Page 60 of Begin Again

I squeezed my eyes shut. Did I just say “our lookout platform”? Up to now I’d only thought it, not said it. Thank goodness Kaden didn’t react.

“I needed about a year to figure out how to go off trail. We were usually in a group of three, and we marked our turns with paint.” His grim expression was palpable. “Actually, you deserve to spend a night outside.”

My legs wobbled. And I dropped to my knees. How could he say that! This was a matter of life and death! Asshole.

“I shouldn’t have called you. I’ll see if I can reach Spencer,” I blurted out.

On the other end of the line, I heard a door slam. “I’m already sitting in the car, Bubbles. Stay where you are.”

He hung up. I leaned against a tree trunk. I had to calm down.

Kaden took a while.

The sun had almost set by the time I heard a soft whistling. I turned to listen.

I heard the tune again. If that were a bird, then it must be familiar with contemporary rock. Because he was trilling a tune that was one of my absolute favorites, and whose text somehow had ended up tattooed on the underarm of my apartment mate. I stepped forward.

“Here I am!” I cried out toward the source of the tune. “Over here!”

Kaden emerged from between two trees and ducked under its thick branches. No, it wasn’t just my imagination. I fought off the urge to throw my arms around him.

“Thank God,” the words tumbled from my lips.

Kaden looked me up and down. Grinning, he untied the sweater from his waist and held it out to me. It was the one with the Deadpool mask that he’d lent me a few times before.

“Thanks,” I said, trembling.

“You dumbass,” Kaden said, shaking his head. He turned the brim of his baseball cap to the back, without taking his eyes off me.

I grumbled and buried my chin in the folds of the sweater. “Please just bring me home safe.”

His eyes danced with amusement. “You walked in circles, Allie. Just at least give me the chance to teach you something.”

“I did what?” I cried, stunned.

Now Kaden let out one of his deep, rough laughs. “You wanted to go to the overlook, but you didn’t go uphill; you just stayed on the same level the whole time. It’s not my fault that you’re lazy.”

I groaned in frustration. My sense of direction was bad, okay. But even I couldn’t be that clueless. Could I?

“Come on.” He turned around and looked back at me over his shoulder, jerking his chin in the direction we had to go.

“Please tell me you’re going to take me to my car,” I groaned and ran to catch up with him.

“Less talking, more walking,” he retorted and moved on ahead.

Instead of bringing me back to my car, Kaden was forcing me to take the uphill route that I’d wanted to find.

At some point I recognized the rocks over which Kaden had hoisted me the last couple of times. We barely talked, but I wasn’t up to that anyway. I tried hard not to notice my own panting.

We’d reached the last rocky ledge. At the top, I put my hands on my thighs and forced myself to breathe calmly and not keel over on the spot.

Kaden had stepped out to the edge of the ledge and stretched out his arms as if to fly. “That’s where we were.” He turned around and gave a sly grin. “Ouroverlook.”

I made a face but didn’t answer back. The view was beautiful, exactly as I remembered it.

I stepped toward Kaden, but before my toes could reach the edge of the ledge he took my shoulder and pulled me back a bit.

“I don’t trust you. You’ll end up falling off, or doing some other crazy thing.”

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