Lola walked up next to me and bumped my shoulder, I could feel the concern radiating off of her. “You okay?” Her voice was slightly timid, like she knew I was half a step away from exploding. I was always on edge after the dark.
Add in whatever had just happened with Patrick and my nerves were fucking shot.
“I’m fine.”
“I just wanted to check because I know how you hate that spot.”
“It’s fine. I’m fine!” I snap before turning on her, I’m sure my expression is murderous because she stopped too, eyes widening. I huffed out a breath, trying to purge this anger from my body. My sweet big hearted little sister. She didn’t deserve my annoyance. “I’m sorry LJ. You didn’t deserve that.” I take a step towards her and wrap my arms around her shoulders.
For all my grumpiness, I really do love my family. I knew I was an asshole and I frequently questioned why any of them put up with me but they never gave me reason to not believe that I was important to them.
Sometimes my brain wanted me to believe it but I knew it wasn’t true, just most of the time I had to sit and think real hard to accept the fact.
Slowly, like she was unsure if this was real life or not, Lola’s arms wrapped around my waist, tightening once she realized I’m not going anywhere. This woman was trying to cut off my air supply with how hard she was hugging me back.
“Hey!” Mabel’s voice rings through the cave, causing the guide to cringe. “Don’t be thinking you can have sister love without me.” She rushes over to us, wrapping her arms above us both, almost knocking us all on our asses. I swear, if Lola didn’t kill me with her death grip, Mabel would succeed when I broke my skull on one of these damn rocks as we fell.
“Alright, alright. That’s enough of that.” I grumbled as I tried to wiggle out of my sister’s embraces.
“Ain’t no way we’re letting you go that easy.” Somehow, even though her arms were stretched to capacity with her being wrapped around both of us, she squeezed even tighter. “Damn big sister, let me go.” I didn’t want her to let me go. I had been touched-starved since my break-up with Loop.
My skin burned from the earlier contact with Patrick but this three-way hug with my sisters was like a balm on my heart. It soothed me and I let myself soak up some of my sister’s comfort. “If you tell Mama about this I will deny it until I’m blue in the face.” My voice was muffled but I knew they both heard me. Mabel’s bark of a laugh echoed around the cave and Lola’s shoulders shook almost hard enough to make my teeth clack.
“Ladies.” Jude’s deep voice rumbled out, reminding us that it wasn’t just the three of us. We slowly disentangled ourselves, Lola had a giant smile on her face but Mabel’s brow was furrowed and I could tell she was holding back from saying something. Which was not like her.
My eyes find Patrick and I could feel my cheeks start to heat at the look on his face. His stare was intense and focused wholly on me. I didn’t want to attempt to unravel the look but I could still feel his hands on my body.
A small, timid, cough breaks our eye contact, the group focusing on our guide. “I’m sorry but we do need to move along.” The Warrens were familiar with the need to keep the tour moving, there were others behind us and we didn’t want to slow down their experience. “I’m so sorry, we can move along.” Lola, ever the leader, waved her hands in a frantic motion, ushering us forward. For the rest of the tour, our group stayed quiet and I made sure to keep as much distance from my Intruder as possible.
The hike down was similar to the hike up, Lola and Jude talked shop in the front of the pack, I kept to myself in the middle, and Mabel and Patrick kept towards the rear. I absolutely did not care what they were talking about but the random chuckle coming from them was grating on my skin. Iwas exhausted from whatever had happened in the cave and my stomach was starting to turn.
About halfway down the mountain, Lola slowed down, letting the rest of us catch up.
Jude stands off to the side, face blank as Mabel and Patrick join us. “I want to get a picture of Patrick’s first trip up Timp.”
Lola hands her phone to Jude, our photographer apparently. “It’s kind of a tradition when we bring up a new person to our favorite spot.” Mabel’s smile took over her whole face and I wanted to jump off the mountain when she wrapped her arms around Patrick’s bicep. “Oh my gosh, I can’t believe I forgot! Come on.”
Jude presses his back against the mountain and Lola tries to direct our poses. When she tried to place me next to Patrick but I scowl and shake my head. I step to the side and let Mabel and Lola stand on either side of Patrick.
Lola wasn’t lying, we frequently bring employees up to hike with us and we always took a picture. It was something my parents had started and us kids had promised to keep it up. Jude’s picture was taken when he was 18. He hadn’t quite bulked up like he was now but he was tall and towered over all of us. He focuses the camera on the four of us and his deep voice grumbled out, “say Honey.” Three other voices called out ‘Honey’ and I did my best not to glare at the camera or roll my eyes.
Chapter Twenty
PATRICK
She gasped.
She gasped as the lights went off and my control snapped.
I close the distance between us in a quick stride.
I’m wrapping my arms around her and whispering quiet encouraging words into her ear. I’m intoxicated by how she smells. Like apples, even after the long hike we’ve been on.
I’ve crossed so many lines by pressing my body to hers. I had to really screw up by placing a quick kiss on her neck.
I felt her pulse beating like hummingbird wings and I told myself it was because she was in the cave.
She was in the dark.
