"I prefer creatures that don't talk back."
"Then you must be loving this vacation."
The corner of his mouth twitched. Almost. Almost a smile.
Progress, she thought triumphantly.
"Holy moley, are we lost?" Lily panted a while later, shifting the load in her bag as a bead of sweat trickled down her spine. "Surely, we have to be close to the cabin by now. I feel maybe we took a wrong turn or something."
"Nature's grocery store doesn't do home deliveries," Alex replied dryly, not missing a beat as he sliced through another stubborn vine.
"Good one," Lily let out a breathy laugh, her initial zeal dissolving into the stifling jungle air. "This cardio is no joke."
"You look like you're in pretty good shape," he said with a small backward glance.
A compliment! Maybe she was wiggling her way into his good graces, after all. "Thanks," she said, trying to hide the strain. "But this is nothing like my gym back home."
"Where is home?"
"California," she answered with a subtle wheeze. "Santa Monica."
"Figures."
Ouch. The corners of Lily's mouth twitched upwards despite the frustration nipping at her heels. "What gave it away? My sunny disposition? My California-girl beachy tan?"
"Your complete disregard for anything that matters," he quipped.
"What makes you think I don't care about important things?" she asked, stung.
"Your job, for one. What's the sole purpose of your WanderLily channel?"
Should she be flattered that he remembered the name of her channel? Too soon to tell. "Well, I help people find experiences that might change their life for the better by showing them what's out there if they're willing to take a chance on the unknown. Just because I'm not a STEM girlie, doesn't mean what I do doesn't have value. Quality of life, Alex... it matters. Haven't you heard the saying, 'All work and no play makes Johnny a dull boy?'"
He did a double-take. "Did you just quoteThe Shining?"
She grinned. "I did. I'm a classic horror fan. How about you?"
"Um, yeah, I like a few," he admitted.
"A few?" Lily seized the opening like a lifeline. "Come on, that's not an answer. Give me your top three. And don't sayJawsjust because it's got water in it."
Alex shot her a look that was almost amused. "I wasn't going to sayJaws."
"Then spill. I'm dying to know what scares the unflappable Dr. Carmichael."
He was quiet for a moment, machete pausing mid-swing. When he answered, his voice had lost some of its edge. "The Thing. An American Werewolf in London. AndAlien."
Lily's eyebrows shot up. "Okay, I'm impressed. That's a solid practical effects lineup. No CGI garbage."
"You sound surprised."
"I am surprised. I had you pegged as a documentary-only kind of guy. Maybe a nature series narrated by someone with a soothing British accent."
"I contain multitudes." The words were dry, but there was a flicker of something underneath—pleasure, maybe, at being seen as more than one-dimensional.
"Clearly." Lily adjusted her fruit bag, genuinely curious now. "So how does a marine biologist develop a taste for body horror? Doesn't seem like obvious career synergy."
Alex hacked through another vine before answering. "My sister. She's three years older and went through a phase where she thought it was hilarious to traumatize me with horror movie marathons everyHalloween." A ghost of a smile crossed his face. "I hated it at first. Then I started looking forward to it."
