affirmative. “Awesome. We’ll go easy for you.”
“Oh, god,” Clark said automatically. “Now you’ve done it.”
The gun fired, and they were off. The pace was slow at first, with all the runners crammed in together, but eventually the crowd began to disperse and they were able to stretch out their legs a little.
Lois gave him a little grin and pulled ahead and he matched her pace. They wound through the streets of downtown Smallville, past the square and Maisie’s diner, past the general store and the barber, and then up into the residential streets, where friends and neighbors sat on their porches or stood on the sidewalks cheering them on.
Every time he thought they had found a comfortable pace, she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and grinned, and then increased the pace.
“We’re supposed to be running as a pack,” he reminded her, glancing back at his team.
“We can keep up!” Travis interjected. “Don’t hold her back, Coach.”
“Yeah, Coach. Don’t hold me back,” Lois teased, hitting a new stride and weaving around a clump of runners who had started out strong but were fading at the halfway point.
He knew she enjoyed running. She had played tennis competitively through high school and college, and still ran regularly both on the treadmill at the gym and through the park in her neighborhood. But for some reason he hadn’t expected her to be so graceful. He loved watching her. It was probably the martial arts training, he realized. She was perfectly in control of every part of her body, each movement smooth and flowing into the next. She was a joy to watch, and he made no effort to hide his admiration.
They ran in companionable silence for a while, and then he grinned and slowly edged in front of her. Immediately she quickened her pace, and he stifled a laugh. He held steady for a few minutes, then edged ahead again. Again, she pulled even immediately. He couldn’t stop the laughter that time. Her shirt was damp with sweat between her shoulder blades and her breathing was ragged, but she was not about to admit defeat.
Behind him, he could hear his team starting to grumble, some of the bigger defensive players, falling back, unable to keep up.
“Look alive!” he yelled back over his shoulder. “Half-mile to go! Finish strong!”
He felt the morale pick up, and he glanced over his shoulder again, full of affection for this team of players who worked so hard for him on and off the field.
“We! Are!” he shouted, beginning their pre-game locker room chant.
“Fighters!” they replied, voices overlapping, caught off guard.
“We! Are!” He glanced over at Lois, and saw her smiling.
“Winners!” they cried, more voices joining in this time, finding their rhythm.
“We! Are!”
“TIGERS!” they screamed, the chant devolving into random yells and cheers along with more than a few growls.
“You really are something, Clark Kent,” she said, just loud enough for him to hear, and he beamed at her, basking in her admiration.
The finish line was in sight now, and apparently that was what she had been waiting for. She kicked it into high gear, sprinting away from him while he was still off balance from her last comment.
He laughed and shook his head, giving chase. He could see her laughing as he gained on her, closing the gap as they approached the finish line. She was pouring it on, giving it everything she had, and he couldn’t decide if he wanted to let her have this victory that she had so clearly earned or pull ahead just to give her hell.
Behind him, his team cheered them on, their loyalty split.
She was steps from the finish line when he closed the distance, grabbing her around the waist and spinning her around, before putting her back on the ground right in front of the finish line, and letting her step across before him.
She took a few final strides, slowing down, and then bent over and placed her hands on her knees, panting.
“You aren’t even breathing hard!” she whined when she caught her breath. “How? That is so not fair.”
He laughed and reached for her, pulling her into a hug.
“I’m disgusting,” she protested with a laugh. “You don’t want to hug me right now.”
“Trust me, I do,” he said, laughing. She wound her arms around his neck, and gazed at him, and the whole world fell away. The race and his students and the entire town full of gossips. None of that mattered at all anymore.
His eyes went to her mouth, and when he looked back up at her eyes, she raised her eyebrows and glanced meaningfully at his students, who had clustered around them, giving high fives and talking animatedly while obviously keeping an eye on their coach and his mystery lady friend.
He sighed and nodded reluctantly. She laughed softly and stroked his cheek, before stepping back out of his embrace and turning to face the students who were clamoring for their attention.
