Page 73 of The Road Less Traveled By

I stifle a laugh of my own as Nellie vacuums up her food—partially inside the bowl, mostly outside of it.

“So, did you make me rush to get up just so I could watch you do your crossword puzzle? I thought you had something exciting planned,” I tease as I swipe the pencil from him.

His gaze meets mine, a challenge in his stare before he steals the pencil back and lifts off his chair. “Ready?”

“Ready,” I answer, unsure of where this day is going but excited to see where we end up together. The only thing I’m certain of is that I trust him more than anyone else.

So, it turns out,Vince took me and Nellie on a trip to climb a mountain this morning. As we hike up the trail, Nellie leading the charge, I try to clear my head of all the things I’ve been thinking about, but it doesn't really work.

I hate that I feel trapped all the time, and this trip out here has helped me see that I need some new degree of separation between my personal and work life. I can’t keep living like I am. I can’t keep pretending like everything in my life is fine and dandy to the media when, in reality, I’m falling apart at the seams.

I’ve always seen myself as a genuine person, especially online, and I hate how I’m basically lying to the people who watch my videos. They’veall been prerecorded since I haven't been wanting to film lately, and I hate feeling like I’m lying to the people who got me where I am.

But according to Connie, I have to do this. I have to pretend that everything is fine, that I'm in love with Alex, because it’s what’s best for my career.

Mycareer, not me. But I get where she’s coming from. Her job is to look out for me in the media and help lessen my load, but sometimes, I wish I had someone who cared aboutme, not just Bree Hart, the social media influencer.

“Care to join me, or are you going to spend all day in that pretty head of yours?” Vince asks as he jostles his shoulder into me.

“Sorry,” I say as I take in the surrounding trees and rocks. “How tall is this thing again?”

“Eleven hundred meters,” Vince tells me as I stare at him. “Around thirty-six hundred feet tall.”

“Oh. That’s tall,” is all I can say.

“This? This is nothing compared to some I’ve climbed before.”

“How did you get into all this—climbing mountains for fun?” I wonder when it happened, because I never heard him mention it all those years ago. Then again, we didn't talk that much back then—besides toward the end, when we started to become more friendly. But it was more of a professional relationship. Somewhere during these past few months, that shifted, and the two of us are in this weird limbo between something we could be and what we used to be.

He told me the other night that he would always be here for me when the nightmares came, and I don't know how he meant that. I’m too afraid to ask.

Because everyone leaves me eventually, and it wouldn't surprise me if he left at the end of all this, too. I’d never ask him to stay, because I know how difficult it is to be around me, and I figure it would be even worse if he dated me.

It’s bad enough that I have to see all the social media posts about how hot he is, and most of my comments talk about him, too. It’s…weird. Some peoplereallydon’t care about their digital footprint anymore.

“I’m not really sure exactly when it started, but it’s one of my favorite things to do. The house we’re staying in was owned by my parents, and they used to take Aria and I up here all the time when we were kids. Anytime I’m in between cases or have some time off, I try to climb another one.”

“Seems like a very active hobby. I think my legs would fall off if I tried to do this more than once,” I say as I wipe my hair out of my face. I regret not throwing it up before we left, but I wasn't sure what we were doing. My long blonde locks are falling in every direction in front of my face, and I regret not throwing a scrunchie on my wrist.

Vince laughs when I say that. “Says the girl who runs on the treadmill until she can’t breathe. I swear, you run more than any other person I’ve ever met.”

I knock his arm with my hand. The two of us have slowly crept closer to one another, and I don't think either of us has noticed. “Well, I can’t exactly argue with that.”

“Exactly.”

“Have you climbed this one before?” I ask, wondering if the reason he doesn't have a map is because he knows the way.

“This will be my fourth time, actually.”

My eyes practically bulge out of my head. “You’re insane, Vince, but I get why you like it so much.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. There’s something so special about being in nature and hearing all these sounds that remind you you're alive in the first place. The birds are chirping, the wind is blowing across my face, and hearing the dirt under my boots kind of puts everything into perspective.”

“Wait until we get to the top.”

“Is the view worth it?”

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