Chapter 6 #3
I was looking for a way around it. One side the trail dropped off into a steep ravine, and the other was a pile of boulders. I tentatively lifted a leg, thinking I could defy physics and float over this.
Evan stepped in front of me and hopped over the trunk with ease—his height proving to be a significant advantage—then extended his hand out toward me.
I could swoon. I really wanted to.
His outstretched palm hovered in front of me, waiting for me to grasp it. I stared.
“Are you going to let me help you?” Evan asked.
I not-so-subtly wiped my heads on my pant legs and gripped his hand.
His calluses brushed my palm and his fingers tightened their hold.
I swung a leg up, hopping a few times to get leverage when—a hand clutched onto my waist. Five solid fingers dug into soft flesh.
Evan gently guided me over the truck. I reluctantly grabbed it and he pulled me over the trunk, steadying my shoulders. “Thanks,” I said nervously.
I would not be a damsel in distress, despite having been put in the most damsel-in-distress position I’d ever been in. I brushed some debris off my leg and kept walking.
Something crept in. This very scene was achingly familiar. Because I had practically written it.
The Court of Doves was falling as the entire kingdom had.
Marble chunks crashed to the ground, crumbling upon impact.
Sir Erwyn held tightly onto Lady Premble’s hand, he could feel the sweat on her palms through the woven silk gloves.
She was terrified, as was he. Their escape was near.
Suddenly, a pillar fell in front of them, blocking their path with a horrifying crash.
They had to move quickly. Sir Erwyn needed to think, his thoughts were punctuated with the sound of falling stone.
Time was swiftly running out. The bridge would only hold so long.
He acted. He climbed over the pillar and reached his arms out to her.
Damn being proper, he needed to save her.
Two gloved hands landed in his, and he pulled.
My fic had ended with a kiss once she returned to the other side. In the real world, we continued to walk in silence. Until the whistling picked back up.
Without turning back I mused, “what song is that?”
The footfalls behind me suddenly stopped.
“Just a little ditty, I didn’t even realize I was doing it,” He sputtered out.
Now I needed to mentally place it. I couldn’t match lyrics to the tune or assign it to a commercial jingle. It didn’t matter now, anyways, he stopped entirely.
“You can keep it up, I didn’t mind the break from the quiet.”
Truthfully, I very much did mind it. In fact, the song was scratching away at my insides, but I couldn’t tell Evan McLeod that his whistling was driving me mad.
“We can also talk, you know,” he replied with a bit of snark.
“I didn’t want to disrupt your quest for solitude and anonymity.”
As rude as I sounded, I truly, genuinely believed it. If I were to keep my distance I would solidly plant myself as nothing more than a non-playable character in this game.
“Look,” he jogged in front of me and stopped in the middle of the trail.
I skidded to a stop before careening into him.
“I really don’t want you to think I’m some asshole who thinks they’re better than everyone because they’re famous.
But, Dani, might I remind you, you’re the one who unofficially crashed my week alone, so I’m not sure why you want nothing to do with me. ”
If I was stunned talking to him before, now I was nearly dead on arrival. The attempt I’d made to distance myself from him had backfired. I was an asshole. Somehow that was worse than being a fan.
“If you want to talk, let’s talk, then,” I said, and immediately regretted it.
Evan stammered for a moment. He didn’t know how to force the conversation, especially with someone who was seemingly disinterested. I started walking again.
There was still about a mile left until we’d reach the falls.
I was at a crossroads, it wouldn’t kill me to make polite conversation.
I needed to tap into the parts of myself that knew how to interact with a person.
Because that’s all Evan was. A normal. Regular.
Average person. Who also happened to be a muti-millionaire award-winning actor.
“So, how did you even find the camp?” I decided to take the safest route I could think of on the fly while satiating my curiosity.
“Some Google searching.”
Now Evan was the cold one, I knew I’d manage to fuck it all up the second I was left to my own devices.
“Google?” I awkwardly chuckled. “Sue barely knows how to open an email. I can't imagine their website would even show up there.” My tone was forcibly lighter. Normal, even. I could do this. I could have a conversation with Evan McLeod that didn’t make me want to crawl out of my skin.
“Exactly,” Evan replied with a light laugh, quickly breaking the tension. “The second she answered the phone I knew she wouldn’t be weird about me staying. She did ask if I was a murderer on the lam, though.”
