Page 10 of Waiting For Ever
“If only,” Lilly cries. “But we post signs and strongly encourage they don’t veer from the open trail.”
Noah chimes in, “Yeah, she likes to tell the visitors about mountain lions and rattlesnakes to scare them off.”
“I prefer telling the ones with little dogs about the owls and hawks, and to keep an eye on theirfur babies,”I add with a wicked grin.
“Wow, you guys really can’t stand the . . .hoolies.” Ever laughs. The sound has me absently rubbing the tattoo on my chest. “I better watch my ass,” she adds.
I laugh at her sass and ignore the flip my stomach does.
“Eh, you’re in because . . . Allie.” Lilly flicks her hand likeduh.“She’s a G. Values this area and protects it as much as she can, without being totally annoying about it.” Lilly pauses for half a second likeshe’s waiting for permission, then keeps going. “She gets it. How fast places like this are disappearing. And, well, you’re like her family, right? So . . .” She shrugs and stops talking.
“So, you’re saying I’m not a hoolie?” Ever winks at Lilly, teasing. “What the hell is a hoolie anyway?”
My mouth turns to sandpaper as I stare at her unobserved, her attention on Lilly. She looks so young and innocent, but she talks with such wit and intelligence. She enchants me. Turning my head away to break the spell, I see Noah watching me, now standing on the edge of the cliff, one eyebrow arched. I arch mine right back in challenge.
With a half laugh, he tosses his head toward the lake. “Too cold for you still, J Mac?”
“Too cold for what? A dive? Eh, maybe.” I shrug and glance at Ever to weigh her reaction. Will she think I’m a pussy for not wanting to jump? That I care is the disturbing part.
“Yeah, no, it’s too cold,” Lilly scoffs. “Are you crazy? That lake is not swimmable for a couple more weeks at least. Don’t do it, Noah. We’ll all do it the day before we open for campers. One last hurrah. Just wait! Okay? Will you guys do it with us then?” She aims her question at me and Ever.
“I, uh . . . sure. If Ever . . . ly wants to, I’m in.” I turn my head to wait for Ever’s reply.
She’s looking from me to Lilly to Noah to the cliffs and now back to me. “Umm, yeah, okay, I’m in. But none of you get to call me a hoolie ever again if I do it.”
“Deal,” we all say in unison, then laugh at our timing.
Lilly adds, “And hoolie is just a hooligan. My grams used to call the campers that. Any outsiders really. And I guess I tried to say it when I was a baby, and it came out ‘hoolie.’ After that, it just stuck.”
“Yeah, and now she’s got half the town saying it,” Noah chimes in.
“So, you’re a local trendsetter,” I tease.
She rolls her eyes.
“Influencer?” I wink at her again.
She just rolls her eyes again in response.
We spend another hour at the cliffs listening to Lilly talk about Blue Lake and growing up on the other side in South Point, where I grew up too, a few years before her, and Noah filling Ever in on going to school here. She isn’t really going to attend, she explains, only turn in her assignments at the high school, through the remote learning program they offer.
I have so many questions. But she isn’t offering any explanations, so I decide to save them for another time. Maybe when we’re alone she’ll want to tell me more about why she left her life to move up here in the middle of nowhere without her family. I know her mom and Allie go way back and are like family. So I get why she would be a good surrogate. But why did she need one? Why is she finishing her senior year up here away from everyone she grew up with and her sister? I mean, I get needing a fresh start away from reminders of a life that became a shit show. When Lilly talked about growing up in South Point, I kept my head down waiting to see if she knew me from there. I didn’t figure she would because of our age difference, but I held my breath anyway. I know firsthand how Blue Lake can save someone’s soul just by being here. I’m living proof of it. And I see that Ever needssaving as clearly as if she’d said it out loud. Despite my efforts not to care, I can’t help my curiosity.
But that doesn’t mean you need to save her. Reel it in, man.
Walking back, I trail behind the other three just enough to not be observed. I feel like a creeper—an enchanted creeper. I can’t take my eyes off Ever. She walks gracefully on long legs, muscles flexing with the effort. I like that she’s taller than most girls but sort of waiflike. Probably hated by girls her age because she’s effortlessly thin.
I bet she’d build muscle fast.
My stomach flutters with the train of my thoughts. Ever at the gym, lifting weights, breathing heavily with exertion, sweating. I could see her simulating fighting in a kickboxing class. Watching someone get strong hypes me. Watching someone as beautiful as Ever . . . I adjust my shorts and tell myself to knock it off.
Why now, why this girl? What is she doing to me?
I lie to myself that I just like to help people get strong and feel confident, which is why I later suggest that she let me train her in our downtime.
We decide to complete the rare day off with a cheat meal and order pizza from town and have it delivered to Allie’s for the two of us. Lilly and Noah have dinner plans with her family in South Point, so I’m happy to have Ever all to myself. When the pizza arrives, loaded with vegetables—our nod to healthy—she’s reaching for plates when I blurt out, “Let me train you.” Her shirt riding up just enough for me to glimpse the outline of her ribs as she stretches to pull down the plates has my fingers itching to touch that peek of skin.
“What?” She pauses with one hand on the cabinet door and the plates in the other and looks over her shoulder, pinning me with her smoky eyes. “You want to train me? Like at the gym?”
