Paradise Falls (Paradise Falls #1-5)(18)

We’re just riding bikes. That’s all.

She sat on the edge of her bed to lace up her sneakers when she heard a thump downstairs, and the doorbell chimed. She tied the laces and darted down the stairs.

She pulled the door open without looking through the peephole. Jacob wore ragged cut off jeans and a black t-shirt of high performance weave that fit him like a second skin. The tight muscles of his chest and stomach flexed as he breathed.

“Hi?” he said.

Jennifer stared at hi m.

“Oh, hi,” Jennifer shook her head. “Um, I-“

“Ready to go?”

Jacob insisted on lifting her bike down the stairs to sit next to his. She expected something elite and expensive, but it was a battered three speed with fading paint that he might’ve bought at a toy store. He walked his bike down to the road beside her. There was no sign of his car. He must’ve ridden down to meet her.

“Where are we headed?”

He nodded in a generally southern direction. “That way.”

“Suits me,” said Jennifer.

“See if you can keep up.”

She arched an eyebrow at the challenge, and strapped on her helmet. Jacob did the same after pulling his hair back and tying it loosely with a cord. They took off slowly, but he soon increased his speed. The pace was easy enough as they rode down the street towards the school. The town still slept.

Jacob glanced at her, leaned into it, and put on the speed.

Jennifer kept up. If he meant to impress her, it wasn’t working. It took her a while to get nice and warmed up, and then she pulled ahead of him. He pedaled faster and pulled alongside her, and she sped up yet again.

“Are you trying to lose me?”

“No,” she shouted, grinning. “Not yet.”

He started to pull ahead again. He wasn’t even breathing hard. Jennifer leaned into her handlebars and went all out.

“Catch me if you can!” she shouted.

I haven’t had this much fun since… her ring itched.

Her leg muscles burned, but she pushed through it with steady deep breaths and the will to go faster. Jacob disappeared from her peripheral vision and her cheeks ached from grinning.

This was fun. Definitely far more fun than riding solo. Rides like this cleared her head, but on most days she returned to the house with more worries than when she left. Riding as fast as she could and challenging him to keep up was freeing The ching-ching of his goofy bell dogged her. Jennifer chanced a moment’s glance at him, and pedaled faster. Sweat prickled on her forehead and between her shoulder blades.

Everything but the pumping of her legs faded from her mind. She crested the next hill and rocketed down, not coasting but using it to grab more speed. Jacob leaned into it now, but he kept pace with her. His body was tight, his arms flexed, and his face was a mask of concentration. Jennifer forced herself to keep her eyes on the road.

Aware of his presence next to her, just like the rays of the sun on her back or the wind rushing over the skin of her legs, she laughed and pedaled faster. She led the way, turning onto Commerce Street and out of the town proper. They blasted past the pub, the local Loyal Order of Moose, and the battered old diner at the south end of town.

Silence fell on her as she pedaled across the new four lane bridge. The bike lane overlooked over the river, and Jennifer purposely avoided looking to her right. Even though the wreckage cleared away a long time ago, a jagged landscape of torn metal and broken concrete would always be there.

Jennifer let off when they reached the other side where the road went from cement back to asphalt. She panted as she coasted to a stop. Sweat glued her shirt to her back.

Jacob offered her a bandana, and she took it. His shirt material carried the sweat to the surface rather than absorbing it, and the effect made his chest shine. He wiped his forehead on the back of his hand.

“I should get one of those shirts,” she said, gasping between words as she tugged on her shirt to get some air flowing.

“I believe you should,” he said, eyeing her. “You’re fast, aren’t you?”

“Fast and thirsty.”

He had a water bottle clipped to the frame of his bike. Jennifer forgot to take one of her own. He handed it to her and she squeezed some out into her mouth, held it there to feel the coolness, and swallowed. She passed the bottle back.

“You can have all you want,” he said, absently.

She smirked. “I’m sure.”

She liked this. It felt natural.

Her ring itched.

He took a drink, and looked around. “Why’d you stop here?”

The monument perched next to the remains of the old bridge abutment. Comprised of a ring of small obelisks in front of a semicircle of stone, it formed a viewing platform over the river.

“I didn’t… I wasn’t thinking,” she said.

Jacob wheeled his bike up the path. Jennifer swung off of her bike to follow him, and left it on the kickstand beside his as he walked to the monument.

“I’ve never been here,” he said.

She stepped beside him. “You haven’t?”

He shook his head. “My uncle wouldn’t let me attend the ceremony.”

He walked to the first pillars and scanned the names carved in the marble.

“They’re in alphabetical order,” she said, absently.