“Jack?” I laugh.
“Well, yeah. He’d come with you, right?”
I sigh heavily. “You saw how he couldn’t wait to be out of the bookstore that night.”
“I just figured it was a new environment for him. Besides, like you said, he’s shy.”
I’m glad she can’t see me cringe. “Yeah, I don’t know about asking Jack. It’s not exactly his thing, you know?”
Gina starts to answer, but a call coming through from Olivia interrupts her. She makes me promise that I’ll think about it. After the call ends, though, I stare down at my phone, my mind somehow blank and whirling in a million different directions at once.
What am I supposed to think about, actually? There isn’t a lot of ambiguity here. Flying freaks me the fuck out. Maybe I could white-knuckle my way through if I had Jack’s burly arm to keep a death grip on the entire time. But the only thought more ridiculous than me cheerfully boarding a plane is the thought ofJackcheerfully boarding a plane… to go do something he’d fucking hate.
I tell myself I’ll think about it later, hoping that if I put it out of my mind, I’ll manage to just forget instead.
12
ADAIR
At the top of the bluff, I blow out a sigh of satisfaction.
“That elevation was no joke, but this view makes it totally worth it,” I say as Jack joins me on the flat granite outcrop. I let him pick the trail, since this weekend is technically his birthday present. I’m happy that the scenery is as spectacular as the reviews on the hiking app promised.
“How’s that hand?” he asks, picking up my wrist to inspect it. We had to do a little rock-scrambling just before the summit, but the new skin where my burn healed is no worse for wear.
“I’m good,” I say with a shrug, although I’m touched that Jack’s first thought after that strenuous climb was about me.
I shade my eyes with my hand as I take in the view: Steep slopes thickly blanketed with dense forest, broken up on one side with a bare rock face that slices through all that green like a scar. If I squint, I can just about make out a couple of rock climbers, clinging to the sheer cliff like insects.
I let out a hum of contentment. “Wow, this is really gorgeous.”
“It’s fucking something,” Jack agrees. A few moments later, he makes a noise of either amusement or impatience. “You ought to take a picture. It’ll last longer.”
I don’t know if he means it or not, but since he said it, I take advantage of the opportunity. “Oh, yeah!” I pull out my phone. “Let’s take a picture of us with the view in the background.”
Jack bites back a sigh and rolls his eyes but arranges himself next to me. “Hey!” I protest when he takes my phone out of my hand.
“What? My arms are longer than yours.”
“Oh, right. Thanks, then.” It never occurred to me that Jack wouldvoluntarilytake a selfie. I lean my head against his chest with a happy sigh as he snaps a picture.
A thought pops into my head. “Wait. Take one more.” I hop onto my toes.
“We’re done with this shit after this one,” he grumbles, but I feel a smile rounding his cheek beneath my lips as I kiss him. I bury my face in his hair and inhale deeply, not wanting this moment to end. Jack sort of chuckles but doesn’t say anything.
As we start making our way back, he points at a different blaze. “Hey, let’s see where this one goes for a little bit.”
I don’t know why the idea of a camping trip with Jack never occurred to me before, because it’s actually reallynicespending time out in the woods with him. If he wasn’t all grouchy about it being his birthday, I might not even have had to talk him into it. Even though our hike back is mostly quiet, I can tell he’s having a good time in spite of himself.
I’m wrapped up in my little cocoon of contentment as I follow Jack down a shallow ravine after the final fork in the trail that will lead us back to our campsite. It’s shaded and muddy down here as we track what looks like a dry creek bed.
I’m picking my steps carefully when, out of nowhere, my mind flashes to another muddy forest floor, another trekthrough the woods —a night that ended with me writhing half-naked on the ground as Jack worked me over, made me filthy and humiliated me.
My dick twitches.
That night, Jack glances up at me with a frown from the other side of the campfire. “What’s the matter?”
“Nothing.” I take a sip of my beer and nibble at a piece of cornbread. “Just not really hungry.”
