“If bright orange canvas sneakers don’t set the tone for an amazing day, I don’t know what does. Let’s get going.” He reached for her hand.
Hours later, Nate hadn’t let go, and McKenna was starting to hope he never would.
As they walked on a trail with trees shading them on the left and a river flowing next to them on the right, she bumped her shoulder against Nate’s. “Running away was a great idea.”
“We should keep doing it.”
“If only we could.” They stepped aside to let an older couple walking the opposite direction pass. Only people they’d met so far on the trail. Which suited McKenna fine. She enjoyed having Nate all to herself. Something told her she may not get an opportunity like this again for a while. “I just can’t stop thinking this week is going to reach a new level of chaos.”
“I don’t know. Maybe it won’t be as bad as we think.” Nate offered her a drink from one of the water bottles they’d picked up from the gas station to share on their walk.
“You have met Georgie, right?” McKenna took a drink, then retightened the cap and handed it back to Nate.
“Let’s not worry about Georgie right now. Let’s get back to you.”
“Me?” McKenna almost laughed. Pretty soon Nate was going to know her better than she knew her own self.
They came to a wooden platform that offered a lookout over one of the waterfalls. Nate stopped along the side rails and turned to face her. “How many serious boyfriends have you had?”
Now she did laugh. “You’re kidding, right?”
He didn’t look like he was kidding.
“Zero, Nate. Absolutely zero.”
“How is that possible?”
“You’re sweet.”
“I’m serious.”
“Well, let’s see. When you hit a growth spurt in fifth grade that leaves you towering over everyone, including the teachers, it takes a while for the boys to catch up. And when they do, they’re usually not all that interested in a frizzy redhead with freckles.”
“I love your hair and your freckles.”
“You say that now. You didn’t see me back in high school. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. Never having a boyfriend was for the best.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Because after Momma J died, it wasn’t just me I had to think about. I had Bobbi too. A boyfriend would’ve just complicated things.”
“So you’ve never even dated?”
“I’ve gone out on some dates here and there. It’s just that most guys don’t tend to stick around in my town, so I’ve never let anything serious develop. What about you? How many broken hearts have you left behind?”
“Just the one beating inside my own chest. Kind of put me off on relationships for a while.”
“How long is a while?”
“Almost nine years.”
“That’s a while.”
He grimaced. “I’ve been told I tend to camp out in my sorrow a little too long. Between watching my dad walk away and then getting dumped right after college by a girl I thought I’d eventually marry, I may have gotten a little jaded when it comes to love and relationships.”
“Yeah, I kind of gathered there were some underlying issues when you compared marriage to bird poop the first time we met.”
He winced and smiled at the same time before taking a drink of water, then screwing the cap back in place and setting the bottle next to his feet. “For the record, my opinion has changed quite a bit since meeting you.”
