I lifted the book higher, using it as a shield. “I am blissfully ignoring you, actually.”
“How did you even smuggle that book up here?”
Erica’s sweatpants pockets were the perfect size for a mass-market paperback. But I didn’t inform him of that.
I could feel him watching me, the air between us buzzing with something I definitely did not want to define.
“I can’t believe you brought a book to a zip-line tour,” he continued to berate.
After a moment of charged silence, I heard his footstepsapproach. A few sticks crunched under his shoes, and then his voice penetrated the quiet tree ring again.
“What book are you reading?”
I didn’t even look up. “I’m ignoring you, Jay.”
“Are you?” he asked, sounding genuinely curious. “Because you’re answering me.”
I let out an exasperated sigh. “It’sEndless Wonderby Lindy Parker, okay? Happy now?”
His eyes flickered with victory. “Very.”
I reopened the book, trying to hide behind it again, and that’s when Jay reached out and snatched it cleanly from my hands.
“Hey!” I gasped, launching to my feet. “Give that back!”
He held it out of reach, turning it over in his hands with thoughtful scrutiny.
“This thing has been through it,” he observed, running his thumb over the cracked spine. “Do you always maul your paperbacks, or is this author special?”
“Give it back, Jay.”
“Relájate, Amapolita. I couldn’t possibly ruin it more than you already have.”
“I’m not worried about that?—”
“He touched her like he’d been waiting his whole life for the moment…” he started reading one of the passages aloud, and my mouth dropped open.
“Jay, stop!” I squeaked, panic constricting my lungs. I tried to reach for the book again, but he was much taller and easily sidestepped me.
Lindy didn’t typically write romance, but of courseEndless Wonderhad more than usual, and Jay just had to flip directly to the most intense section.
“And when she looked up at him, trembling, he knewthere was no world in which he’d ever let her go.” His brow furrowed. “Trembling?” he echoed softly. “Interesting word choice.”
He opened his mouth, probably to continue reading and driving me insane, but I launched myself forward again, and finally, he allowed me to snatch it back out of his hands.
“Thank you,” I quipped sharply, hugging the book to my chest.
He folded his arms across his chest, an infuriating half-smirk tugging at his mouth.
“Hey, I was just getting to the good part,” he accused.
“I hate you.”
“Sure.”
I spun around before he could see how red my face had gotten and stomped back toward my original rock. My shoes crunched irritably over the pine needles. When I sat down, I stuffed the poor, traumatized book back into my sweatpants pocket.
Behind me, I heard Jay laugh softly, and it made me roll my eyes so hard I saw the forest canopy.
