Page 79 of Cloudy With a Chance of Bad Decisions

And our…second cousin? Baxter Baker lived there. Not that I’d ever met the man, as Mom said his side of the family—aside from him and his daughter—were not the nicest people.

Which made it enticing.

“I want to be like you,” Joe said, blue eyes caught on the branches above. “See the world. Expand…horizons.”

He thought way too highly of me.

“I’m not all that great,” I confessed. Joe shook his head like he didn’t believe me. Without skipping a beat, he moved on. Eventually, even Joe, with his blank-faced patience, grew tired of slowing his pace. He left me to fend for myself at the back, working his way to the front, ahead of Roderick to scout out the trail.

I was relieved not to have the pressure of his attention, but I missed it all the same. Especially because now, without him to distract me, every fucking noise made me jump.

Alex was also ahead—no surprise there.

He hiked along in the noon sunlight, like climbing this goddamn never-ending hill was child’s play. Wearing another pair of frankly delicious black joggers, his ass flexed with each confident step. A backpack was slung easily over his broad shoulders, sweat building at his nape and spine, making his white cotton t-shirt stick to his skin, translucent in some places.

This was like…hiking porn, honestly.

Alex cackled at something Roderick said, their familiarity obvious. His head tossed back, thick throat exposed to my starving eyes. He acted as though they’d done this hundreds of times. Like they were brothers already. Alex threw an arm around Roderick’s shoulders, tugging him in close as one of the unnamed dark-haired cousins joined in the teasing. Alex’s t-shirt slipped up a few inches, revealing tan skin at his lower back, the dimples above his ass framing his spine.

Stop ogling.

I moved my gaze upward again, somewhere safer as I huffed and puffed along, dodging small craters in the earth that looked suspiciously like rodent homes.

Or worse.

Snake holes.

Alex wasn’t the only one sweating up a storm by the time the men leading the pack of stragglers decided we deserved a break. I was moist. Which wasnota feeling I liked. My thong had been riding up the entire fucking hike and I hated myself a little because somehow I hadn’t predicted the underwear would be an issue on top of everything else.

Worse? My nipples felt chafed.

Paired with the wheeze of my lungs and the burning in my legs, I was having a hard time remembering why I’d thought coming on this hike was a good idea.

Joe had wandered off.

I hadn’t gotten away from Alex.

I had not reached emotional clarity.

I was sweaty and miserable and…lonely, despite being surrounded by people.

There was a creek up ahead. I could hear its tinkling babble as I collapsed onto a boulder just off the trail and shook out the pins and needles in my feet. I hadn’t worn hiking shoes. The only shoes I’d had were my loafers from the airport. They were not outdoor shoes. I was lucky my mom had had a new pair of tennis shoes in my size laying around. She’d claimed they were an old Christmas gift she’d forgotten to give me.

They were new, not even close to broken in—and definitely not meant for hiking on uneven terrain. I swear to god it felt like I was going to roll my ankle every five seconds.

Stretching out my legs, I mourned the fact I was not with Mom back at the tables in the main cabin, helping the kiddos with arts and crafts.

I hated this.

I hated it so much.

A bee buzzed by my head—or maybe it was a wasp?—and I startled, swatting at it. Wait. I froze, realizing that swatting wasexactlywhat would incite the heinous creature’s wrath. A very unhappy noise squawked its wayout of my throat.

“Fuck off you buzzy bitc?—”

Which was, of course, when Alex finally decided to grace me with his presence, all shiny white teeth, and dimples. The wasp flew away, thank God. My shame remained.

“You good?” he asked, studying my red face and wide eyes. He was probably already regretting his choice to approach me.

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