Ooh, but he made me mad! I had no idea how to break through to the guy. I’d tried to apologize, several times in fact, but he either changed the subject, talked over me, or flat out walked away.
In another world, I’d give up. I’d chalk it up to a missed opportunity, get the job done, and walk away knowing I’d been able to do my job and do it well in spite of the fact that the boss’s son hated my ever-loving guts. Sometimes people just didn’t like me, and I could deal with that.
Two things made this other world not possible. One, I was up for partner. And while Barbara technically was in charge, she did have other partners who needed to weigh in, and I didn’t think Archie would be too kind on my final report card. And two, I still really wanted to apologize. I overstepped my bounds; I’d literally pried into his personal life like a gossip and worse, was caught while I was doing the prying! But now I was being denied my chance to correct that.
My feet pounded the gravel, the terrain getting wilder as I moved higher up the mountain. I adjusted my gait, adjusted my breathing, and continued on. What could I do, how could I get the chance to talk to him, and make him listen to me? Really listen to me. No more potato fights.
Speaking of listening, over the crunch of my own feet I could hear other feet crunching. Someone else was on the trail, and not too far ahead. I saw a whisper of movement around a corner, the switchbacks up here getting shorter. Speeding up a bit, I saw a bright yellow windbreaker moving steadily along the trail, attached to long, strong legs, and a shock of auburn hair.
Archie. Up on his mountain. Alone.
And he wouldn’t be able to get away from me.
I put my head down, took a deep breath, and began to give chase.
Now, I realize the optics of this, a perfect grade school scenario. Girl chases boy, literally chases boy, as he runs away.
I ran faster. As he rounded another corner, he glanced over his shoulder and saw me barreling up the mountainside toward him, hell-bent for leather. I was close enough that I could see his expression. He was surprised, but then he scowled and proceeded to run faster.
For fuck’s sake.
So I ran faster too, because see . . . right before he scowled, there was the briefest flash of something else.
Challenge.
Come on, Bryant. Show me what you’ve got.
We both increased our pace. I gained five feet, then lost three when he put on a burst of speed around a boulder. He lost his footing on a loose patch of gravel and I pulled to within slapping distance, but then I lost my own footing on the same patch and slipped behind once more.
I was breathing hard, but I was close enough now that I could hear him too. The switchbacks were almost a ninety-degree incline by now, and the landscape was blurring by. I scrambled over a downed tree he’d touched just seconds before; he whirred around a puddle. The trees thinned for a moment and I caught the briefest glimpse of the lake, now far, far below us.
I saw the end of the trail—we were nearly at the top. I dug deep, and willed my feet to move faster, all out sprinting to the top. Our legs moved together now, pumping fast, mud and gravel splashing and spitting up between us. I was groaning, panting; he was grunting with every step. My chest burned, my feet ached, my legs trembled, and there was no way this motherfucker was going to beat me to the top.
I pushed harder than I’d ever done before. I willed my legs to become pistons, my muscles cramping but pushing me higher and higher and higher. We were even now, both of us flying, perpetual motion, limbs a muddy blur of mixing color.
With one last grunt and groan, and a triumphant grin on my face, we rounded the last corner and raced onto an open field, tied at the top. No winner. No loser.
But kind of me, winner.
I ran a few more paces, slowing down now, gulping air, my lungs grateful. I could feel the sweat pouring down my back, my hair plastered to my face as I turned it skyward, feeling the morning sun. Here, on top of a mountain, with nothing around but trees and sky and dirt and grass, I could feel that high creeping in, dulling the cramps and the pain that would most assuredly creep back later on. But for right now, bliss was settling in.
I ran another twenty feet or so, toward a stacked stone tower at the edge, the observatory. I could hear him behind me, just a few feet away, his feet as heavy as mine. As I neared the tower, the world stretched out before me, farms and streams and beautiful red barns marching away into an almost endless horizon. On a clear day you really could see forever.
I peered back at him to offer a congratulatory grin and, when I could speak again, thank him for such a great race, but when I saw his face, I froze.
“You,” he grunted, reaching me quickly since I had frozen solid. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
“Me?”
“Who chases someone up a mountain?”
“Who runs away from someone chasing them up a mountain?” I fired back. “I just wanted to talk to you.”
“Talk to me? You want to talk to me, you ask me. You request a meeting, you send me an email, hell, you pass me a note while I’m sitting next to you at a meeting for Pete’s sake, you don’t chase me up a mountain!”
“I request a meeting?” I shouted back, incredulous. “What the hell is wrong with you, that’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! I want to talk to you, I’ll talk to you.”
He got close, really close, in my face. I took a step back, then another, backing up until I was against the tower.
“Don’t you get it? Whatever it is you want to say, whatever it is you seem to need to tell me, I don’t want to hear it.”
“But if I could just—”
I couldn’t say anything else. Because his mouth was on mine, fire and heat and burning searing against my lips.
Shocked, my eyes stared into his, which were swirling with anger.
I bit down on his lip, then pushed him away. “The fuck?” I said, frowning, brow crinkling as he panted in front of me.
And then my hands were filled with his jacket as I yanked him back against me, fingernails digging into his chest, pulling his face to mine and kissing him again, hard and insistent.
I slapped at his shoulder as he groaned against my lips, slanting, as my tongue pushed inside his mouth. I moaned, growling as he nipped at my skin, his hands now rough, slipping around to the small of my back, pushing everything together. I could feel the stone digging into my back, my hips bumping into his as I scrambled to get my legs under me, but after that run they were jelly.
“You’re a fucking lunatic, you know that?” he asked, tugging me into him hard, everything hard, everywhere hard.
“I’m the lunatic?” I asked, biting down on his lower lip again, this time hard enough I tasted blood.
He dipped his head down, his eyes level with mine. “Don’t do that again,” he warned.