Page 37 of Aim for Love

Instead, I flinch away from the hardness of his tone. He’s right; I’m the one sitting with a stack of papers in my lap because I don’t have a desk in this office. Maybe heisgrumpy about Mollie.

“Maybe we ought to think about that,” Tom goes on. “What I’m paying you for, exactly.”

A cold knot swells in my gut. Is Tom threatening to fire me? Is this because I’m sleeping with a paying client? Scott does that all the time. What makes me different?

Because I’m the responsible one.

“I’m, uh…” My mind goes blank as I try to come up with a good self-defense. “I’m a good guide.”Stellar. I wince at my poor defense.

“I know you are,” Tom replies, sorting through papers as though I’m not freaking out across from him. “You’re one of the best. But you seem to have your eye on something else.”

“No!” I protest, thinking he’s talking about Mollie. “I mean, I can care about more than one thing at a time.”

“Hm,” Tom replies. Brow creased, Tom’s gaze moves to his computer screen.

“Are you, is there something you’re not happy about?”

“Our numbers this year…” Tom waves at the mess of papers on his desk. My heart sinks. If we’re not doing well, Tom’s not going to be able to keep me or Scott on full-time. “They’re a little overwhelming. The new packages you came up with are selling well. I can barely keep track.”

That’s news Tom hasn’t shared with me before now. I release a breath. Another of my ideas that’s working. “You need a new system. I can help with that…”

Tom cuts me off with a wave. “Isaid, I don’t pay you for that, Hunter. Keep your eyes on your actual job.”

The back of my throat hurts. I swallow back the frustration and nod. You can’t guide an unwilling tour, and you definitely can’t teach a stubborn boss. Even if I’m pretty sure I could help.

I stand instead, saying I need to get ready for an outing, and leave Tom there to sort through his own mess. He’s right on one count, anyway: I’ve got messes of my own to deal with.

Mollie and the others went white water rafting with Scott and Tyler while I led the group that went hiking that afternoon. Their group has already been back and put away all the gear by the time I return with my group.

Back in the house alone, I spend some time wondering where they all went before I remember the hike Scott loves to take girls he’s dating on. It’s near town and goes to a cave few people know about, but the route to get there is sketchy as hell. We don’t take paying groups that way. Tom’s insurance wouldn’t cover it.

There’s a bad feeling in my gut about it. I put my hiking boots back on and head back outside.

The hike runs parallel to town for most of the way, so I walk through town planning to take a short cut. I run into Zoe, coming out of the dispensary. She asks if I’m “on a mission.”

“I am,” I reply. “Have you seen Mollie or her friends?”

“No,” she says. “No offense; we’re not exactly buddies.”

Sure, Zoe is not going to be hanging out with out-of-towners any time soon. She runs a rental property that has probably taught her a lot about boundaries with tourists.

“Mollie seems nice, though,” she adds, notably leaving out her friends. Nora and Sophie aren’t terrible. Theyarevery focused on themselves.

“We’re just…hanging out,” I say with a sigh.

“That’s how Tyler and I started, too,” Zoe replies with a smile. “Now look at us. Still…hanging out.” She smiles a little, the smile of a woman who isn’t saying what she really wants.

We could probably have a heart-to-heart in the street and talk about our respective heartaches, but I tell Zoe I need to vaguely go check on something and she nods and waves me off.

There’s an exposed water pipe that is the most direct route to the cave from town. Scott is an idiot who walked it like a tightrope once and now tries to convince anyone gullible to try it, too.

So I’m not completely shocked to see Mollie standing on it when I get close enough to see what’s going on. She’s frozen, her arms spread wide for balance, her feet at criss-crossed angles on the pipe. She’s only a few steps out from the ground—far enough my heart skips a beat.

“What thefuckare you doing?” Scott, standing at the far end of the pipe, can’t hear me. Nora and Sophie, who are at the safe end near me, do.

“He made it look so easy,” Nora says.

Sophie’s face is drawn. “And now it looks so high.”

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