Page 32 of Lines We Cross
“Give me that.” Rae grabbed the tape out of my hands and proceeded to rip strips off at various intervals like the professional she was. She smoothed the tape on my knee and had me gritting my teeth at her soft touch. Taking things slow and properly courting a woman were not pursuits I’d ever engaged in before. I was finding them to be harder than expected.
“All done. How far are we headed?” She hopped up and moved to the front door. She bent forward at the waist and secured her hair in a high ponytail with a scrunchie thing she had on her wrist. Her long, lean legs were on display, looking like she ran all the time.
I walked over, wondering for the first time if this was such a good idea. I hadn’t worked out properly in over a month, if you didn’t count the Bigfoot Festival forest race.
“Uh, maybe walk to warm up and then a light jog to the high school?”
She opened the door and waited for me to go through before locking it and putting the key in a pocket on the back of her shorts. “How do you feel about push-ups, Max?”
“Uh…”
* * *
Skylar
“Wait!” Max called out from behind me. I stopped and looked over my shoulder, seeing him bent over, hand on his knee, the other hand extended out like he was reaching for me.
“You okay?”
His breathing was coming in huge gulps. “Just—hold up—a second.”
I turned around and put my hands on my hips. Mr. Macho over there on the sidewalk came tomydoor and woke me up to go on this run. And now he was the one begging for mercy. It made the devil in me happy to see him so miserable, especially when I’d barely broken a sweat.
We hadn’t said much on our run to the high school. It had been dead silent as he did lunges and sprints up the bleachers. The only noise on the jog over to Two Nickels, the legendary breakfast diner in Nickel Bay, had been Max’s lungs thundering as he exchanged oxygen with each footfall. The door opened behind me and a family spilled out, bellies full of waffles and pancakes and bacon and eggs.
“You promised me food.”
Max straightened, a line of sweat dripping down his temple. His face was red and his hair was all askew from running his frantic hands through it. He’d never looked better.
“I am going to buy you breakfast, but I wanted to get the door for you first.” He ambled over, just barely a noticeable limp on his left side. He made a big show of grabbing the door handle and swinging it open, gesturing for me to go in ahead of him. Even in his exhausted state, he managed a wink.
“I thought you just needed a little break…” I muttered as I passed by, knowing he would hate the reminder that I smoked him on every run this morning.
He growled—actually growled—behind me as I entered the loud diner. I bit my lip and told my heart to settle down.
“Table for two, hon?” Jillayne called as she sailed by with a carafe of coffee and a jug of orange juice.
Max slid in behind me, his hand on my low back again, just like last night. That was my warning sign. He was doing his hot and cold thing again. Apparently we were back to hot. Speaking of hot, my face was heating from his touch and I didn’t care for that much. As soon as Jillayne tilted her head to a table the busboy was cleaning off, I stepped out of his reach and went to the table right by the far window.
Max sat on the bench seat across from me and picked up one of the menus. “Wow, she hasn’t changed a thing since I left. The waffles still huge and fluffy?”
I didn’t even look at the menu as I knew exactly what I wanted. “Yep. Why fix something if it’s not broken?”
A ring tone interrupted our conversation. Max pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and his jaw went tight. He glanced up quickly.
“I’m sorry. I’ve got to take this.” He hit a button and put the phone to his ear. “Hey, Coach.”
He mostly listened, his gaze trained out the window, his expression giving away nothing.
Jillayne came over and filled the coffee mugs on the table. She silently indicated she’d be back when he was off the phone. I sat and fidgeted with my napkin. I recognized pretty much everyone in the diner, even nodded hello to the ones I knew well. Mom and Dad would have a phone call before our coffee even cooled, letting them know their daughter was out to breakfast with Max Duke. I’d have to tell Mom it didn’t mean anything before she got some crazy ideas in her head.
“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry. Believe me, I wish things were different. Got it. Yep.”
Max hung up and slid the phone back in the pocket of his shorts. If looks could kill, the window would have shattered under his thunderous gaze.
I took a sip of coffee. I needed to put aside the residual girl crush I’d had on Max and be his friend. Emerson wouldn’t want me to be mean to his best friend forever. Especially not when he was upset.
“Everything okay, Max?”
