When I don’t immediately take it—anyone who knows me would laugh at the idea of me willfully wearing an eye mask at all, let alone one made of pink silk—Sadie reaches out and guides my hand up to meet her outstretched one. She settles the eye mask into my palm and closes my fingertips over it before I can protest.
“You’ll thank me in the morning,” she says, grinning.
When we’re all tucked in for what’s left of the night, Sadie in my tent and me under the stars, I slip it on.
It’s even softer than I expected, and more comfortable, too—and it smells like rosemary and mint, which I can only guess is the scent of her shampoo.
How am I supposed to sleep now?
It’s not the rocky ground directly underneath my sleeping bag keeping me awake, or the unlikely threat of bears, or the way the sleep mask feels like a luxury I never knew I might possibly want, let aloneenjoy—
No. It’s that, after just two days out here, Sadie Whitlock has effortlessly unraveled the professionalism I’m usually so committed to maintaining…and the fact that, despite the voice in my head trying to tell me that trekker/guide relationships are off-limits, a louder voice isunhelpfully pointing out that I haven’t been this intrigued by a woman since I met Blair nearly three years ago.
I’ll just have to do better tomorrow. Head down, one foot in front of the other, resist the pull of getting close. At best, Sadie will leave at the end of the trek anyway, like everyone else always does. At worst, I could lose focus on my job—or lose my job altogether.
The thought scares me.
Even though Sky Ranger’s offer is still on the table, I just don’t know if I’ll ever be able to leave the tour company—I don’t know if I could ever leave thisplace. This place is part of my soul.
Maybethat’swhat scares me: I’ve built my whole life around these trails, this job. This park has been part of me for as long as I can remember—
So who would I be without it?
“What are you doing out here? And what the hell is that on your face?”
It’s bright and early when I peel back Sadie’s (surprisingly effective) sleep mask, the sun blinding even with Matteo’s head eclipsing it.
“Good morning to you, too,” I grumble.
I most definitely did not get enough sleep.
“Wind?” Matteo asks, gesturing to Sadie’s fallen tent behind me.
“Yeah. I gave her my tent, and she gave me…this.” I peel the sleep mask off, disappointed to find I already miss the comfortable fabric against my skin. The last thing I need is to become a sleep mask guy.
I glance around camp. No one else is up yet, though I’m sure that won’t last long.
Usually, I love being the only one awake. I love moments ofsolitude—the way the colors of the sky shift with the rising sun amid sounds of birdsong and babbling streams and leaves in the breeze.
Being the only one awakewith Matteo? It kind of ruins the dynamic.
I groan inwardly, knowing what I have to do.
“Can we talk for a minute?” My voice sounds hard and uninviting even to me. “Before everyone else gets up, I mean. So we can, uh…get on the same page about…all of this.”
Matteo, until everything went down between us, used to be the most happy-go-lucky person in my world. The most loyal friend, always offering to help before I even realized I needed it—especially since I’ve always had a hard timeaskingfor it. His chill-but-energetic vibe was a magnetic force that drew everyone to him whether they realized it was happening or not.
I like to think that’s how Blair fell for him. That it was an accident, something that happened without either of them realizing.
But then again, they bothaccidentallyended up moving to Peru together for the last two years. And conveniently neglected to tell me about it until it was too late.
This morning, Matteo is a dim version of his usual self: his demeanor is not quite heavy enough to show the gravity of how far our friendship has fallen—but still edgy enough to reassure me that I’m not the only one who feels it.
“Sure, man,” he replies.
We walk in silence over to the bank of the stream. There’s a boulder at the edge of the water, small enough to climb but wide enough for both of us to sit.
I settle myself onto it and Matteo follows my lead.
