He’d better tell me where he is ASAP because I…
I squint, staring at the background of his picture. He’s in a forest, but the cabin behind him looks like…
“No way,” I breathe, pulling up the first social media site I can think of. I have no idea what Derek’s handle might be, but it doesn’t take long to find his official account, @therealderekriley. He’s been active for the last few months, posting every couple of days, and it’s been a mixture of on-set selfies with costars and crewmembers, snippets of online interviews he’s been doing, and nature shots of places that are so familiar that my eyes start to sting. One of his more recent posts is a selfie in front of Lower Calf Creek Falls, one of my favorite hikes to do in the fall but one that can be a beast in the heat, which is probably why he’s shirtless and soaking wet. He likely jumped into the pool or even stood beneath the waterfall.
“Damn you, Derek Riley,” I whisper as tears fill my eyes. I didn’t think he could get better than he already was, but he just proved me wrong.
He said I would know where to find him, and I do.
Though it killed me to stay in Moab until morning, I was too tired to safely get myself to Derek last night, so he had to content himself with the selfie I sent in answer to his own. I got up before the sun, packed myfew possessions into my car, and left the river behind without a backward glance.
But now that I’m here, I’m more nervous than I ought to be.
Solace Creek—my uncle’s ranch—looks exactly as it always does, a picture-perfect landscape bathed in morning sunlight. The main lodge, a rustic log-cabin-style building with red wood and enormous windows, seems to smile at me, welcoming me home as I pull up in front. The trees surrounding the lodge are brimming with birdsong as the sun peeks out behind them and the branches wave at me in the cool breeze.
I love being on the river, but like I told Derekmonthsago, this place is a close second as my most favorite in the world. Somehow he remembered, even though I only told him about the ranch once. I’m pretty sure that was the same day the fish swam between his legs and he got shampoo in his eye, so I wouldn’t blame him if he forgot.
But he didn’t.
Perfection isn’t attainable, but Derek comes about as close as a man can get.
“So why am I still sitting out here?” I ask out loud, willing my fingers to stop gripping the steering wheel. Berating my nerves and telling them to take a hike, I steer the car down a narrow dirt lane around to the back of the lodge, parking next to my uncle’s pickup in front of the shed. With one more deep breath, I push the door open and step outside.
The chill of the air catches me by surprise like it always does, and I’m glad I threw on a hoodie as I was leaving Moab, though this one isn’t nearly warm enough to stave off the low forties temperature. Sitting high in the hills above Boulder, the ranch’s chill breezes are quite the change from Moab’s constant heat. Shivering, I wrap my arms around myself as I crunch across the gravel to the back of the house, stopping only when I see someone sitting on the back porch and watching the sunrise.
A grin spreads across my face. “Hey, Pops.”
My grandfather’s weathered smile warms me from the inside out. He sets his mug of coffee on the table next to his chair and grunts as he struggles to his feet, looking older than he ever has. He still has a long time to go on this earth, but life seems to have caught up to him more than usual this summer. “You’re up early, Firefly!” Once steady on his feet, he holds his arms out.
I throw myself into his embrace and hold tight, loving the sound of his childhood nickname for me. “I missed you this summer, Pops. You would have loved the water this year!”
“I’m sure I would have,” he says with a wistfulness in his gravelly voice. “But it’s not me you missed, is it?”
Slipping from his hold, I can’t help but match his mischievous smile. “He’s really here?”
He nods. “Showed up on my doorstep end of June and asked if I would be his Cygnus. Then he changed his mind—said you already rescued him—and asked if I would teach him to slow down instead.”
Swearing under my breath, I press a hand over my heart. It feels like it might beat right out of my chest. I’m pretty sure the human body wasn’t meant to contain a feeling as big as the one burning inside me. Not only did Derek remember the story I told him under the stars that first night, but he camehere. To my home. Wanting to learn from the man who saved me from myself.
Pops chuckles and pats the back of my head, leaving his hand there to hold me close as he studies me with keen eyes. “Who’d have thought you’d fall for a man like that, huh?”
Brushing tears from my cheeks, I let out a laugh because my emotions are too strong to hold everything back. “I keep saying the same thing,” I admit. “I don’t know what happened.”
“That boy was meant for you, Firefly,” Pops says. “I knew it the instant he first said your name.”
Okay, buthowdoes Derek say my name? Elliot said something just like that back in Moab, but I never heard anything different about it. It was just…my name.
“Now, what are you doing standing around here with me?” Pops asks, dropping his hand to my shoulder and spinning me to face the porch steps. “I reckon that boy is waiting for you out by the pasture.”
Too overwhelmed by everything to laugh at the idea of anyone calling Derek a ‘boy,’ I turn back to kiss my grandpa’s cheek and don’t waste any more time, hurrying off toward the smaller cabins and the large pasture beyond them. I didn’t tell Derek when I would be coming, but my gut tells me Pops is right and he’s waiting for me.
He’s been waiting for me for months, just like I’ve been counting the days until I could come find him. I amsoready for this reunion, even if I’m a bundle of nerves and excitement all at once.
By the time I finally reach the fence lining the pasture, my legs are numb from the cold and the anxiety that’s making my whole body tremble. This is what I get for wearing shorts in mid-September at seven thousand feet. There’s no Derek in sight, so I keep walking along the fenceline, mentally kicking myself for not asking Pops where Derek is staying. My guess is he’s in one of the private cabins, but it’s not like I can go knocking on every door at eight in the morning, wondering if anyone has seen a mega hot celebrity wandering around lately.
Huh. I wonder if people even know he’s here. Based on his pictures, he hasn’t spent all his time indoors and out of sight, but neither does it seem like anyone has mentioned Derek’s location on the internet. At least,Hot Scoophasn’t figured it out, and if anyone would dig deep enough to find an obscure hint about where Derek has been hiding out, Brenda would.
Movement in the distance catches my eye, and I turn to see which horse is coming to greet me.
