Beautiful Illusions Read Online Free Page B

that he had a pair of clip shoes in his hand, and a helmet in the other hand.
    “Great, great. Wow, you really think of everything.”
    “Well, I see th at you already have the shoes. But do you need this helmet, at least?”
    I nodded. “I can’t find mine anywhere.” He handed me the helmet, and I adjusted it to fit my head. “Actually, let me see those shoes. Those look nicer than mine.” And, indeed they were. I put them on. They fit better than mine as well. “You get all these things at Dick’s this morning?”
    “Yeah. I realized after I went home last night that I didn’t ask you if you had the right gear, so I just decided to pick this stuff up, just in case. I'm glad that I did.”
    “Everything actually fits perfectly,” I said, thinking about the irony of him bringing me shoes that fit perfectly. Cinderella popped into my head for a brief moment.
    “Groovy. Then let’s get going.” I smiled at his use of the word “groovy.” Maybe we are going to get along after all.
    Once in the car, Ryan grabbed my hand, and kissed it, then kissed me. “I know that this is going to sound crazy, but I missed you last night after I left.”
    Crazy isn’t the word for that. There are no words for that.
    We drove along in silence for a few minutes. I was back to my speechless mode. This was all so bizarre to me. I mean, I had experienced this kind of crazy ardor before, usually from some weaselly loser who won’t stop calling me. Never from somebody like Ryan.
    “What’s on your mind?” Ryan asked, driving.
    “I am just trying to figure out what it is that you see in me.”
    Ryan smiled. “ That’s easy. You're fun. You're real. You’re passionate. You're damned sexy. And you're beautiful.”
    I blushed, finally beginning to believe that he was really into me, and I wasn't on an episode of Punk'd after all.
    We got to his trails, and I immediately felt that the whole scenario was not for me. For one thing, I was terrified of going down the trails. We started out on some flat trails, and this was fine. I could roll along and keep up. However, when it came to the steep downhill trails with all the rocks and branches, I couldn’t go down them because I was too fearful. The few times I tried, I wiped out and landed painfully on rocks. Ryan was always very good about this, coming to my aid, and he was ready with some bandages and Neosporin, but I ended up with a great deal of road rash for my efforts.
    And biking up these steep hills? Forget about it, although Ryan was an expert at all of this. I watched his sinewy legs peddling up those hills, and I momentarily forgot my misery. Only momentarily, though.
    Finally, we arrived at one of the streams that he was talking about earlier. He had a lunch ready, with turkey sandwiches and granola bars. We got our water bottles out of the cages on the side of our bikes, and sat down beneath a tree.
    “So, how're you doing, beautiful?” he asked with a gentle smile. I saw him looking at the road rash sympathetically.
    “I don’t know if this is for me.” I felt defeated.
    He smiled. “Relax. We can try again, if you like. If you don’t, it’s no biggie. Really. Honestly.”
    I shook my h ead skeptically, remembering that we had talked about how he loved to ski last night as well. Ryan told me that he skied black diamonds. I had to Google this, not knowing what black diamonds were, then found out that they were the most difficult course. “I don’t ski, either,” I said, miserably. This guy is going to get so bored with me.
    “Sweetheart, it's ok. I like you. I don’t care if you're not into adventure sports. I'm impressed that you're trying this. Most girls wouldn’t.” He tousled my hair, and lay down on the ground next to me. He patted the ground, and I lay down as well. He kissed me slowly, lightly, and the familiar jolt of electricity coursed through my body. I had to admit that I didn’t recall ever feeling this way about anybody else before. At