At some point the night before, I’d decided to be as pleasant with Preston as possible. After all, it wasn’t like I had a choice about spending time with him, and I probably had been a little rude before. It wasn’t his fault I was stressed out.
“Glad you could make it, Dots.”
I gritted my teeth at the old nickname I hadn’t heard in years. He’d started using it when we were kids because he thought it made me self-conscious of my freckles. It hadn’t. But ithadirritated me. Mostly because everything Preston did irritated me back then.
And apparently now as well.
“I’m not late,” I snapped, a little harsher than necessary. So much for trying to be nice. “And you can call me Jess.”
He smirked, and I immediately realized my mistake in acknowledging his stupid nickname for me.
“It’s a beautiful day for a hike, friends,” Tilley announced as she arrived, dressed in a hot-pink fleece jacket with a matching bedazzled hat. “Oh, you brought the puppy!” She dropped to her knees in the dirt and started to rub the puppy’s head.
“Little guy is going to be a good hiking dog one day,” Preston said. “I might as well get him started early.”
“He is pretty cute,” I admitted.
The puppy seemed to know I was talking about him. He left Tilley and bounded toward me, attacking my laces before I bent down, and he licked my cheek.
“He likes you.” Chase joined our little group. “Dogs are usually a pretty good judge of character.”
I looked up at him and grinned, but I couldn’t help but notice the way Preston shook his head and looked away at Chase’s comment.
I got to my feet right as Becky, with a teenage boy in tow, joined us. “Hi, everyone. I hope it’s okay that I brought my son. I thought it might be good to get a young person’s opinion on the trail situation. And, it wouldn’t kill him to get outside and away from the video games a little bit, right, Mason?”
The teen shrugged and raised a hand in greeting.
“Hey, Mason,” Preston said. “Good to see you again.” He looked to Tilley and Chase to explain. “Mason’s come out a few times to my Teens in the Trails group.”
He has a Teens in the Trails group?
There was a lot I didn’t know about Preston Lyons, but somehow the fact that he willingly spent time with a group of teenagers in his free time was the most surprising.
“The more the merrier!” Tilley whipped her clipboard out of her pink pack. “Why don’t we get started?” She scribbled a few things down before looking up, straight at me. “Jess, are you ready to present your thoughts first?”
“You know I am.” I pulled out a few sheets of paper I’d had printed out for the group with a map of the area, including the area that would be affected by the development. I had to admit, I didn’t love seeing it in black and white. It really did seem like a larger section than I’d originally thought it would be.
But it wasn’t the right time to say anything about that. Trevor and the entire development was depending on me and how well I handled this.
“Okay,” I said. “Why don’t we start down this trail, and I can show you exactly where the development is proposed to be. I think you’ll see that the trailhead is still accessible for mostusers.” I shot a look at Preston, waiting for him to object. He only raised his brow and nodded slightly, so I continued. “There will be a little modification, of course,” I continued. “But just because it’s different, doesn’t mean it’s bad.”
Automatically, I looked at Preston, expecting him to disagree.
To my surprise, he nodded and muttered, “That’s true.”
Tilley’s mouth dropped open as she looked between us. “Well, well. I don’t know if it’s the magic of the great outdoors, or what, but dare I say that we’re all going to get along on these little nature hikes?”
I couldn’t help but laugh along with the others. I wasn’t sure we were going to get along, but I had to agree we were off to a good start. I just hoped we could keep it up and not throw each other off the ridge.
Preston
If someone had tried to tell me that following Jess Anderson on a hike in the trails that I knew like the back of my hand would be an enjoyable way to spend a Saturday afternoon, I would have had more than a few choice words for them.
She caught me off guard with the clear way she delivered her points, used her hands to talk, and most interestingly, actually seemed to care about the trails. Maybe even as much as the development she was trying to sell.
Either that, or she was a really good actor. A point I couldn’t rule out completely. After all, shewasa salesperson.
We’d been walking for about twenty minutes when I realized I was actually enjoying myself. Of course, being in the woods always made me feel better. The outdoors had a way of recharging me.
