Her lips pressed together as if she were trying too hard not to smile before shrugging, as if to herself, and letting a wide smile uncurl across her face. “It seems like he really cares about you.”
“Oh, God, is it that obvious?” I fretted.
“Is what obvious?” Her tone was light with a hint of teasing.
I sighed, twisting my hands together just as—fuck my life—Cole appeared in the hallway. He walked with that easy stride of his. For God’s sake, even the way he walked set my pulse to thrumming. He stopped beside his mother.
“What are you saying to Adele?” he asked, looking between us with that familiar teasing grin.
“I was just pointing out that you really like Adele,” Maggie said, all easy-breezy.
“I do,” he said smoothly, not missing a beat, unabashed.
“Cole!” I protested.
He stepped to my side, curling his arm around my shoulders as he dipped his head and brushed a kiss on my cheek. “Adele, it’s obvious to everyone.”
“What’s obvious to everyone?” I managed to choke out, still reeling.
“That I like you and that I’ve been spending every night with you,” he replied with a shrug.
“Oh my God.” I looked to Maggie for help, but her gaze was warm and understanding.
“Hon, it’s really hard to keep secrets around here,” she said with a soft laugh. “I mean, we have eyes.”
“Oh my God.” Apparently, I was going to repeat that. I let out an incredulous laugh.
“I’m not saying it’s a bad thing,” she added lightly. “It’s just, well, it’s hard to miss how Cole feels about you. I, for one, am thrilled. So, for those longer hikes, then, I’ll pair you with Cole.”
“Perfect,” Cole offered.
I rolled my eyes. “You can pair me with whoever works best for the trip.” I tried to shrug it off.
“Speaking of pairing,” Haven said as he approached, “we need to go over the Katmai trip. We have twenty people signed up for it, and you’re going with us, right?” He glanced to me as he stopped beside us in the hallway.
“That was why I came here to begin with,” I said. “To get familiar with the area and plan for a trip to Katmai.”
“Of course, we’d love for you to be part of our group,” Haven said. “It’s not the kind of trip one should do alone, period. There are too many bears, of course. We leave next week.”
“Oh, we do?” I asked, startled.
“We do,” Maggie chimed in with a smile. “Well, I don’t. The boys do.”
They began moving down the hallway, and I fell into step beside Cole, whose arm slipped away from my shoulders only to reach for my hand. Seeing as I guessed we were being public about this, I laced my fingers with his.
He gave me a squeeze, bending close to my ear. “I hope that’s okay,” he murmured.
I lifted one shoulder in a shrug, my cheeks still burning up. “I figured it might become obvious,” I murmured. “I just hope it’s okay with everyone.”
“Of course it’s okay with everyone,” Haven said over his shoulder, winking with a sly grin. “We all want Cole to be happy.”
I let out a sputtering sigh.
“It’s okay,” Elsa said as she appeared through a doorway into the hall. “I had to get used to how everyone notices everything, but I promise it’ll be okay.”
I stayed quiet, experiencing a jumble of emotions. On the one hand, I felt exposed and a little embarrassed that everyone knew what was happening between Cole and me. But on the other hand, I craved the sense of belonging here. Cole or not, I loved it here. I loved being able to hike every day. I loved the area, and I loved feeling like I was part of something.
All of these emotions weren’t familiar to me. Growing up, of course, I loved my parents and my sister, but those years of surgeries and worries and fears—feeling isolated in school and left out—had created a sense of always being half a step off from where everyone else was, never quite belonging.