His dam had immediately breached as though it was physically impossible for him to not be charming and affable. I watched a hint of annoyance manifest on his face, as though he was also bothered by his own pleasant nature.
I was jealous of him, I wish it were that simple to become so likable at the flip of a switch. We had migrated to walking side by side rather than in a line, I hadn’t even noticed it happened.
“And your answer?”
“Yes, obviously.”
I laughed at his reply, maybe a bit too hard. He seemed to appreciate it, chuckling a bit to himself.
“So she does have a sense of humor,” Evan was looking at me. I could feel it, but I refused to look back at him.
The eye contact alone might make me melt entirely.
I stepped defensively slightly to the side, creating more space between us. He noticed.
A few beats of silence passed.
“If it’s not too intrusive, what was the ‘emergency’ that made Sue give up one of the cabins for you this week?”
Right. Nick. The breakup. The whole reason I was here. No way was I about to talk about my relationship ending with Evan McLeod. Still, he deserved a good answer, I was the one who inconvenienced him.
“Did she say it was an emergency?” I replied. Evan nodded. “I broke up with my boyfriend and needed to get out of Boston for a bit.” I waved off the statement like it was no big deal instead of the life-altering change that it was.
“I’m sorry to hear that—” Evan spoke with such earnest sincerity that my heart clenched thinking about how his trip was derailed by this faux emergency.
“Don’t be, please,” I cut him off. “It was long overdue and…I broke up with him.”
I sure had made it seem like an emergency when I called Sue that day, but to be fair I had been crying for what felt like hours and had developed a visceral hatred for the entire city of Boston and possibly all of Massachusetts.
I’d been so whiplashed between emotional crises that I’d forgotten how awful I’d felt for the past few weeks.
“Well in that case, maybe I want my cabin back,” Evan said with a smirk.
Was Evan now being flirty? Or was there truth buried within the joke? I couldn’t tell.
Defenses told me to laugh uncomfortably. Sure, I could’ve come up with half a dozen sassy replies but all of them would be overstepping the imaginary boundaries I’d carefully set.
“I’m kidding, you know,” Evan lightly tapped my shoulder. Electricity buzzed under my skin where he touched me.
“Right, yeah, of course.” The shell was building around me again.
Our walking pattern drifted from side by side to front and back again, I clenched my jaw.
Not much further, I kept reminding myself.
“The falls are up here to the left, we can check out the view and then hike down to the bottom to swim if you still want to.” The rush of water carried through the trees like tumultuous ocean waves. I was grateful for the white noise.
A few more steps and we had broken through to the clearing to find ourselves at the top of a narrow waterfall. The falls tumbled down rocks smoothed by years of water rushing over them.
Horseshoe Falls was named from the way they were split down the middle by a dark craggy cliff.
From the bottom they looked like one large arc, almost like a horseshoe.
Frothy, white water cascaded over each side, bowing outward, then reuniting towards the bottom.
Beyond the small lake that fed the falls, the wilderness extended for miles and miles.
It wasn’t more off the grid than this, and from the look of wonder on Evan’s face, it was obvious.
I stood there for a moment, stealing glances at him as he took it all in.
His sharp jaw was slack in amazement, and he scrubbed a hand down his cheek as though he was baffled by a place like this existing.
There was a sweet, childish nature to the way he reacted.
It was unlike anything I’d seen from him, acting or otherwise.
My lips twitched up in a tiny smile, I was grateful he was so focused on the view that I faded into the background.
I tossed my backpack down and climbed up on a rock to sit and watch the falls in solitude. Evan fumbled through his own backpack for something, emptying out its contents in a frustrated huff. I heard a soft “aha” come out of him and footsteps grew closer towards me.
“Gorgeous, right?” I called from the rock.
I looked over at him. He was already looking at me. “Sure is,” he replied with a soft smile.
A branch tumbled over the side of the falls and into the mist below. Tiny rainbows would appear in the mist when the light caught just right. Nature seemed to want to put on a show for us, as though they were also trying to subtly impress Evan.
I averted my gaze back towards the view. The sound of the water and the warmth of the sun could put me to sleep. My eyes slowly shut and I let my mind drift elsewhere.