Life finds a balance, albeit not the one I’d choose. Kyle and I are back on an even keel and running around doing everything we can to make sure we don’t look like complete fools at this championship.

We spend weekends chopping wood, slicing holes into the trees on our land and learning to clamber up anything that even closely resembles a ninety-foot trunk with no more than a rope and padded shin guards for safety.

“It’s not fair. You’re so much smaller than me. It’s easier for you,” Kyle moans after losing against me again.

“Yeah, but you’re naturally stronger. You excel in different areas.” I’m being nice, and he knows it. I’ve whipped his ass every step of the way since we started training seriously for this event.

“Who do you think will win?”

I laugh, “Neither of us, unless there are prizes for the most heart, then I’m sure we’ll come out on top.”

He shakes his head. “Not the championship. Even with all this work we’ve been putting in, we’re never going to come close to the professionals.”

“We have to try. You know how I hate to lose.” I wink, and he continues shaking his head while his mouth is overtaken by a wide smile.

“Well, we have one week left and I’m nabbing Florian. I’m not going to lose this without a fight, so I’m bringing him in-house at Judd Racing. It won’t harm to have him close by.” I haven’t planned this. I haven’t even spoken to Florian about it, but the time is right. I’ve had the chance now to assess where our strengths and weaknesses are, and I’ve made the staff changes accordingly. I now have the core strengths we need in place, so now it’s time to fine-tune them, just as we fine-tune the performance of our cars.

“That’s cheating.” Kyle shoves me, then pauses, a look I don’t recognize flashing through his eyes. “I can’t believe we’re fighting over Florian. Look how far we’ve come.”

I think back to just a few months ago, and Kyle is right. We’ve come a long way without even realizing it. And Florian has walked that path with us. Sure, we had our little hiccup (that’s how I choose to refer to it) but that wasn’t Florian. He was just the catalyst. Kyle and I had a weakness in our relationship, although we didn’t realize it was lying dormant, would have reared its ugly head regardless of who else was involved. It just happened to be Florian who triggered it.

And, much as I hate to admit it, Kyle was right. By taking the next stages slow and being disciplined with ourselves we, as a couple, have come out on the other side more solid than we appreciated we could be.

Kyle is clearing up our tools. “Come on, we need to change. We’ve got a dinner in an hour.”

I look at my watch. He’s right. The press has taken whatever pictures they need of us putting the final touches to the log house we’ve built for the charity. They immediately zipped off and are no doubt already knee deep in the free bar.

We stand back, arm in arm and survey the results of our hard labor. Sure, we’ve not built all of it, but we have had a big hand in supplying the logs, which we’ve cut down and trimmed up during our event training.

“I’m proud of us. We’ve achieved something great here,” Kyle says as his hand snakes around my shoulders.

I lean into him, sealing our sweaty bodies together in the dying embers of the summer heat.

“Come on then, let’s get back and changed before the reporters are too drunk to hear our key points.”