More to Us (17 page)

At three-thirty Austin calls me again. "You know how to rollerblade?"

"Yeah, but I don't have my rollerblades here."

"What size do you wear?"

"Seven or seven and a half."

"Awesome. Same as Ivy. She has a pair you could borrow. I'll stop by and get them on my way over."

"Are you sure? I don't even know this girl. Maybe she doesn't want me using her rollerblades."

"She won't care. She never uses them. But if you don't want to do this, we'll do something else."

I want to do it but I hesitate because of my leg. But I think it'll be fine. It hasn't bothered me all day, despite my workout this morning. And my physical therapist used to always tell me that staying active will continue to strengthen my leg, so this will actually be good for me.

"I'm up for rollerblading," I tell him. "It sounds fun."

"Then I'll get the skates and be over there soon."

He shows up just after four and takes me to a park that has a paved trail that goes on for miles. It winds through the trees and comes out by a lake, then circles back to the parking lot.

"You sure you want to go the whole way?" he asks.

We've only gone a couple miles and have a lot more to go, but I feel great. It's warm and sunny and being active like this makes me feel like my old self again. Before the accident, if I wasn't doing gymnastics, I'd be out biking or running or rollerblading. Even in winter, I spent a lot of time outdoors.

"Why wouldn't I want to keep going?" I ask, racing past him.

He catches up to me. "It's a long ways. I just wanted to make sure you weren't getting bored."

"Bored? I love it. It's more fun than going to the movies. Not that I don't like movies. I'm just someone who has trouble sitting still for too long. I like to be active."

"I'm the same way. So you want to do the whole loop? It'll probably take an hour to finish."

"Not if I race you." I take off, the breeze whooshing past me. The trail is mostly empty except for a few runners and bikers here and there.

"Kira, wait up," Austin yells from behind me.

But I keep going, even faster than before. We're in an area surrounded by trees, and as we round a curve I see a squirrel run out on the trail. I swerve to avoid him, which makes me lose my balance and I stumble forward and almost fall.

"I got ya," Austin says, grabbing me from behind.

We're both stopped now and I turn around in his arms. "Thanks."

"You need to slow down. Going that speed, you could've killed that poor squirrel." He smiles.

"Are you kidding? That squirrel almost killed ME! Running out in front of me like that?"

"You okay?" His face is serious now, as he smooths some loose strands of hair behind my ear. "You didn't get hurt, did you?"

"No, I'm okay."

"You're supposed to say you're hurt." He tugs me closer. "So I can kiss you and make it better."

"Oh. Then yeah. I'm hurt. Really bad."

His mouth lowers over mine and he gives me a kiss, then says, "You feel any better yet?"

I keep my eyes closed and shake my head.

I hear him laugh a little, then feel his lips again. I love his lips. So soft. And he knows exactly what to do with him. I wonder how many girls he's kissed. Actually, I don't want to know. I only want to think about him being with me.

He pulls away as a group of cyclists goes past us. There must be at least twenty of them. We move off the trail to give them room.

Once they're gone, he helps me back on the trail. "You ready?"

"Yeah. Let's go."

"Hey." He gets in front of me. "I really love that you're doing this with me. A lot of girls wouldn't, especially on a Friday night. They'd rather go to a movie or concert or out for dinner."

"It's too early for that stuff."

"I know. I'm just saying, it's hard to find a girl who will do this stuff and actually likes it."

I smile. "Well, you found her. I love stuff like this. Maybe we can do this again tomorrow."

"Actually I was wondering if you want to go biking tomorrow. Jen keeps her bike at my house. She wouldn't care if you used it."

"I already have a bike. I keep it locked up on the bike rack behind my apartment."

"So you want to go? Maybe in the morning? We could go to breakfast first. Or I'll bring you over one of my protein shakes. I
am
your trainer, after all."

"What kind do you make?"

"All kinds. When you drink them as often as I do, you have to come up with new recipes. You like chocolate banana? That's one of my favorites. Orange-strawberry is also good."

"I'll take the chocolate banana."

"So you'll go biking with me?"

"Yeah, but I'm not going slow for you." I go around him and take off. "You have to keep up."

He catches up with me and we continue along the path. I'm surprised how great I feel. My leg isn't bothering me at all.

