This time when she smiled, it was genuine. “Well, lover boy, I think you missed the point of that entirely. If I know you’re trying to check me out, it doesn’t matter if I actuallycatchyou.”
“Does that mean you don’t mind if I check you out? You know, as long as your privy to itbeforehand?”
“You’re horrible. Stop it,” she scolded me and smacked my shoulder. With that one small joke, I could already see the nerves from earlierdisappearing.
“I guess you could go first. I don’t mind if you check me out.” I wiggled my eyebrows at her and her cheeks darkened just a bit in a blush. I was having way too much giving Katie a hard timeouthere.
“If I go first, we might not make it down there tonight,” she said looking back and forth between me and the ladder. “Just promise you’ll catch me ifIfall.”
“Deal,” I replied before starting down the ladder. The thing was old and rusted, probably one of the biggest contributing factors to the caves unofficial closure. I hoped it would hold. I had promised Katie I’d keephersafe.
That didn’t mean I didn’t take advantage of the view. I watched as Katie took step after step down the ladder. I couldn’t help it if her jeans fit snugly and my eyes kept going back to the way her hips moved as shesteppeddown.
“You really are checking out my butt!” she cried out after looking down at me and catching my gaze on herbottom.
“I said I would. Wouldn’t want to breakmyword.”
“Uh,huh.”
“Think about it. Checking you out actually makes me thegentleman.”
“I don’t think it works that way.” Katie shook her head and went back to focusing on where her feet andhandswere.
I left her alone for the last couple feet of the descent. When we finally hit the bottom, Katie wiped her hands on her jeans again and lookedaround.
“Wow,” she said in wonder. “It might be better than Iremembered.”
I tried to see it through her eyes. But all I could see were the remains of an old fire several feet away from where we stood. It was surrounded by empty and broken beer bottles and too many cigarette butts to count. The walls had so much graffiti on them, you could barely see the natural color of the stonebeneathit.
Most of it was harmless. So and so was here. Couples’ initials. But there was the occasional lewd imprint against the wall ofthecave.
“It’s like stepping into another world.” Katie hadn’t stopped spinning, looking at as much of the cave as the current light wouldallow.
I reached in the backpack I brought to grab the flashlights. I handed one to her. Within seconds Kate had it turned on and shining right inmyface.
“Whoa. Not in my eyes,Katie.”
“Sorry,” she said, pointing it away from me and down the expanse of the cave. “This is great. Come on.” She started walking deeper into the cave. Fearless Katie was back. She just needed the rightincentive.
She walked slowly, stopping every few feet to run the beam of light over the walls, across the ceiling, even on the dirt we walked on. We didn’t speak. I didn’t know what could be said. So I let her explore at her pace and watched her excitedperusal.
The cave was basically a straight walk down and back. It wasn’t even that long of a walk. Just enough to get away from any light shining down theentrance.
“Do you trust me?” I asked, grabbing her hand and stopping her exploration as we neared the end of thetunnel.
She didn’t answer, just looked at me inconfusion.
“Katie,” I said, more softly this time. “Trustme.”
She didn’t reply right away, just stared into my eyes as if looking for the answer hidden there. After what felt like an eternity, she whispered herresponse.
“Okay.”
ChapterNineteen
Katie
My world was floodedin darkness almost immediately after the words leftmylips.
