Page 23 of Fragile Heart

CHAPTER9

Hudson

My alarm is setfor noon, but I’m awake two hours before it goes off. I got home around two this morning from shooting and crashed into bed. We filmed a grueling fight scene yesterday and had to re-do it so many times I knew my muscles would be sore before I even changed out of my costume.

After getting out of bed, I brush my teeth and throw on some shorts and a T-shirt before settling down on the couch with coffee and a banana. I should check my emails because I’m sure there are some from my agent to review, but I don’t want to. It’s my day off, and I want to enjoy it. I guarantee there’s something in one of those emails that will piss me off. There always is. And I know I need to look for a new agent, but that feels like too much work right now. At least Max is bringing in the parts. They might not be the parts I want, but it still works.

Instead of working, I read a few chapters in my new book before I text Quinn to let her know I’ll be at her place in fifteen minutes.

I made up the story about losing my wallet as an excuse to go to her apartment yesterday. I have no idea why. All I wanted to do was apologize and ask her not to say anything to anyone about the bar incident. But then she opened the door, and I realized I actually wanted to see her. Not to get in her pants, but because I like talking to her.

She’s been so welcoming both times I’ve been in her apartment. Instead of throwing me on her tiny couch, she let me sleep in her bed. She respects my privacy. She didn’t blink an eye when I mentioned my sponsor. She hasn’t even tried to make a move to get me to sleep with her. In fact, she hasn’t flirted with me at all. It’s refreshing to have someone talk to me like a real person.

So many times when I meet people, I feel like I’m in an interview. I have to think carefully about my responses because I know what I say can and probably will end up in a tabloid magazine somewhere. But Quinn seems to sense that there are things I don’t want to talk about. She hasn’t pushed at all.

Did I think I would find a friend in the happy little server from the diner? Absolutely not. In fact, she’s the last person I thought I would gravitate toward. But I’m not going to overthink it. I want to go hiking, and she knows where the hiking trails are, so we might as well go together.

I knock on her front door with only a water bottle in hand. She opens it with a smile already on her face.

My eyes trail down her body from head to toe. Her brown hair is French braided back, and her face is practically bare of makeup, just like the last times I’ve seen her. I like that she doesn’t feel like she has to put on a fake face around me. She has on a racerback tank top and running shorts with a pair of bright blue running shoes.

“Good morning,” I say even though it’s closer to afternoon at this point.

“Hey. Let me grab my bag, and we can get going.” She walks to the side of her couch and picks up a backpack.

“Jeez, are you planning on camping out there?” I ask when I see how full the bag is.

She smirks at me. “I like to be prepared.”

“What’s in there?” I nod toward the bag she’s slinging over her shoulder.

“Extra water, some snacks, a first-aid kit, sunscreen, bug spray. Just the necessities.”

“I didn’t realize we were hiking up Mount Everest.”

“You’ll be thanking me when you run out of water.” She nods toward my already half-gone bottle of water. I didn’t realize I drank most of it on my walk over.

I follow her out of her apartment and down to her car, and we make the twenty-minute drive to the trail. After I insist on carrying her bag, she finally leads us to the start of the trail.

The rocks crunch under our feet as the breeze blows through the trees. It’s a perfect day for hiking. I’ve missed this, being outside and enjoying nature. I take a deep breath in and close my eyes for a brief moment to let the sun hit my face.

“So, you like hiking?” she asks.

“Yeah. I’ve always liked being outdoors, but hiking really helped with my sobriety.” I stop myself. I never talk about my sobriety. Not even with Vaughn. He knows about it, obviously, but we never discuss it.

I glance over at Quinn to see if she’s looking at me, judging me, but her eyes are surveying the trees surrounding us.

“How so?”

I debate if I should answer her. I don’t think she’d be offended if I told her I didn’t want to talk about it, so fuck it. She already knows I have a problem, which is something my public relations team has managed to keep out of the tabloids for years. Maybe talking about it with an outsider will help.

“My sponsor used to take me hiking when we first started working together. It helped build my trust with him, and it gave me something to do besides sit around and get trashed. Then I started going on my own. Being out in nature, surrounded by all this. . .” I open my arms wide and look around. “It gave me hope that I could do it. I could quit drinking, and I could trust myself. Sounds stupid when I say it out loud.”

“No, it doesn’t,” she assures me. “If that’s how your journey felt, it’s not stupid at all.” I don’t say anything else because I’m not sure what to say. When I look over at her, she doesn’t seem to expect a response. “So there’s supposed to be a waterfall on this trail, but I’ve never made it that far.”

“Well, now we have a challenge.” We continue walking the trail. It’s flat for the most part, but some uphill parts leave us both a little out of breath. Her more so since I’ve been training hard in LA for this movie.

The trail is more crowded than I would have liked it to be, but everyone keeps a pretty good distance. I have my hat on to hide my face as best as I can. All I need is one person to recognize me for an entire group to swarm.

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