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We quickly pulled back

“I hope no one saw us,” I said

He shrugged “What are they going to do about it?”

I nodded toward the wooden staircase about a hundred feet in front of us “Let’s get up on flat ground I’”

“I wouldn’t call it extreet off this cliff”

“Whatever”

Even though I wanted to break into a sprint, we kept close to the wall I breathed a sigh of relief e reached the stairs I sprinted to the first landing and groaned There had to be a hundred more steps to reach the top

My legs were on fire by the time we made it

“Why didn’t it seem like that many stairs on the way down?” I huffed

“We were rinned at ?”

I pointed to a large, grassy path under a canopy of trees “That way”

Since it was a weekday, the park wasn’t crowded We passed a few people walking their dogs No one looked at us twice or asked if ere lost

It took longer than I re lot with the low stone wall overlooking Empire County and beyond But e finally did, Roman stopped and stared

“Wow”

“It’s pretty, right? You can see all the way to Verht direction

We found a spot with the least nu our view and sat on the wall, staring out at the Ereen fields, and trees “I’ve alanted to come up here to watch the sunrise”

“I bet that would be pretty” Roman shifted closer and wrapped his ar my head on his shoulder

After a few minutes, he curled his free hand around mine and rubbed his thumb over my knuckles “Was that okay? What hat I did back there?”

I lifted my head and met his concerned stare “More than okay” I touched ht stubble along his jaw “I wanted to do ood too”

He skiood I really liked…doing that…watching you I just e’d been alone”

“Me too,” I sighed

“Hawkins! Hayworth!” an angry male voice shouted our names

We whipped around A furious Mr Broo lot toward us We both scraet off the wall I felt half-naked and silly in nothing but my bikini top and denim shorts