Page 76 of The Mayor and the Mystery Man

I gulped back a lump. “I guess I enjoy the company.”

I was about to lean in to give him a morning kiss—a friendly morning kiss—until I saw him stiffen for a moment.

He opened his mouth as if to say something. “Your speed has been picking up. No longer moving at a glacial pace.”

That didn’t seem like the comment rolling around in his head just now. I was usually a Ph.D.-level expert in reading his mind, but my skills in Leo-ology had gotten murky since we started fake dating and real fucking.

“Hey, it seems like the story about my altercation atOcean Cityis dying down. I still feel terrible about it.”

“Don’t. As I said, you have nothing to be sorry for.”

His confidence assured me, even though I carried guilt over fucking up the debate. Even with that out of the way, something seemed off between us, like maybe Leo woke up on the wrong side of his humongous bed.

We went down the stairs softly so as not to wake Ari and Lucy. I remembered how I hated being woken up as a teenager. I could sleep for twelve hours at a time if somebody let me.

Outside, we did some quick stretching before taking off. My stretching was never as deep as his because my eyes kept going to Leo’s ass when he bent down. Ever since we had sex, I’d been thinking of having more sex with him, even though I told myself it was a one-time thing. That was how addictions worked, right?

“We’re already running three miles in the morning, easy,” he said, pulling his arm over his chest and showing off his strong triceps. I’d never noticed men’s triceps, how they poked out.

“What’s your point?”

“A 5k is three point one miles.”

I pulled a leg behind me, and the glory of a stretched quad sang out in my body. “And we’re doing conversions to the metric system, why?”

“There’s a race this weekend. The Zombie 5k.”

“With actual dead people?”

“Yes,” he deadpanned. “We’ve discovered how to bring people back to life specifically for the purpose of a local race.”

“When suburbanites set their mind to something, there’s no stopping them.”

Leo crossed his leg over his other knee and bent down in a figure-four stretch. I followed his lead, and my hips thanked me. I did not realize how stiff I was.

“What’s the Zombie 5k?” I asked, playing along. Sourwood really loved its local events.

“It’s a regular 5k race people run, but then other people dress up as zombies and pretend to chase the runners. Some will pop out from the sidelines, too.”

“And what happens if they catch you? Do they bite?”

“Do you want them to?” Leo cracked a smile, showing off his teeth. He had attractive teeth. I had no idea I could find teeth attractive, especially teeth I’d seen a jillion times before, but he had proven me wrong. “They pretend to chase you, but none of them grab you. It adds a little Halloween flavor.”

“Couldn’t people just throw candy and condoms at us?”

“Condoms?”

“I once went to a Halloween parade in West Hollywood, and instead of fun-size Reese’s, they threw out magnum-sized rubbers.”

“That, uh, doesn’t happen in Sourwood. Though we are very pro-safe sex.” He spread his legs and stretched down to touch the ground between them. He was facing me, so I couldn’t ogle his butt. It didn’t matter; I was already half-hard around him. Running with a boner would not be fun. I’d rather be chased by zombies.

“So, are you in?” Leo asked.

“For the condomless Zombie 5k?”

“Correct.”

I was intrigued by the idea of being chased by zombies. And from what I saw at Applefest, Sourwood knew how to put on events. “Sure.”

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