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I stopped and looked at him. His expression was somewhere between amused and pissed. “What?”
“My number. So you can call me.”
“Oh. Right.”
He recited the number and I typed it into my phone. Instead of save I hit call. His phone buzzed in response. “There. Now you have mine, too.”
“Thanks.” He smirked a little. “But I’m not going to call you. You’re going to call me.”
Chapter 9
Michael
Twodayslater,shestill hadn’t called me.
I wasn’t surprised. Just disappointed. It’s not like I was asking her to marry me. I was leaving in November, so we both knew this was a temporary arrangement. But Nora took casual to a whole new level. Apparently sex was okay if we randomly found ourselves alone together, but actually calling me to make plans? Nah.
I had expected to see her again the next day, but then I heard from Suzie that Nora thought she might be coming down with a cold and she didn’t want to spread germs to the baby. The disappointment was more acute than it should have been, considering I’d known her for less than a week. But then, who didn’t like hot, explosive sex?
I dealt with that disappointment the best way I knew how: I jacked off before I got out of bed the next morning. And then, since my hand proved a poor substitute for Nora’s sweet body, I laced up my running shoes.
Hart’s Ridge offered a lot of variety when it came to running trails. There was Main Street, if I felt like stopping every five steps to say hello to someone I hadn’t seen in three years, which I didn’t. There were several wooded mountain trails that offered great views without the punishing elevation of Hart Mountain. But my head was too full of sex and Nora and sexwithNora to concentrate on foot placement. I would probably end up breaking my ankle.
So instead I opted for the dirt paths that divided the farms on the outskirts of town. It was a ten-mile day, so I kept the pace easy and enjoyed the scenery. In the last three years, I had been to the Rockies, the Alps, and the Andes. I had even summitted Kilimanjaro. They were breathtaking, stunning, and terrifying. But the Blue Ridge Mountains had them all beat, in my opinion.
Dorothy had it right. There was no place like home.
I loved to travel, but I had never planned on being nomadic. I had just needed a break, that was all. I needed to be somewhere no one knew me or my ex. Somehow that little break had turned into three years.
But this town was in my blood. My family had been here for four generations—five, if Suzie’s brood counted. When I had settled down in Hart’s Ridge, it hadn’t felt like settling. It was what I had wanted. A home near Suzie and my parents. A wife. Kids of my own in the not-too-distant future. When the whole wife-and-kids thing blew up, suddenly the town felt way too claustrophobic. I couldn’t breathe.
Funny how things changed. There was plenty of oxygen now.
I ended the ten miles back at my truck. It was still early morning, but it was hot and humid. I emptied a bottle of water over my head right as a red SUV pulled up next to me. Weird, that was the kind of car Nora drove—I had seen it parked in Suzie’s driveway.
And then Nora herself got out, wearing a tank top and tiny shorts.
My tired body perked back up.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Going for a run.”Trying not to think about you naked.
“Me, too.” She shifted from one foot to the other. “Well. I should get going.”
I ignored that in favor of keeping her with me a little longer. “How many miles are you doing?”
“Three miles. I always do three miles on Wednesdays. It’s my tempo run, so I like to keep it short.”
“Three miles is perfect. I’ll join you.”
Her gaze drifted from my wet hair to my sweaty shirt. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Didn’t you just finish your run?”
“Nope,” I lied. “Taking a water break. As it so happens, I have three miles left.”
She made a little grunt of disbelief and I grinned. “Okay,” she said. “But don’t feel obligated to stay with me. If I’m too slow, go ahead and leave me in your dust. It won’t hurt my feelings.”
Not a chance. She wasn’t getting rid of me that easily. “Sure.”
