She glanced at me, then faced forward and suddenly accelerated. She raced away from me, far more in the tank than she’d been pretending to have.
I let her get a good distance before closing it easily. She was really red now, breathing hard. She had hit her stride, however, and had stopped complaining.
I fell into step beside her. We ran side by side in the early morning light. She was fit. She could run. It was clear she’d been an athlete before by the way she moved. We made a big loop before heading back toward the house. On the last leg, Selena threw me a grin as the gates of the house appeared at the end of the road.
Her grin was something else. Something beautiful. I nearly put my feet wrong, I was so busy staring at her.
She darted in front of me while I was distracted.
“Oh, no you don’t.” I jogged up beside her.
The house loomed closer now. She ran full out, her long legs eating up the distance, keeping pace with me, despite my superior height.
We raced toward the gates, and she reached out a hand to touch them.
I could have overtaken her. I could have touched the gates first.
But I didn’t.
Sometimes, people just needed a win.
She slammed through the gates that we’d left slightly open and raced onto the lawn in front of the house.
“Who’s unfit now, Sinclair?” she demanded, hands on hips, smiling up at me triumphantly. She’d scraped her hair back from her face into a swinging ponytail. Her cheeks were pink and flushed and her eyes were alive. Dancing, even.
“Well?” she prompted.
“Okay, you’ve got me, cheer captain. You’ve won,” I told her. “This time, at least.”
“This time?” she repeated.
“This time. I’ll see you tomorrow at the same time.”
A frown creased her forehead. “What do you mean?”
“Two items of clothing per run, I told you. You agreed.”
“I didn’t know you meant every day,” she protested.
“Don’t you want your clothes back? You’re giving me mixed signals here,” I said and then laughed when she hit me in the chest.
“You’re so annoying.”
“So I’ve been told.” I sank down onto the grass, not caring if it was wet with morning dew. I was so hot, and the coolness felt good.
To my surprise, Selena sat next to me, leaning back and staring at the brightening sky.
“I haven’t gone running in… forever. I haven’t done any exercise at all in—too long. I forgot how it feels.”
“There’s nothing better for getting you out of your own head.”
“About the prescription bottle?—”
“How do you know I was the one who gave you dinner last night?”
“How do you know that’s where the pill bottle was?” she challenged back.
I shrugged. “Touché. Go on.”
