Page 39 of When The Mountains Held Us

Nerves trickle through me like an IV drip, and the longer I stand here trying to figure out what to do, the more suspicious it looks. Clearly, he’s waiting for me to make it to my door—damn the gentleman you are, Levi— but I can’t very well go walking up to someone else’s frickin’ apartment.

All I care about right now is getting home, and I can’t do that with Levi sitting here waiting for me to get inside.

Making up my mind, I cross behind the truck and head towards the back of the apartment complex. I’m hoping the apartments have a secondary entrance that I can pretend to go in until the coast is clear. I disappear behind the building, leaning up against the brick wall, thoughts swimming and still trying to make sense of whatever that small shift was.

A sigh of relief leaves me as the sound of the truck pulling away fills the night air.

Twenty-One

Oakley

Iwait a few minutes with bated breath until the rumble of Levi’s truck fades before I round the front of the complex and take off down the sidewalk.

The walk to the motel from the apartments is only a short distance, and the night is still a little warm, so honestly, I’m not too upset about having to walk there alone. I spent the whole day walking, so I might as well finish off strong.

As for safety? I’m learning that there might be no safer place for me than here in these mountains. They make me feel invincible.

Embarrassment and bewilderment fight for dominance as I recall the sudden change in Levi’s mood, and have to pretend I actually live in one of the apartments. I was fully expecting us to continue our normal pattern of banter on the ride home, and honestly, I had been looking forward to it.

Especially after that near kiss under the waterfall today.

Heat rushes to my cheeks when I remember the way his lips hovered over mine, seeming to beckon me forward, tempting me to capture them with my own. Or the way his arm wrapped around my waist, holding me captive against his muscular chest, the evidence of his arousal trapped and burning between us. Even now, I can still feel the brand of his touch on my skin, tingling and making me desperate for more.

And yet, despite the heat coursing between our two bodies, tonight ended differently than I had hoped. A part of me was hoping he’d close the distance between us, and I’d get to feel the press of his lips on mine. I know he was thinking it too.

So what stopped him?

“Fancy meeting you here.”

I startle at the shadow that peels itself away from the side of a truck parked outside my motel room. The wind rushes from my lungs in a startled gasp, and I skid to a stop in the middle of the sidewalk. He closes the distance between us until he’s standing less than a foot away from me. The scent of fresh air and pine wrap around me, and my heart rate skyrockets as I peer into a shadowed set of dark green eyes.

“Levi, wh-what are you doing here?” I stammer, unable to come up with something more intelligent to say. I heard his truck drive away. Had counted the seconds after the noise disappeared into the night until I emerged from my hiding spot, having deemed the coast clear.

So how did he manage to get here undetected? Clearly I was too lost in my own swirling thoughts that I didn’t notice him pull the truck around. Idiot.

“I could ask you the same thing. I dropped you off at your apartment. Well, what I thought was your apartment.” His words are accusatory and his tone holds a bite.

Levi isn’t mad at me. Instead, his anger seems to be directed at my current living situation, if his glare at the upside-down number four is any indication. His barely contained fury boils under the surface. He crosses his arms over his chest as he waits for my response. I stay quiet, knowing I have no logical explanation for my deceit.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Embarrassment burns the back of my throat. I deflect, scoffing and rolling my eyes, making to move around him, but he blocks my path to the door with a muscled arm on the doorframe.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Bullshit. Try again. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Levi, please.” The fight leaves my body, exhaustion taking its place. The next time he asks me, I’m not going to fight him on it. He lets me push past him, and I duck under his arm to fit my key into the lock on the door. He stands at my back, the heat from his chest seeping through my thin clothes and reminding me of earlier, when I could feel the heat of him pressed fully against me beneath the pounding of the waterfall.

I start to insert the key into the lock, but frown as I watch the door give way and swing inward a few inches. A sliver of light peeks through the space, and my brow pinches, my breathing growing more frantic as my worst-case-scenario brain gets straight to work. Stumbling backwards a step, I’m met with the hard planes of Levi’s chest, and his arm wraps around me instinctively, steadying my shaking legs before I topple over onto the pavement.

That door was locked this morning.

The ringing in my ears grows louder with each second that passes, the sound locked in a vicious battle for dominance with my ragged breathing and heaving chest. Levi tenses behind me and drops his mouth to my ear.

“Oakley, what is it?” Warm breath fans over the side of my face, and the intoxicating smell of lake water and pine wafting off of him does nothing to abate the dread coursing through every cell of my body like a current of electricity.

I was a bundle of anticipatory excitement this morning as I flitted around the small room, getting dressed and gathering the few items I needed before tossing them into my backpack. Maybe in my haste to meet Jessie for our hike, I forgot to pull the door shut all the way. Right? My mouth goes dry as I try to recall and realize I have absolutely no fucking idea.