Page 17 of Running
I move my eyes down a little more, below the waistband, and see the outline of hi?—
What are you doing, Grace?a voice says.I suck in a breath quickly, and bring my view up to his face.
If he was someone I knew well, I’d probably tease him about whether his shirt shrunk in the wash.
But teasing Johnson is the last thing on my mind. How I reacted to that very male section of his body instead renders me speechless, full of surprise.
Since I moved to Orlando, there’s never been a time where Johnson’saffectedme. Objectively, he’s attractive, obviously. The assumption that he’s an unserious womanizer has shielded me from being vulnerable to any deeper attraction, though.
Clearly, that protection has faded with my getting to see more sides of him.
Don’t make it a big thing, I tell myself. I’m just relieved he didn’t catch me looking.
“Do you have a path in mind? How long we going?”
His question helps wake me out of my spiraling thoughts and focus on our run at hand.
I’d expect him to be cocky, given his athletic prowess, yet he sounds open and curious instead.
“Well, normally I like to run up to ten miles on my daily routes.” His eyebrows shoot up at my response. “We don’t have enough time for that, especially if we take a quick shower before we eat. We could do four?”
“Four miles in twenty-five minutes?”
Now I get to be cocky. “Well, I could do more, but I figure you’ll want to keep a six-minute mile or so pace?”
He chuckles. “Sheesh, putting me in my place. Okay, let’s do that.”
We head down to the sidewalk, and I start us off on my route. Johnson follows my lead, running at my side, a couple of inches behind. He seems content to let me drive.
Fine by me. I prefer to be in control on a run.
Within a couple hundred feet of our starting spot, I turn right, and he does the same. I have a two-mile loop I’ve mapped out in Landon’s neighborhood before, so I figure we can circle that twice.
We’re both quiet until we complete the first mile, and then Johnson speaks up. “So, were you planning a longer run? I’m sorry if I’m making you shorten yours.”
On a more intense tempo run in my competition days, we’d never devote energy to chatter. With a casual outing like this though, it’s not difficult to talk.
“No, I did my normal one this morning. Right now I’m feeling kind of annoyed with a school thing, so I thought it might be good to work it out on a run.”
A diplomatic answer instead of the truth, since I was originally trying to duck out of hanging with him. But I probably would have used the run for that purpose anyway.
“Well, then I’m messing up your time to do that. Unless you want to talk about it?” He tilts his face a little my way, as if to watch how I respond.
“It’s not a huge deal.” I give a subtle shrug without breaking my stride.
He’s quiet for a moment but then glances at me again.
“Rawley got back to school safe and sound?”
“He did, thanks again for last weekend.”
“And your other brother, Connor, has he come to visit you and Landon much?”
“No, not this summer. He’s been focused on the U.S. national team because he’s trying to make the U19s.”
“The national soccer team for players under nineteen, right? Landon mentioned that.”
“Yes, he’ll play at Princeton, for sure. But the national team is his dream.”
