Chaos Theory (Nerds of Paradise #2)(19)
“Yes, sir,” Will said in a disappointed tone. “Yes, sir, tomorrow.” He paused. “No one is sure. At least five days, we’re told.” Another pause. “Yes, sir.” Pause. “Yes, sir.” That was it. He pulled the phone away from his ear, tapped it to end the call, and slid it into his shorts pocket.
“Everything okay?” Melody asked when he turned around and walked back to her, eyes averted, jaw hard enough to cut diamonds.
He ignored her. “We could make a circuit or we could run out for half an hour, then turn around and walk back to cool down.”
“Whatever you want.” She fell into step beside him as he walked past her, heading for the street, her heart aching for him. “Are you sure you’re okay? We don’t have to do this right now. We’ve trained a lot, so maybe we should just relax, get a coffee, and get a good night’s sleep.”
His jaw twitched and his steps grew deliberate. “We’ll head past the hotel and out toward the old village.”
He didn’t wait to make sure she was with him before switching from walking to jogging. Melody was lucky that this wasn’t her first time out and that she’d spent the last week mastering the unique pacing needed for jogging. She’d literally tripped over her own feet the first time she’d given jogging a try, but now she was able to catch up to Will’s side and keep pace with him. That didn’t mean she wasn’t sweating and winded within ten minutes. And Will still hadn’t said a word or looked at her. It went against every bit of her nature to let the silence stand.
“So dads, eh?” she began, breathless but determined, as they passed the last building on Elizabeth Street and headed out beyond a park on the east side of town. “They can be such a pain sometimes.”
She waited. Will gave no indication that he’d even heard her, let alone that he was willing to tell her anything about his phone call.
“My dad’s been embarrassing me since I was born,” she went on. Will could give her the silent treatment all he wanted, but she would win this battle. “He’s a sex therapist.”
Without missing a stride, Will flinched. Or at least, his expression tightened by a hair’s breadth for a fraction of a second before evening out into hard neutrality.
“Well, he’d tell you that he was a psychologist specializing in marriage counseling and intimate relationships, but really, he coaches people about how to have healthy sex.” They passed the park and headed out along the road toward some of the smaller, closer ranches. Melody couldn’t stop herself from grinning as she peeked at Will. “Healthy sex,” she repeated. “Not safe sex, mind you, although that’s part of it. He says that he helps to put people in touch with their body’s natural sexual feeling in a positive and constructive way so that they can build better intimacy with their partners in all aspects of life.”
Still no reaction from Will. She, on the other hand, was getting closer and closer to breaking down into giggles. It made her reckless.
“Dad is pretty open about sex. He believes it’s just another, important human function that gives us pleasure, like eating a bowl of gourmet ice cream or lying in the sun on a balmy summer day. He’s really against sex being considered taboo or shameful, and says that half the world’s problems could be solved if people would just embrace the full spectrum of their sexual feelings.”
A red stain had splashed across Will’s cheeks, but whether it was from the exertion of running or her sex talk, Melody couldn’t tell. She was enjoying herself far too much to stop, though.
“I’ll never forget when he came to talk to my middle school Health class about the reproductive system,” she went on. “He brought diagrams. Diagrams that I’m not sure I’d show to sixth graders. And he talked about stimulation and climax. You should have seen the teacher’s face. I think she learned something from that class.”
Still nothing from Will. Well, aside from his deep blush. And if she wasn’t mistaken, his stride wasn’t quite as comfortable as it had been. She risked a look at his shorts to see if she was having any effect. It was hard to tell with all the jogging.
“I’m just glad it wasn’t a co-ed class,” she continued. “Though heaven knows why the school administrators thought it was a good idea to ask my dad to teach sexual health to the girls’ Health class instead of just the boys’. I can only imagine what he told the boys. And before you ask,” she interrupted herself, so close to laughing that her words sounded more breathless than even jogging could account for, “no, he wasn’t invited back to teach the course again. Although I think that had more to do with the fact that he proselytized to the boys about the benefits of masturbation than anything else. I can just imagine the angry phone calls from parents over—”
“Stop!”
Will shouted the word so forcefully that Melody stumbled a few steps. Will stopped where he was, panting heavily and glaring at her like he was one of those irate parents.
“Is everything okay? Do you want to talk about it?” She threw in the last question the way caution was thrown to the wind.
“No, I do not want to talk about it,” Will barked at her. Melody flinched, her goofy smile fading. “I don’t want to talk about your sexual education. I don’t want to talk about the benefits and drawbacks of masturbation. I don’t want to talk about your dad, and I most certainly don’t want to talk about mine.”