I already showered this morning, so I brush my teeth, throw deodorant on, and get dressed. I put a camera battery in my bag, slip on my socks and shoes, then make my way into the living room with… “Seven minutes to spare. Damn, I’m good.”
“Wouldn’t go that far. You have toothpaste on your face.”
Hunter does the absolute last thing I expect—he uses his thumb to wipe the corner of my mouth. As if realizing what he’s done, his eyes go wide in a way that would be funny if he didn’t look one second away from descending into a full-blown panic attack.
“I left that there on purpose to see if you noticed,” I lie, my playfulness thankfully distracting him. “Now, where are we going on this hike?” A hike he invited me on. I’d expected him to tell mehehad to go, but instead, he asked me to go on a hike with him. What is happening?
“You’ll see. I’ll drive.”
Hunter turns for the door, but I’m stuck for a moment, like logic has rooted my feet to the floor, and then I follow him.
CHAPTER TEN
Hunter
The whole driveto Studio City, my gaze flickers to Lucas in the passenger seat of my car.
This situation is incredibly fucked up. I hadn’t expected to see him in the gallery that night, but that’s less shocking than the fact that I just left his condo, where I had breakfast and chocolate cake with him and then invited him on a hike. What I’d planned to say when I opened my mouth was,I should head home, but my brain had other ideas.
And the cake, what the fuck had that been? It’s not like I never indulge, but for some reason, it felt likemorethan simply eating cake.
“You like hiking,” I say, trying to shove those thoughts from my mind. Being with Lucas seems to make all the other shit in my head quieter, and I want to keep seeking that silence, no matter what truths and guilt I bury to do it.
“Fuck yes, but I have to be contrary. Come on, Hunt, you know this.”
I snicker because it’s true. Lucas does like to be contrary.
“Mostly so I can take photos,” he adds.
“You do a bit of everything, I’ve noticed.” I pull into the lot at the park. They have four trails to choose from, each with lookout points. It’s quieter at this location, and usually, no one notices me. Or if they do, they don’t care enough aboutme to say anything.
“Yep.” He gets out, and I grab the bag I keep in the back seat, which has a few bottles of water in it.
We pick a trail, heading toward the wooded canyons that feel like a whole other world.
“What’s your favorite?” I ask, unsure why I’m so curious about this man I’ve known for almost fifteen years.
“My favorite what?” He’s already pulling his camera from the bag on his arm.
“Thing to photograph—people, nature, sunsets?” I don’t know why, but I grin at the last one…and also, aren’t sunsets a part of nature? “That was really beautiful, by the way.”
“I know.”
“Cocky motherfucker.”
“Hey, I told you it was beautiful before you even saw it.”
He had, and he’d been right.
“Thank you, though, and…I don’t know that I have a favorite. I like taking photos of things that make me feel, and I never know what will do that.”
Lucas’s answer is both surprising and not. He thinks about the world so differently than anyone I know. He’s not strategizing to accomplish goals; he’s thinking about what would make him feel alive, and I envy him that.
He puts his hand on my arm, pulling me to a stop. I worry I did or said something wrong, but all he did was stop me from stepping on a yellow flower growing in the middle of the dirt path. One lone flower standing strong amid rocks, dry dirt, and footprints.
“Independent little thing, aren’t you?” Lucas says, kneeling, and it takes me a moment to realize he’s talking to the flower.
“Did it answer?”
