Heart & Soul: A Romance (Tanner Family Book 3) by Brooke St. James

Author:Brooke St. James [St. James, Brooke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Parkside Press
Published: 2019-12-12T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Stella

We rode up and down the escalator ten times. Caleb always let me get on in front of him, but I reversed our roles on the very last time riding down. I knew it was the last leg of our escalator adventure, and I wanted to do something unexpected.

I stood back gesturing for Caleb to get on ahead of me.

Neither of us had been giving any thought or consideration to the mechanics of walking and riding the escalators. We had been focused on talking and telling stories. Caleb hadn't been expecting me to tell him to go first, so he didn't have time to think about it. He just stepped onto the escalator ahead of me.

He turned, expecting me to get on with him, but I didn't. I just watched him ride downward. He was about three feet away from me when his expression changed to one of question.

"Are you staying up there?" he asked as he slowly, smoothly drifted away from me.

"Would you miss me if I did?" I asked.

It was officially flirty, but he would be driving away in minutes and I had to pull out all the stops.

"Yes, I would," he said. "I can't just leave you up there. If you won't come down, I'll have to go up after you."

I grinned at the thought. "That's what I wanted you to do," I said. "You said you liked to go up the down escalator. I want you to put your money where your mouth is."

"You want me to climb back up this set?" he asked in surprise.

I nodded at him as he grew farther and farther away.

"You know it'll take me about three-and-a-half seconds," he said confidently.

That sounded like the men in my family, and it made me laugh. "Okay, show me, big shot."

Caleb stood on the first floor looking up at me. I could see his whole body—head to toe. There was nothing between us besides a moving set of stairs. He shook his head at me before taking off.

Caleb was absolutely accurate when he estimated how many seconds it took him to make it back to me. One second, I was staring down at him, and the next, he was flying up the stairs.

He came to a smooth but abrupt stop as soon as his feet hit the floor at the top. His momentum was so great and I was so close to the edge that he almost ran into me. I could have stepped back, but I didn't. I held my ground, letting him crowd my space. I wanted more than anything for him to just take a hold of me and draw me into his arms. I wanted him to hold me tightly. His chest rose and fell as he took a deep breath, looking down at me.

"That was seriously only three seconds," I said, staring up at him.

He smiled. "I told you."

"I thought you were over-exaggerating."

"Nope."

"You're barely even winded from that," I said, taking in the fact that his breathing wasn't even labored.

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