That is until we're on our way back. We're almost there. I can see the start of the trail when all of a sudden, I feel a spasm in my leg. This happened all the time last year when I was recovering, and still happens now if I overwork the muscles.

"Shit," I mutter under my breath as I feel it again. My leg cramps up to the point that I can't remain standing and I drop to the ground.

"Kira." Austin stops and leans down to me. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I force out a smile as I massage my leg. "It's just a leg cramp."

"What can I do?" He sounds desperate to help, a worried look on his face.

"I'm fine. I just need to loosen it up."

A group of cyclists goes by and Austin stands in the trail, blocking me so they don't run into me.

"We need to get you off the trail," he says. "Can you slide back?"

"No." The cramp is even worse now, the pain so bad my eyes are watering.

"Shit." Austin kneels down by my leg. "Where does it hurt?"

"Right here." I point to the back of my thigh.

He glances to the side and sees another group of cyclists coming. "I'm gonna slide you back, okay?"

I nod, and he goes behind me and puts his hands under my arms and slides me onto the grass. He kneels in front of me, straddling my leg. "Can I try?"

I'm afraid to let him touch my leg but I'm in so much pain right now I can't massage it myself.

"Go ahead," I say, leaning back on my hands.

He wraps his hands around my thigh and gently massages it. "Is this okay?"

"Yeah." I close my eyes and take some deep breaths, trying to make my body relax. "Press harder," I tell him. "Then just hold it there."

That trick always worked in physical therapy and was what I was attempting to do just now but couldn't.

I feel his fingers tighten over the cramp, squeezing the muscle. "Like this?"

I nod really fast. "Yeah. Don't move." I keep my eyes closed and continue taking full deep breaths until the muscle finally relaxes. I open my eyes and see Austin watching me, that concerned look still on his face. "You can let go now," I tell him.

He slowly lets go, then sits beside me. "I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have made you go that far."

"It wasn't that far. And you asked me before we did it. I'm the one who agreed to it."

"But I wasn't even thinking about your leg." He points to it. "That's the one you hurt, right?"

"Yeah, but like I said, it was a year ago. I'm fine now."

"What did you do? How did you hurt it? You never really said."

"I just fell during gymnastics practice." I laugh but hear how fake it sounds. "I'm a klutz sometimes."

He must've noticed the fake laugh because he's not smiling. His face is serious. "A gymnast isn't a klutz." He looks down at my leg. "You must've really hurt it if you're still having problems with it." He looks back at me. "So what exactly happened?"

My heart's pounding as I race to come up with a lie he'll believe. He can't know what really happened. I saw how panicked he looked just now when I dropped to the ground, and that was just from a leg cramp. It was nothing. If he knew the truth about my leg, he'd treat me like Amber does. Always watching me, telling me to take it easy. And we'd never go rollerblading or biking or do anything else like this again.

I smile. "This is embarrassing, but one day I was at practice and I wasn't looking where I was going and I tripped on one of the mats. My leg got caught and I ended up breaking it."

"Was it a bad break?"

I shrug. "It was just a normal broken leg. And like I said, it feels great now. That's not what caused my leg cramp. It was because I didn't drink enough water today. I always get muscle cramps when I'm dehydrated."

He reaches for his water bottle but then notices it's empty. "Shit, I should've brought more water. I have some in the truck. I'll go get it." He stands up.

"I'll go with you. I just need help getting up."

"You sure you can make it?"

I laugh. "Austin, you're overreacting. It was just a leg cramp and you cured it. Now help me up." I hold out my hands and he pulls me up.

"You okay?" he asks, still holding onto me.

"Not completely." I smile to wipe that concerned look off his face. "I might need you to do what you did earlier when I almost ran into that squirrel."

He smiles and tugs me toward him and kisses me. "Let's get you some water and we'll continue this later."

"Sounds good."

We follow the trail back to the parking lot and when we get to his truck, he takes some water bottles from the cooler, then drops the tailgate on his truck and we sit there and rest for a moment.

"That was fun," I say, swigging my water.

"Yeah, it was." He holds my hand, resting it between us. "Except for you being in pain. You really scared me when you fell to the ground like that."

