“Alright.” Hobbs stepped closer and grasped her wrist. “Ready?”
Tabitha nodded and he slipped her easily to his bare shoulders. She hung on to keep the bouncing to a minimum as Hobbs started his trek. The ground went at a downward slope so he moved with good speed. Just as he hit the turnaround marker and headed back, going slightly uphill this time, Tabitha watched Delaney finish the last hundred meters of their second carry. Delaney was slightly taller than average, at around five feet and eight inches, with a muscular build that was on the athletic, rather than bulky side. Duke, on the other hand, was over six feet of solid muscle, yet there Delaney was, hauling his giant ass over the starting marker for the last time, completing their workout. She sank to her knees, Duke spilled off her shoulders and they both collapsed in the grass.
Hobbs and Tabitha had just made one full trip down and back, where he paused to yell, “Good work, overachievers!” to the pair who were gasping in the dirt. On his second trip down, Hobbs picked up a little speed as the ground sloped down, but he went much slower than he had the first time around. Tabitha knew that her body weight was nothing to him, but even lightweight gets heavy when you’re carrying it too long. As soon as they reached the turnaround marker for the second time Tabitha tapped him on the shoulder.
Hobbs, now plenty sweaty, his skin slick under Tabitha’s body, paused. “You okay?”
“Hobbs,” she said. “What’s your name? Your first name?”
Hobbs was quiet a second. “Chris,” he said finally.
“Set me down, Chris.”
He obeyed, waited until she was steady before he repeated, “You okay?”
Tabitha had been able to recoup quite a bit of energy while Hobbs had done three-quarters of the carries. The memory of Delaney struggling across the finish with Duke the Giant on her shoulders fresh in her mind, Tabitha didn’t even answer, just stepped between his feet and grasped his wrist. Hobbs’s eyebrows raised above his sunglasses.
Tabitha nodded, then leaned in and let him fall across her shoulders. At first, her knees buckled. Hobbs wasn’t overly tall but he was built. But then she caught and steadied herself, and using her legs and glutes she pushed herself to standing. Hobbs dug in, making himself small and tight as Tabitha took her first steps. To her surprise, she could move. She could actually move pretty good. Two steps. Three. Four. Yeah, she was struggling, and no, she didn’t have the best posture, but she could do this. She could carry him.
Shewascarrying him.
“You got this, Tabby,” Hobbs said, somewhere near her ear. “One foot in front of the other. Come on.”
Tabitha made it halfway across the field before she realized she’d chosen to carry Hobbs on the incline. So now she had 180-odd pounds of muscle on her backgoing up. She paused, her head drooping under the strain, her muscles burning.
“C’mon!” somebody yelled. A stranger. Nobody she knew. Then another chimed in. And another. Clapping followed. Whistles and shouts.
“Move it or lose it, Tabby,” Hobbs commanded. “You can do this. C’mon. I’m too tired to carry your fat ass any farther.”
Tabitha laughed, despite the fact she was struggling to breathe. But it worked. She started up again, one foot, another foot, slowing climbing the incline, the finish line in her sights. Standing up and much recovered were Delaney and Duke, their hands cupped around their mouths while they shouted out to her.
Tabitha didn’t exactly remember the last fifty meters of her carry. She was pretty sure she blacked out on her feet. Her last solid thought wasyou have to get this man over that line. Period. When she came to, she and Hobbs were on the other side of the flag marker, both on their backs in the grass.
“That’s right, Steele,” Delaney was saying, her voice sounding muffled through the blood that rushed in Tabitha’s ears. “That’s how we do it.”
Something heavy covered Tabitha’s chest. She knew right away it was Trinity. Her fur smelled like grass and Auntie El’s pies. She smiled, said, “Off, Trinity,” with what voice she had left. “I’m okay.”
Trinity scooted away and sat nearby. After a while, Tabitha sat up, too. Hobbs stood over her, hand outstretched to help her up. He smiled big, his shiny sunglasses pushed up on top of his head, revealing his bright eyes and red marks on the sides of his nose. Tabitha accepted his strong grip and rose to her feet like a newborn deer.
“Hot damn,” Hobbs said, squirting some water into his mouth from a plastic sports bottle that had a faded sticker that read Murph across the front. “You’re stronger than you look, am I right?”
Hobbs had dirt and grass stuck to his sweaty chest, his shirt in a ball on the ground where they’d left it. Tabitha didn’t care. Her throat tight, eyes burning, she sank into him, her arms going around his back. Her eyes closed, to keep anyone from seeing her tears. Hobbs’s body went rigid. After a few seconds, one hand settled tentatively between her shoulder blades. “Alright, Tabby,” he said, when she didn’t let go. “Alright.”