Page 10 of Head Over Wheels
“Coming right up.” He takes my glass and sets it on the bar for me.
I turn back to my new friends and join in on their conversation. A few moments later, I feel a tug on my sleeve. I turn, expecting to see Jeff with my drink. Instead, I immediately tense up.
CHAPTER 7
“Hi everyone, I’m Jace. Nice to meet you. Hello again, Ella.”
He’s speaking from beside me, and I worry right away that he can see how flushed and nervous he makes me. I get a moment of reprieve to pull myself together as the other women introduce themselves. When he meets my eyes again, I’m ready for him.
“Hi, Jace.”
Okay, so I’m not spewing epic poems or anything, but it’s a good starter sentence. Jace immediately takes the spotlight off me and gets everyone’s attention.
“Did Ella tell you that we spent the afternoon locked in an elevator together?” His grin is slightly lopsided, and I can tell he’s enjoying throwing me to the wolves.
There is a chorus of responses from the women surrounding us, all uttering different variants of what? And how? And tell me more. My neck is flushing from all the attention. Jace reaches out a hand and lightly rests it against my shoulder, a gesture to relieve my anxiety. Unfortunately, now all eyes are on his hand, and my heart beats even faster.
Jeff chooses this moment to walk back to us. He definitely sees Jace’s hand, and his eyes meet mine. His expression is inscrutable, but I can’t dwell on it with so much going on around me. He hands me my drink, and I feel Jace’s eyes back on mine. Seriously? All this attention is too much, and someone needs to do something quickly to change it.
My salvation comes in the form of Jeff, who chooses this moment to stick his hand out to Jace.
“Hi Jace, I’m Jeff. Nice to meet you.”
Jace gives him his trademark grin and shakes his hand. Now that I’ve spent some time with him, I’m wondering if this is his stage smile, the one he shares as his public persona. It’s still the most gorgeous smile, but there is something different in the one he gave me earlier when it was just the two of us. I shelve that thought away for later. The two men are sharing cycling stories, and I choose this moment to turn to the woman beside me, Lisa, and engage her in conversation. Hopefully the spotlight is off me for now.
But Lisa quenches that spark of hope. “Did Jace just say you spent the afternoon with him? In an elevator?”
Our group crowds in, waiting for my answer. Jace just grins at me, waiting to see how I’ll respond.
“It’s not as bad as it sounds.” My eyes lift to Jace, pleading with him to take over.
“I don’t know about that, Ella. It got pretty tense toward the end when it started plummeting. I’ll leave you to share the rest of our tale while I go make some more rounds.” He shines that big showman grin at me one more time before ducking out of our group.
“It happened after I checked in. I got in the elevator, and Jace was there too. I almost had a heart attack when I saw him! But I tried not to stare and make it too awkward.”
“Was he friendly? Or did he ignore you?” Tara shoots her questions at me, and I can tell the answer will matter.
“Actually, he surprised me. I thought he would ignore me, but he was really nice right away, and said hi and introduced himself.”
“Oh, good. I just knew he was as nice as he seems on camera.” Lisa clasps her hands together under her chin.
“Yeah, I thought the same thing, Lisa. Then when we were chatting, the elevator just stopped. We called for help, and it was a couple hours before they could get to us.”
“Oh, my gosh! That’s no fun at all, except for being stuck with Jace. That sounds pretty amazing.” Alicia winks at me.
“Why did Jace say it got tense?” Jeff pipes in.
“Ah well, towards the end, the elevator started making some weird, loud noises, and then it plummeted a few stories. It was pretty scary.”
Jeff reaches a hand out and places it on my forearm. “That sounds terrifying. Are you okay?”
The others echo his concern, and I wave them off. “We’re both fine. It wasn’t that bad really, other than the last thirty minutes.”
Right then, another instructor makes his way over to our group. Alex is just as loud and fun and vibrant as he is when he runs our classes, and everyone’s attention is thankfully pulled away from me for the moment.
As the event progresses, more and more instructors stop by until we’ve had a one on one with most of them. The emcee comes back over the speakers and grabs everyone’s attention.
“Hey folks. I’m sorry to say that tonight’s meet and greet is winding down. If you haven’t had enough fun yet today, don’t forget that there will be a special yoga class this evening in room 2B.”