Page 15 of The Hang Up
“Have fun today, okay?” Ellie said.
“Roger that,” Jason said, swallowing the lump in his throat as he stopped at the front door. “I’m just a phone call away if you need me.”
“Got it.” Ellie stretched up to give him a kiss on the cheek, which Jason made a big show of wiping off.
“Cooties.”
She rolled her eyes and gave him a fond smile. “You’re a jerk.”
“You’re a brat.”
“You’re a smelly boy.” She shoved him again.“Enjoy the spelunking. Behave yourself with your PR lady.”
“I’ll give it my best shot.”
“I’m sure you will.” She gave him a suggestive eyebrow wiggle, which just made him laugh.
Laugh and think lecherous thoughts about Miriam.
He was still grinning as he made his way down the walkway.
* * *
Miriam stood shiveringat the mouth of the cave, her fingers clenched around the helmet Jason had just handed her. She couldn’t recall the last time she’d worn a helmet for anything, which didn’t make her a wind-in-the-hair, helmet- free daredevil. On the contrary, she never did anything that necessitated cranial protection.
“I still can’t believe you wore high heels to go caving,” Jason muttered, shaking his head as he adjusted his own helmet.
“They’re not high heels, they’re wedges.” Miriam turned her foot to the side to admire her tan leather calf-high boots. “It’s only a two-inch wedge, and they’re made by Keen— that company that has all the hiking stuff?”
“I know what Keen is. We sell their products through Urban Trax, and those boots arenotfor hiking. Walking on flat ground, maybe, but we’re going to be trekking over lava rock and crawling on our bellies through tunnels.”
Miriam glanced toward the cave and frowned. “If I’ll be crawling, my footwear seems irrelevant. You should have warned me to wear full body armor.”
“Here,” he said, prying the helmet from her hands as he thrust a pair of sturdy-looking boots at her. “I thought this might be an issue, so I brought a whole stash of women’s hiking boots.”
“You keep that beside your stash of women’s underpants?”
“Very funny. I used to run an outdoor adventure company. I probably have more boots and jackets in my closet than you do, though mine are a helluva lot more practical.”
“Depends on the occasion, doesn’t it?” She took the hiking boots from him and sat down on a boulder to swap out her footwear. “I’d much rather go into a board meeting wearing Manolos than these.”
“Lucky for you, we’re not going into a board meeting.”
“You’re going to have to explain at some point how that’s lucky.”
She yanked off her existing boot, throwing off her center of gravity. Before she could topple off the boulder, Jason slipped into the space beside her, bracing her shoulder with his hip.
“Steady there,” he said.“I’d rather not have you breaking an ankle before we even get inside.”
“If breaking an ankle will get me out of going in that cave, I might give it a shot.”
Jason laughed and Miriam went back to tying her boot. Sarcasm aside, she really was a little freaked out about the cave. She didn’t like to admit it, but she’d always had just a touch of claustrophobia, and the idea of being in a cave with all those spiders and bats and?—
“There are no spiders,” Jason said, reading her thoughts. “It’s too dark in there, and there’s no reliable food source.”
“What about bats?”
He shook his head. “Not this time of year, and not in this cave. Bats are amazing, though. They eat mosquitoes and pests, and the ones in this area are actually very cute and fuzzy.”