This is exactly why I don't want to tell him what really happened to me. He worries too much, and I know he'd treat me differently if he knew the truth. I don't want him acting like I'm not strong enough to do the things I want to do. Or worse, giving me that pity look that Amber always gives me.

I lean over and kiss him. "Stop worrying about me. I'm fine." I drink some more of my water.

"So where do you want to go for dinner? I'll take you home so you can clean up before we go."

"What if we just got some food and had a picnic? Would you be okay with that?"

He looks surprised. "If that's what you want to do, then yeah. That sounds awesome. There's this store not far from here that I used to go to all the time for lunch when I was working over in this part of town. It's a grocery store but it's got this big salad bar. It has more than just salads. You can get whatever you want."

"That works." I set my empty water bottle down. "I haven't been eating well this week, and as strange as it sounds, I'm kind of craving a pile of vegetables."

"It's not strange. I get the same way after eating like shit for a few days. My body craves the good stuff, like it knows it needs it. My brothers think I'm crazy, but whatever." He drinks his water.

"They're not into working out like you are?"

"They work out, but not like me. And they don't give a shit about their diets. Nash eats better than the other two but that's only because Callie cooks for him. She's a really good cook. She cooks all our Sunday dinners. By the way, do you want to come to a Wheeler Sunday dinner sometime? They're every other week and the whole family has to show up or we get yelled at by my dad."

"I don't know if I'm ready to meet your whole family. That's a lot of pressure."

"You got nothing to worry about. They're gonna love you. And I told you, my dad already likes you." He hops off the back of the truck and stands in front of me.

"You're just saying that to be nice."

"No. I mean it. He really does." He helps me down from the truck, then kisses me. "Let's get some dinner."

"Oh, um, I forgot to tell you. Amber's out with Matt tonight."

"Is that her boyfriend?"

"Yeah. So my apartment is empty if you want to go back there later." I smile. "Maybe watch some TV. Or do other things."

He grins. "I could skip the TV. Let's hurry up with dinner."

We get some food and take it to a park. Then we go back to his house so he can shower and change clothes. His dad isn't there, but I'm not going to risk having him catch Austin and me making out, so I remain in the living room and watch TV until he's ready to go. Then we drive over to my apartment.

I'm not sure what's going to happen tonight. I'm not ready to go all the way with him, but if I were ever going to do it this soon with a guy, it'd be Austin. I trust him and already consider him a friend. We have so much in common and I like him more each time I see him.

I don't know how this happened. I came to Chicago vowing to not have a boyfriend, and within a week, I have one. And the scary part is, he's someone I could see myself with in the future.

Austin

Kira is in the bathroom taking a shower while I wait here on the couch. We just had one of the best dates I've ever been on and I have a feeling it's about to get even better. We're finally alone, just the two of us, in her apartment, where we can do more than kiss. I'm not saying we're going to have sex, but we can do more than we did in my truck or at my house. At least here, we won't be interrupted.

I like this girl way too much. At first that freaked me out, but now it doesn't. She's seriously the coolest girl I've ever met, and the hottest, so it makes sense that I like her this much.

Every time we go out, I learn something new about her. Today I found out she loves the outdoors as much as I do, which is a huge deal because I can't be with a girl who doesn't like the outdoors. I've tried dating those girls and it doesn't work. I am who I am and I spend a lot of time outside, so if the girl doesn't like that, then it's no use even dating her.

When I asked Kira to rollerblade, I thought she might say no. Just because she's a gymnast doesn't mean she likes other sports. But it turns out she loves rollerblading and she's really freaking good at it. When she was racing me, I had to work to keep up with her.

I also like that she eats like me. A lot of girls don't like the fact that I'm careful about what I eat. I actually had a girl get mad at me once because I didn't order pasta when we were at an Italian restaurant. She picked the restaurant, even after I told her I don't eat a lot of carbs, and then she got mad at me for ordering chicken. She said a guy shouldn't care about his diet, that I should just eat anything, and yet she only went out with me because of my body. I know, because she told me so after I wouldn't agree to take her out again. How the hell does she think I
got
this body? It's not from eating whatever I want, that's for sure. If she'd actually tried to get to know me, she would've found out that I'm not always that strict with my diet. I splurge at least once a week, usually on the weekends, and if I really want something, I eat it.