Chapter Twenty-Five
We have a great rest of the day eating too much food, visiting all the baby farm animals, and riding so many rides that I’m at risk of losing my voice from screaming so loud. But the whole time, there’s a tight ball of anticipation in my stomach, wondering what Max is planning for this evening.
I drop my car off at the house after leaving the fair and take a moment to text Nova. She seemed very understanding when I told her about our plans, but Max was with us, so I can’t be sure of her reaction. A second later she texts back.
Nova: Totally fine. Have fun with Max!
An exclamation mark? About Max? That’s weird. I shake my head and put my phone back in my pocket.
A few minutes later, Max pulls into the driveway.
“So, can you tell me where we’re going?” I ask after climbing into his car. “Or is that a secret?”
He rubs his hands down the steering wheel. “This is going to sound strange, but have you heard of something called forest bathing?”
My eyes widen. “Is that like…skinny dipping?” My mind whirls with possibilities. I really like Max, but going from friends to skinny dipping overnight is a little fast for me.
He laughs and backs out of the driveway, though his neck turns a bit red.
“Uh, no. Forest bathing is this Japanese practice my mom learned about. It just means spending time in forests, basically. She’s been taking a lot of long walks at this nature preserve outside of town, and she always comes back happier and more relaxed.
” He glances over at me and then at the road, and I realize Max is nervous.
He’s twitchy, his left foot bouncing as he drives, and he’s speaking faster than usual.
“You’ve been working so hard—we both have, actually—and I thought some serene time in nature might be nice.
Sorry if you thought we were doing something fancy. ”
“No, this sounds fun. I’m officially intrigued.”
“Yeah? Okay, cool.”
Max drives us out of town to the preserve.
I’ve heard about it, but I’ve never been there.
Mom might be a superwoman, but she and Dad aren’t nature people.
When we step out of the car, I’m grateful to see that we won’t be roughing it—this is clearly an accessible park made for everyone.
Several wood-planked paths break off into the woods, and there are shelters and barbecues.
He raises his eyebrows questioningly to me.
“Oh no, this was your idea. I’ll let you lead the way.”
He takes me down one of the paths, and I have to admit that as soon as the woods close in behind us, a sense of calm fills me.
Although it’s evening, the sun doesn’t set for another hour.
These woods aren’t densely packed, so I can see through the trees to the fallen logs in the distance and the squirrels scampering along tree branches.
And because we’re raised off the ground a few inches on this wooden pathway, I don’t have to worry about walking through poison ivy or thistles.
We walk quietly together, and it’s nice to not feel required to speak constantly.
I notice that quite a few trees along the path have become time capsules for past relationships, their trunks filled completely with carved initials and hearts.
A lot of couples must have been coming out here for a lot of years to fill up so many trees.
It makes me think back to our walk in the wooded area behind the high school.
Did anyone ever tell Max the reason most people go back there?
I sneak a quick glance at him. Could that possibility be on his mind now?
He catches me looking. “Getting tired?”
“No, this is great.”
“Good, because I’m actually leading us somewhere else. But it involves a few flights of stairs.”
“Stairs? In the middle of the forest?”
He laughs. “Trust me. Come on, we’re almost there.
” He picks up speed, which kind of kills the chill forest vibes, but after a few more minutes a huge set of steps comes into focus ahead of us.
They must go up at least two stories, and at the top is another wooden pathway, except that path goes through the treetops.
“Whoa,” I whisper.
“Right? My parents used to bring me here when I was young.” His expression dims just slightly at the mention of them, but he pushes through. “It’s not nearly as popular as it once was. I’m hoping we’ll have it to ourselves, especially with the fair going on right now.”
He takes my hand for a moment, just long enough to tug me in the direction of the stairs, but it’s enough to set my heart beating quicker.
I know it’s disingenuous to feel this way about Max and not tell him.
He deserves to know where my head’s at…but the idea of putting myself out there makes me want to leap off the top of these weird forest stairs.
He might not be interested in me. Or maybe he isn’t interested in serious relationships at all.
I know plenty of guys like that, but I’m not sure I could do something casual.
Especially not with Max. We have too much history.
I swallow and take a few deep breaths—mostly from this line of thought, but also because these stairs are steep and I’m getting winded.
I remind myself that everything will be fine no matter what.
The worst-case scenario is that I tell him how I feel—how I’ve always felt—and end up leaving the forest with a broken heart and never-ending embarrassment and misery and then have to run an hours-long D&D game across from said heartbreaker.
Very doable.
A little laugh escapes me as I reach the top of the stairs.
“You’re laughing after that?” he asks. “I need to up my cardio.”
“Just laughing at how, um, how wild this all is. Climbing up into the treetops like this.”
Yep, I’m a total chicken.
We walk along the elevated path, and I’m awed by the tree limbs within arm’s reach. Luckily, they built very high, sturdy railings, but I don’t stray from the middle just in case.
“You know,” Max says, looking over his shoulder since I’m lagging behind, “last night I was thinking about all those games we used to play at your house when we were younger.”
“You mean, when you’d cheat at Mario Uno?”
His mouth drops open in outrage. “I did not cheat at any version of Uno. I was clumsy when I was young and accidentally knocked the cards from both our hands onto the floor.”
“Then why did I have different cards after we picked everything up? You weren’t even smooth about it. You totally snuck some of my cards.”
“I would never.”
We glance at each other and laugh, and my nerves fade away. Max holds my gaze for a moment, then turns and gestures in front of him.
“We’re here.”
“We’re where?” My eyes get big, and I take a step back. “Because I’m not stepping foot on that.”
