Page 115 of Tutored in Love

He clears his throat. “You had some dirt. There.” His jaw clenches, enhancing the shadow of his cheekbones. “Are you good? Steady?”

What is he talking about? How could I be steady after that?

“Can you ride?” The warmth is gone from his voice, Benevolent Lifeguard Noah stowed securely behind Tetchy Tutor.

I manage to nod. So confused.

He dons his helmet and pack, looks around, checks his phone. “It’ll be shorter to finish the loop than go back the way we came. We have about three miles left.” He waits, but I’m still trying to figure out what just happened. Taking my silence for acceptance, he stands my bike up and signals for me to take it. “Ready?” he asks.

Frustration finally infuses some energy into my legs, and I take the few steps toward my bike. “Thank you,” I say, and he offers a curt nod.

Retrieving his own bike, he jerks his handlebars off the ground, throws a leg over, and motions for me to go ahead with a tight Tutor smile.

It’s going to be a long ride back.

Chapter 62

Reject

Stupid, stupid, stupid!

The word played on repeat as Noah waited for Grace to put some space between them.

Much-needed space—space for his idiot brain to stop noticing her legs, her buttery voice, the way her eyes sparkled when she was joking around—to retreat so logic could take hold.

She has a boyfriend.

She’s not attracted to me.

I’m moving on.

Anger surged into his legs and propelled him up the next incline. At least he hadn’tactuallykissed her. For a second there, he’d thought she wanted him to.

Why she’d brought up his height—the first conflict in their volatile history—he had no idea. It was almost as if she’d been talking to herself, not him. Thinking back on her stupid rule about only dating tall guys had triggered him—as if a man had any control over his height! He’d set out to tease her, show her that he was, in fact, taller.

In retrospect, going nose-to-nose had been a terrible idea. He’d been surprised to find that his nosewasn’thigher, although she’d had a point about the uneven terrain. If they were barefoot and on even ground—

Noah shook it off. It didn’t matter.

The rest of the ride was a blur of pain both physical and mental, the end of the trail as brutal as the beginning. Up one insanely steep, bumpy slope and down another, with ledges and sand thrown in for variety. The ups weren’t long, but the downs were correspondingly brief in distance and even shorter in duration, thanks to gravity.

It was nothing like the mountain trails he’d ridden before—usually a long, mostly uphill climb followed by an exhilarating descent. He longed for a nice downhill to rest his lungs, but Slickrock never let up. The grueling climbs and the difficulty of the terrain did keep him from thinking too deeply about the stinging rejection that had settled around his heart.

Finally, blessedly, the trail rose and leveled out, allowing him to spot Grace pulling into the parking lot ahead of him. Exhaustion and relief threatened to overwhelm him as rolling, knobby sandstone gave way to strangely smooth asphalt.

Surrounded by the others, a concerned Alec looked over her wounds. Conversation and a whiff of the vault toilets reached Noah as he coasted to a stop at the outside edge of the group, but their words didn’t register.

How had he misread her so badly? Even if he hadn’t misread her, how could he have allowed himself to even consider making a pass at another guy’s girlfriend? Thank heaven he hadn’t kissed her. Besides, she’d made it painfully obvious that she couldn’t stand his touch—shuddering and holding her breath as she had when he’d wiped the dirt off her cheek.

Maybe he stunk.

Pretending to inspect his bike, he snuck a sniff, relieved when he detected nothing particularly offensive—only normal levels of outside exercise and camping smell. His gum was a little old, but he could still taste the cinnamon.

So why had she held her breath? Was his proximity so disgusting?

“You’re sure you’re okay to ride?” Alec asked Grace. “I can go get the car.”

“I’m good,” Grace said, the cheerfulness in her voice forced. “I mean, I don’t really want to do another loop, but I think I can make it a couple hundred yards to the campsite.” With that, she pushed off, leaving Alec and the others to catch up.