The Resolution of Callie & Kayden(35)

I recline against the wall and casually ask, ‘Who’s that?’

He stares at the screen a second longer before texting something back. ‘No one.’

I’m not sure how to respond to his brush off, so I crack a joke. ‘Well, clearly it’s someone; otherwise, your phone wouldn’t have gone off.’

He presses one last button on the screen then returns his phone to his pocket before looking back at me. ‘It was just a text from Seth.’

‘And what’d it say?’

He shrugs, bracing a hand on the wall beside my head. ‘Nothing important really.’ He leans in to kiss me, but I place a hand on his solid chest and stop him.

‘Your jaw’s twitching right now,’ I remark, somewhat amused, but a little bit upset.

He gives me a mock offended look, pushing back from the wall to press his hand to his chest. ‘Are you accusing me of lying?’

I narrow my eyes at him, but it’s a playful gesture. ‘Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m doing?’ I point a finger at him as we reach the bottom floor and the elevator doors glide open. ‘I know you’re keeping something from me and I’m going to find out.’

He’s completely entertained now as he follows me off the elevator and toward the exit doors. ‘And how do you plan on doing that?’ He shoots me a cocky grin.

‘Wow, aren’t we a little bit cocky today.’ I retaliate with an arrogant squaring of my shoulders as I reach into my pocket. ‘But we’ll see who’s the cocky one after I text Seth.’

His amusement suddenly shifts to worry as I pull out my phone. ‘Seth knows he’s not supposed to tell you.’

I raise my phone up in front of us and wiggle it around, teasing him. ‘Seth is terrible at keeping secrets. You and I both know that.’ I really don’t have any intention of texting Seth. I’m simply having fun and hoping he’ll just tell me whatever his little secret is.

‘Callie, don’t,’ he warns, but he’s fighting back a smile.

I let mine slip through, though, full on grinning as I run backwards toward the door. ‘I’m totally doing it.’ I laugh then whirl around and burst through the doors. Snow is tumbling from the sky and the wind is howling, but I continue to sprint down the sidewalk toward the parking lot.

I know he’s going to catch me soon, my short legs don’t stand a chance against his long, very in-shape ones, but I’m still going to try my hardest because it’s fun and I’m enjoying myself. And really that’s kind of the point of everything, isn’t it? To enjoy life and have fun. I spent so much time never smiling, laughing, enjoying anything, and I feel like I missed out on so much, but that doesn’t mean I can’t make up for it now, or for the rest of my life for that matter.

‘You think you can outrun me!’ Kayden calls out, laughing, his heavy footsteps close behind.

‘Of course I can!’ Laughter sputters from my lungs as I veer to the right and try to race across the snowy lawn, but it’s chilly enough that the snow is freezing the moment it touches the ground, making it slippery and complicated to run on. I curse as my feet try to part ways from underneath me and my hands shoot out to my sides in an attempt to keep my balance.

Right as I’m about to fall flat on my ass, a set of strong arms wrap around my waist. A split second later, a warm chest presses against my back as I’m helped to my feet.

‘You’re really asking for it, aren’t you?’ Kayden whispers in my ear, dragging his teeth across the sensitive spot of flesh right below it as he helps me stand back upright.

I shiver and not from the cold. ‘Maybe.’

His fingers dig into my flesh right below the hem of my black T-shirt. ‘I’ll take your phone as payment for saving your cute little ass from falling.’

I grip my phone in my hand, my eyelashes fluttering against the thick snowflakes. ‘No way.’

He chuckles lowly, a deep noise that vibrates from his chest and I have to bite down on my lip to keep from whimpering. ‘Okay, I guess we’ll have to do this the hard way.’

‘Isn’t this the hard way already?’ I sound breathless.

He laughs again and then, without warning, his fingers sneak up my shirt and he starts to tickle me.

‘Stop!’ I shout through my laughter, my legs giving out on me. I almost buckle to the ground, but he’s there to hold me up and he keeps tickling me until I almost pee my pants.