“I’m following your lead.”
I sucked in a breath I hoped he didn’t hear because those words, they were the exact ones he’d said to me the first time he kissed me. The first time his lips had touched my skin in places it shouldn’t. He had uttered those exact words to me one summer night, as he hovered above me, preparing to take my virginity.
“Sure.”
“I didn’t mean to make you think of that,” he said, his voice thick with apology.
“I know. It’s just…being around you is bringing up a lot of the past.” Too much of the past.
“And you’d rather forget it all?” He sounded hurt, but I refused to let my heart be touched by that.
“I had forgotten it, Xander. But you refuse to let it stay where it belongs, in the past.” The path began to climb as we hit the wooded path behind the high school and conversation mostly stopped thanks to the treacherous footpath filled with protruding rocks and sharp branches. The trees were thick, and grew thicker the higher we climbed.
“For you it may be in the past, but for me it’s firmly here in the present.” He stopped beside me at the top of the hill that overlooked Pilgrim and the Texas fields beyond that would be filled with wildflowers in another few weeks. “I never forgot you Mara, and I never wanted to. I get why your perception is different, but I always hoped to find you again.”
I wanted to believe that, so I took off running because I couldn’t afford to believe in another man, in another person who would ultimately let me down. My life was just fine like it was, and I didn’t want to ruin it all for any man, let alone the same man I’d ruined it for once already.
“Mara, wait!” Xander’s legs were long enough and strong enough to catch up with me easily, but he was giving me space and dammit, I wanted to hate him for it.
Instead, I picked up my pace downhill, enjoying the way my muscles started to ache with strain, the way my lungs constricted from lack of oxygen as I ran at full speed. The wind whipped against my body, my hair, cooling my already overheated skin as the second mile turned into the third. I didn’t run as much as I would like, but it was good to know those extra twenty pounds hadn’t taken away my endurance.
“Keep up, Sheriff or the whole town will know you got beat by a girl.”
He laughed and caught up with me just as the woods and the hill turned into vibrant green grass with paved walking trails and flowers, benches donated by generous benefactors and statues that documented the town’s storied history.
“They’ll understand when I tell them the view is better from behind.”
“Sounds like you need to get laid.”
His deep laughter sounded again, as addictive as it ever was. “Are you offering?”
“Nope.” I picked up my speed again because my body couldn’t be trusted when it came to Xander. His laugh was deep and rich, smooth like warm honey, and just as irresistible. His scent, a mixture of sweat and outdoors and his own unique scent, combined with his proximity had my nipples trying to break out of my sports bra and my panties growing damper by the second.
“Liar,” he accused with a lighthearted laugh as we made our way out of the park and back to our starting point. My house.
“Water?” I shouldn’t have asked, because the smile on his face told me he was reading more into it than he should. But another part of me wondered if he was reading exactly what my nipples were putting out there.
“You sure?”
I nodded, pushing open the door as I kicked off my sneakers. “Can’t let the Sheriff die of dehydration, that would be bad for business.”
“Is that the only reason, Mara?”
The only one I was willing to admit to. “Yep.” Thankfully he allowed a few moments of silence as we both finished off two tall glasses of water before taking the third glass slower. Much slower.
“You never said before, why you chose running?”
“You never asked.”
He grinned. “Well you see a pretty girl running in short shorts and a sports bra, and your brain pretty much forgets everything except asking for her phone number.” That was exactly how we met. “Remember?”
“I do.” He was the first guy to look at me as something other than just a sex object. “You were sweet and nervous.”
“You were hot, and such a smart ass I wasn’t sure if I’d make you laugh or you’d kick me in the balls for even trying.”
I laughed, because back then that was a real possibility. Probably today too. “Running was an easy way to get out of whatever foster home I was in. They didn’t care, but running was cheap, and no one questioned it when I said I was going for a run. It also just sort of became my way to get away for a while.”