Page 207 of We Shouldn't Be Together
“So, where are we?” she asks, pulling at the front of her zippered sweatshirt.
I point to the view out of my window. “Over there is where we hike.”
She leans toward me, looking up at the mountainside. “Looks kinda rocky.”
“Only in parts. You wanna give it a go?”
“It’s been raining.” She evaluates the mountainside, unsure. “Won’t it be slippery?”
I pinch her cheek. “Aw, are you chicken?”
She bats my hand away. “What part of me ever told you I was a daredevil?”
“Fair enough. But, hey, you’re not in your school skirt and blazer.”
“Does that automatically mean I need to scale a mountain?”
“Well, if you don’t want to hike,” I tease, “I guess we could go to a coffee shop and study instead.”
She gasps playfully, reaching to clutch the steering wheel. “You wouldn’t dare.”
I unlatch my seat belt and open my car door. “Come on. Let’s look around.”
She follows me out of the car. “Just a look, okay?”
I wait for her to round the car and then clasp her hand. “Just a look.”
Tabby yelps as a raindrop hits her nose and I reach behind her to pull the hood of her sweatshirt up. “Better?”
She pouts at me. “I don’t like rain.”
I kiss the tip of her nose. “But I bet you look cute, all wet.”
She pushes me back. “Stop it, you.”
I tug on her hand, laughing. “Come on, I’ll show you the hiking track.”
We walk across the road and make it into the clearing between the shrubbery. The trail is a mix of sand and gravel, lined with rocks and trees, which me and the guys used to pull ourselves up the incline.
“Nah-uh.” Tabby fidgets beside me, bundling her hands in her sleeves. “I can barely make it up the hill from Main Street to my house. This so isn’t my thing.”
“You also told me dancing isn’t your thing. But I saw you after your dance lesson. You were beaming.”
“The dance studio is on solid ground.”
I bat a hand and move away from the track. “You’re right. Let’s get out of here.”
Tabby stays put, crossing her arms and her hip juts out to the right. “And, what? Go home? No way.”
“No way?” I question. “What do you mean? You don’t want to do this.”
“And you’re just walking away?”
“I won’t force you up the mountain.”
Tabby groans and lunges up the track. “Guess I’m on my own.”
I race beside her, watching her form. “That was a quick turnaround.”
