“Now, there’s a place I’d love to see. But unless they invent teleporting, I don’t think I’ll ever make it.”
He pushed off fully from the shallow water and together they found sync in their paddling efforts. “You did just fine on the flight out here.”
“It was all of twenty minutes. I think it takes longer to fly over an entire ocean.” She shook her head, her black ponytail bouncing back and forth with the movement. He rather liked the sight of Jenna sharing a tandem kayak with him. Wondered what it might be like tostillshare moments like this years from now. One kiss would never be enough. He was lying to himself if he thought it would be. But the situation was more complicated than simply choosing whether or not to stay. “You want to know what I think?”
“What?”
“You’re running away.”
“Is that what Haylee told you?”
“Actually, no.” Jenna glanced at him over his shoulder, but with those pesky sunglasses covering her eyes again, he was left to wonder what lingered in her gaze. “I mean, she told me you haven’t had a serious girlfriend since high school. That helped me put some of the pieces together.”
Cody felt uncomfortably vulnerable. He was the expert at reading people. Very few were ever able to figure him out. Eddie had been an exception, and the old man had suggested the same as his granddaughter was now. At least he understood where Jenna got her insightfulness. “I like my lifestyle,” he countered, only his tone nonchalant. His erratic pulse was anything but. “It’s a lot to ask of someone, to put up with me constantly leaving. Or taking a last-minute assignment and bouncing from one spot to another.” One winter season, he’d ping-ponged between three different movie sets, sometimes boarding a plane every few days.
“Not if she came with you,” Jenna pointed out.
He stared at her, watching the breeze lift individual strands of her ponytail. Relieved she wasn’t so easily able to study him from where she sat. With her fear of flying, he doubted she’d ever be that person. Too much to hope that was what she was suggesting. Plus, there was Graham. She’d peppered the pup with hugs and kisses and left Haylee with a tote bag worth of treats, all for a half-day trip.
“Not many women are up for that.”
“Sure, they are.” Jenna pointed at another eagle in the sky. “That makes four!”
“Only five more to go.” Part of him hoped they wouldn’t see enough eagles to mark that off his list. Or that Ed would remain elusive and give him a reason to stay. But it was wishful thinking at best. Not showing up to Maui would have irreversible consequences.So does leaving.
“You’re running,” Jenna said matter-of-factly.
“Running from what?”
“Any chance of commitment or falling in love.” She lifted her sunglasses to her forehead when she turned back. “Who was she?”
“Who was who?”
“The high school sweetheart who broke your heart?”
“I’m not the only one keeping an arm’s length where relationships are concerned,” he said, eager to dodge that conversation. He was only seventeen back then. He’d grown a lot. Learned a lot. He was an entirely different person now. “What about you?”
“What about me?”
“No boyfriend back home?”
“It’s not for lack of effort, believe me,” Jenna said seriously. “I’m picky. I know what I’m looking for, and if it’s unrealistic, then I’m okay being alone. As long as I have a dog and my art can bring me joy again, I know I’d be content.”
Content felt like settling, but Cody didn’t say that out loud when he was doing the same thing. He was content traveling and being a stuntman. He enjoyed trying new things and chasing the adrenaline rush those stunts provided. He liked meeting new people and absorbing their stories. But it all left him feeling merelycontent.
“Oh, my— Cody, there’s a bear.” She looked at him, her expression a mixture of shock and terror. “What do we do?”
“Relax,” he said. “She’s far enough away she won’t bother us as long as we leave her and her cubs to fish.”
“Cubs?” Jenna’s tone perked as she searched the shore for the two bear cubs he’d already spotted emerging from the brush. “You know, I never suspected Bear Glacier kayaking would include actual bears. Just figured it was the name of the glacier.” She dug into her interior jacket pocket and pulled out her phone. “Think you can turn the kayak so we can get a picture that doesn’t upset mama bear?”
“On it.” Cody felt relieved for the much-needed topic shift. If he could, he’d personally thank the grizzly for saving him from an embarrassing line of questions about his younger self and what he may or may not be running from. But that earlier earth-shattering kiss . . . that was something he couldn’t so easily forget.
ChapterTen
Jenna
“I’m not coming back to Indiana, Whitney.” Jenna paced in her lodge room, wishing despite its cozy spaciousness, that it was larger. Graham was curled on the bed as to keep out of her path. She’d been going around with her sister for the past twenty minutes, andstillWhitney didn’t seem to hear her.Some things never change.
