It was the only thing that could have made Alex look away from him. “Going where?”
“The other side of the island.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Alex
Forty-five minutes later, they were still walking. The sky that had felt so bright when they left was now hidden behind a dense canopy of trees. The ground was rockier, the undergrowth thicker. They were off the beaten path in every sense of the word, and Alex could feel the group getting restless.
“You’d think we could do this a little closer to home,” someone grumbled, and someone else agreed, but Alex stayed quiet beside King as they brought up the rear.
They were almost to the base of the mountain that sliced the island in two, and the trees were growing thicker. Everything was so green, it was almost black, and even the birds looked brighter in the stillness.
“Keep an eye out for a good place to climb.” King slid an arm around Alex’s shoulders and whispered near her ear as they hung back and let the group get a little distance.
“I don’t think thereisa good place to climb.” Every now and then the trees would part and they’d look up at cliffs that seemed even steeper, sharper. Deadlier. From that vantage point, it looked like they might as well try to climb the clouds.
They were alone—with the others walking ahead and the sounds of the forest all around them—but Alex wrapped her arm around King’s waist, just in case.
“Think we can split off from the group?” he wondered.
“Get lost?” She couldn’t keep from smiling.
“We could say we got turned around,” he offered.
“We could say we got turned on,” she said, and he chuckled—tooquickly and too loudly, like he’d surprised even himself. The cocoon of safety she’d felt the night before was still with her in a way that made her wonder if it wasn’t just the bed and the bungalow. If maybe it was—
“David!” Flora shouted from the top of a rise. “Donna!” She wasn’t that far away and yet it was hard to hear her because there was a sound beneath the words—a low rumble that was turning into a roar, growing louder and louder with every step as they inched up the incline and then looked down... and gasped. But Flora just beamed and said, “We’re here.”
***
So it turned out “trust falls” were less “clichéd team building activity” and more—
“OMG, Todd, take my picture!” Jennifer was whipping off her (white) cover-up and posing in front of the sapphire pool in her (white) bikini, while looking up at the waterfall that cascaded down from a hundred feet overhead, falling like a curtain, obscuring rocks and cliffs and mossy grass. A foamy mist caught the sunlight and turned the air to rainbows, but all Alex could do was peer as the pool rippled before them, the water clear and deep and gorgeous.
Flora brought her hands together. “Welcome, lovers, to the first day of your Cupid Quest.”
“She really needs to pick a theme and stick with it,” King grumbled, and Alex didn’t even bother toshhhhim.
“As we ask the goddess—”
“Is it a goddess or Cupid?” King whispered, but Alex had to wonder.
“I think Cupidisa god?”
“Thensaygod.”
He probably could have lived with the rest of it, but the inconsistency was going to be the death of him. King didn’t just like order. Heneededit, Alex was coming to realize. What she didn’t know was why.
“As we encircle our lovers and find our inner—”
“I’m sorry.” King’s hand shot into the air. He was almost at his breaking point and Alex shouldn’t have been enjoying it, but she was. “What—exactly—is the objective here?”
King had been the first to master everything they’d taught at the Farm, but he was going to fail Cupidism 101, and Alex wanted to ask if there would be actual report cards. Maybe diplomas. Or transcripts. She wanted one framed and hanging in the house she didn’t own. She wanted to cherish it like the best friend she didn’t have. She wanted it to be the pet she’d never bring home. Watching King fail at Couple Camp was her mission now. Her reason for living.
But Flora just looked... concerned. And confused. And then she said, “It’s probably better to just dive in.”
She meant it literally, Alex knew. Why else would they all be wearing bathing suits after hiking to the most beautiful natural pool she’d ever seen? Still, she wasn’t quite prepared for the sight of King whipping off his shirt and shoes and then jumping in the water and holding out his arms like he might catch her. Maybe that was why she didn’t move.