The path through the treetops has led to a wide expanse of netting that’s been stretched over the forest floor below.
The netting is the same material as the woven rope hammocks you might find in someone’s backyard…
except it’s square and pulled taut along all four sides where it attaches to the walkway that encircles it.
It’s also absolutely enormous. The rope netting must be as wide as my living room.
It almost reminds me a bit of a trampoline, if the trampoline was made of rope, wasn’t bouncy… and was two stories off the ground.
In other words, the whole thing is absolutely terrifying.
The gray in his eyes sparkles mischievously. “You’re definitely getting on there with me. That’s the whole reason I brought you here.”
“There’s no way. We’re too far aboveground. And those are ropes—my feet could fall through the gaps! I’m not dying in this forest.”
He points to a sign nailed onto the railing. “Look, it’s literally weighted to hold two tons. Fifteen grown men can lie on there at once and still be perfectly safe. It’s only you and me.”
My head starts shaking back and forth of its own volition. “I’m not a fan of heights.”
“I guess I should have figured that out from your earsplitting shrieks on the rides this afternoon.” He looks down at the rope netting and back at me, his eyebrows knotting in worry. “Huh…this isn’t exactly the relaxing outing I had planned.”
“Maybe because you planned an outing with the sole goal of making me hyperventilate.”
He puts both hands out like he’s trying to calm me before I bolt in the opposite direction. Little does he know I’m frozen with fear and going nowhere.
“I’m not going to force you to come out there with me. Or, like, pick you up and toss you into the center.”
My eyes flare wide with horror.
“Oh, believe me, it’s happened. I saw a guy do that to his girlfriend once. But, I will ask you to trust me. We’d go very slowly, one step at a time, and we’d stop as soon as you said.” His expression grows serious, and he turns his palm up to me. “What do you say? Will you trust me, Hazel?”
I take a breath, my eyes flicking to the woven rope and back to him. The ropes are thick and tightly laced. And everything looks well maintained.
And, most importantly, I do trust Max.
“Yeah,” I breathe. “Okay.”
“Good.” He wraps his hand in mine and walks me over to the edge of the netting. I take a step onto the rope, which gives under my weight, and I jump right back off.
“What if we sit down and scoot on our butts?” he asks.
“Maybe.” My heart is still beating out of my chest at the fact that I can see through the ropes straight down to the forest floor far below, but I force myself to keep my eyes up. I sit down next to Max and start scooting, creeping toward the center until finally he stops.
“You okay?” he asks.
His expression is so gentle that I feel calmer from looking at him. “I’m shaky, but I’m not dead yet. And as an added bonus, I’m sure I look really cool right now.”
He chuckles. “We’re close enough to the center now. Try lying back and looking up at the sky.”
I do it very gingerly. The ropes dig into my back a bit, but the breeze is cool, and the netting is stable underneath me.
A moment later, I open my eyes and take in the swaying treetops dappled in sunlight, and the touches of blue sky visible through the leaves.
Begrudgingly, I realize he was right. It’s kind of… amazing.
Max cautiously lies back next to me and puts his hands behind his head. We stay there, breathing and listening to the birds until my heart has slowed to a normal rhythm. Finally, Max shifts to look at me.
“What do you think? Are you still pissed that I made you come out here?”
“Not anymore.”
He smiles faintly. “I’m glad.” He’s quiet for a moment. “Because I brought up those game nights for a reason.”
I look over at him in confusion.
“I’ve been thinking about how boring or miserable those nights could have been when we were younger.
Being left at a random house every weekend while my parents had fun downstairs, having to kill time with some kid I didn’t know.
When they first brought it up, I begged Mom to let me stay home alone instead.
But then we hung out, and I never complained to her again.
It was anything but miserable hanging out with you.
” His eyes rove over my face. “We’re competitive and stubborn, but it worked between us anyway. We’ve always worked, Hazel.”
My heart speeds again. Max turns onto his left side and I turn on my right, but the netting is awkward and we both tip into each other, as if we were lying together on a regular hammock.
I giggle nervously and try to scoot back so I’m not pressed against him, but he puts a hand on my hip to stop me.
“If you aren’t interested in me as more than your competitive friend, then that’s okay. But I’ve missed everything about you. There’s no one else in the world like you, Hazel. I’m still hoping there’s something I can do to win you over.”
It’s as if his words are an electric jolt, racing through the length of my body. My world narrows until all I can see is his face. I can barely believe this is happening. I’ve spent the last five years waiting for these exact words.
“You won me over when I was twelve,” I whisper. “I’ve just been waiting for you to notice.”
His eyes flare wide in surprise at the same moment that I lean a bit closer to him.
The netting pushes us together farther, and our lips brush.
His hand squeezes my hip, and he deepens the kiss.
Fire rushes through me, hot and wild and electric.
Kissing Max is what I expected in the best possible way, and also so much more.
The slide of his hand up my back, his breath in my mouth, the sound he makes when I shift closer against him.
It makes me feel like I’m floating. I think I am.
A few moments later I pull away, although it’s hard to do that when the hammock material seems designed to tip us closer together.
“Are you okay?” Max asks breathlessly. His gray eyes are warm, and his expression is hungry, but it fades as he studies me. “Do you need off of here?”
He moves to sit up.
“No.” I put a hand on his chest. “I don’t want to go. Actually, I wanted to tell you that this netting thing was a really great call. Although I wouldn’t call it relaxing. My heart won’t slow down.”
His mischievous expression returns. “Sorry, but I don’t think I can help you with that one.”
Then he leans closer and presses me back, and everything but him fades from my mind.