But when I turn, it’s not a reporter or a fan with a camera.
It’s a kid—teen, maybe. Braces. Big brown eyes. Vibrating with excitement like she’s just spotted a celebrity. Which, I guess, technically I am.
“Hey,” I say warily in my deep voice.
“Oh my God, hey!” she squeaks again, like she’s buffering on repeat.
I glance at Mason, Luc, and Otis, and they’re just watching with varying degrees of amusement.
I’m standing besideLuc-fucking-Delacroix, and she’s freaking out overme?
What the hell?
A second kid jogs up beside her, taller, with the same dark hair and eyes. Like they’re a matching set. “Rach…” he hisses, “… you’re embarrassing yourself.”
The girl glares at him. “But it’s?—”
“Hey,” he cuts in quickly. “I’m Kevin. This is Rachel.”
“Nice to meet you,” I answer automatically, eyes flicking between them, then back to Mason and Luc. They both shrug like this is somehowmysituation now.
“We’re big fans,” Rachel blurts, clutching the straps of her hydration pack.
“Thanks?” I say, awkwardly, making Mason snort.
Then Finn jogs over out of nowhere, sounding breathless. “What did I say?” he pants, pulling up next to them.
Rachel shrugs. “You were taking too long!”
“Itriedto hold her back,” Kevin mutters.
Finn exhales. “If you want Al to take you with on the track walk, you’ve got to behave.”
“We are behaving,” Kevin protests. “We just said hello.”
“They just said hello,” I echo, glancing at Finn. “So, they’re yours?”
Finn runs a hand through his hair and sighs again. “Yeah. That’s Rachel. Kevin. They’re?—”
“We already introduced ourselves,” Kevin interrupts.
“Wow. Manners for zero point two seconds. We’re making progress.” Finn shoots him a look, then his eyes find mine again. “They’re about to be juniors. I’m training them.”
My brows lift, heart kicking a little harder.Theseare the juniors? They’re cute, and I know Finn picked good kids if he put so much heart into this. I would love to tell him about the phone call yesterday. Tell him that Dad said he’d make it happen, but I want to wait until it’s sure-sure before I say anything. Still, it’s hard not to smile.
“You guys wanna come with me on the track walk?” I ask, flicking my eyes between them.
“Yes!” Rachel’s face lights up again. “I mean, yes, please, that would be amazing.”
“I promised them I’d take them, but…” Finn trails off with a shrug and a lopsided smile. “I’m not a rider anymore, and I hoped maybe you would…”
“Of course, I’ll take you guys,” I agree easily.
Rachel lets out a high-pitched squeal that makes Mason huff a laugh. I reach for his wrist, giving it a gentle squeeze in apology, since we’d planned to ride the gondola up together, but he gives me that soft smile in return. As I move past him and Luc to join Finn and the juniors at the next gondola, I let my fingers brush Luc’s arm in passing, and he flashes me a wink.
As the gondola door hisses shut behind us, and we all sit down, Rachel blurts, “Alaina, I’m your biggest fan!”
“Rach!” Finn visibly tenses. “Didn’t I tell you not to use her name here?”
