Chapter 6 #6
“I have.” I paused a beat, ruminating on if the statement even needed a follow up, “it fell off for me a bit after season six, truthfully.”
This was a half lie. The show’s chokehold on my psyche had absolutely waned, but I still held onto it like it was a liferaft and my mental health was a sinking boat.
In the weeks surrounding my breakup I’d been rewatching old episodes on repeat as a small comfort.
I would most definitely not tell him that.
“Sorry,” I continued quietly, “I didn’t ever want to bring it up while you were here and make you think I had ulterior motives or was going to make things weird.”
My heart was racing, the rush of blood in my ears as loud as the falls.
Evan remained silent, his mouth was twitching ever so slightly, like he was formulating the right thing to say.
I could imagine the calls to his lawyer later, made from the corded phone hanging in the makeshift office at Sue and Randy’s house.
How quickly could the local cops show up to escort me away from the premises?
The pause stretched and became excruciating. I had expected him to snatch up his towel and take off running into the woods to get away from me.
“It fell off after season six for me, too,” he said with a light laugh. I so badly wanted to turn and face him, just to see if his eyes indicated how he really felt, “is that why you’ve been so cold to me?” Sadness laced his question.
My cheeks were getting hotter and hotter. “Partially, sure,” I lied, because if I reacted how I truly had wanted to, I’d still be screaming into my pillow. “I didn’t want to seem like I was ruining your trip being here. You must think I’m such an asshole.”
“On the contrary, I assumed you thought I was the asshole.”
The tension left both of our bodies. I could see his shoulders lower. He didn’t need to know the rest of my truth. Half the weight was freed off my chest, that would have to be enough.
I let out a laugh. “I promise I won’t bring up the show, at all. I know you didn’t run away forty miles into the woods to talk about it, much like I didn’t run away forty miles into the woods to think about my ex.”
As I flipped myself over to tan my back, I noticed a smile had spread across his face.
I didn’t realize that I had fallen asleep on my towel, or that Evan had somehow done the same.
Maybe neither of us were truly built for early morning wake up calls followed by a hike.
The weather was so perfect and the sound of the water was so relaxing that after I buried my head in my arms I must’ve dozed off.
I lifted my head to see Evan, slack jawed, with his sunglasses obfuscating his closed eyes behind tinted lenses.
It was fascinating being so close to Evan now. I could see the smile lines developing under his eyes and the slight curvature of his nose. He seemed so oddly comfortable, even immediately after finding out I was, at one point in time in his eyes, a fan.
I think I liked Evan, this Evan, not “the” Evan McLeod. I liked that he was so easy to get along with, despite my continued protests. Maybe he and I could be friendly companions for the next five days.
After turning back over and stretching a bit—rocks were hardly an adequate sleeping surface for someone pushing thirty—I stood up.
My hair had dried into loose curls, skimming against my shoulders. My body was limber and warm. The hike back to the car wouldn’t be difficult, but it would be decently long, and I was grateful my swimsuit had dried enough to comfortably put my clothes back on over it.
I gathered my things as quietly as I could, taking a quick bite of my sandwich before folding up the towel. Evan was still asleep. Should I gently wake him or wait until he arose himself? I stood at a distance, still contemplating the options.
Fortunately the decision was made for me. He stretched out on his towel like a cat and immediately looked to where I had been laying. I whipped around to see Evan sitting up and looking at me.
“You weren’t planning on leaving me here, were you?” His voice was groggy, his accent seemed to have a stronger hold on him when he was half awake.
“I think Sue would be pissed if I killed off her only guest this week. Unless the check already cleared.”
His laugh was breathy, like he was mid-yawn when I made the quip.
The clock illuminated on my phone, 2:30 p.m. Much later than expected, if we left now we’d be getting back exactly at five. I hadn’t expected this trip to truly take up the entire day, but clearly fate had other plans. If we left much later, Sue would be sending Randy out on his ATV to find us.
Evan had joined alongside me at this point, stuffing his towel carelessly into his bag. I winced a bit for the state of the high end.
He stretched again, his back muscles tensing all at once. “Jesus, I must be getting old, that catnap wrecked my back.”
“Are you good to go?” I gestured back towards the trail.
Evan remained shirtless and in his swimsuit, with seemingly no intention of changing since his other clothes were now buried beneath his towel. He laced up his sneakers and hopped up, snagging the backpack in one swift motion. “Sure am,” he said cheerfully.
We started back on the trail, more silence between us but somehow this felt comfortable. Maybe honesty was in fact the best way to get through this week.
When we got to the top of the falls, Evan jogged over to the lookout once more, shaking his head in disbelief and taking a quick photo on his phone.
“I, uh, could take one of you? If you want?” I asked from five yards behind. He extended his hand to offer his phone, I hesitantly went over and grabbed it.
After stepping back far enough to be sure the majority of the photo was the scenery and not Evan, I set up the shot.
“Say Horseshoe Falls!”
He laughed, showing his brilliant white teeth, and I took a few pictures in a short burst. He came back and I handed him the phone once more.
He promptly stuck it in his pocket without even looking at the photos. “I’ll have to send this out once I get service again. My mates aren’t going to believe I actually took the trip. They’re all assuming I’m holed up in my apartment with my phone on airplane mode.”
“Why’s that?”
“I’m not usually one for adventure or stepping outside my comfort zone. Never was and I’m certainly not now. I tend to get a decent amount of shit for it.”
Maybe we were more similar than I’d realized. This place acted as my safe haven, but I forget that for most people it was some sort of outdoorsy adventure.
It was a camp in Maine, not the summit of Mt.
Denali, and yet some people would treat it as such.
Sue had endless stories about guests from the city acting like it was their first time seeing a tree.
I didn’t think Evan was this type, but he certainly gave an impression that this was some grander adventure in the great wide somewhere.
“Did you want to get one too, or?” Evan pointed at my phone resting in my hand, I had forgotten to put it back in my bag when we left the swimming hole.
“Oh no, I probably have two hundred pictures of the falls from over the years.”
I angled a shoulder back to the trail and set off. We fell into step with one another swiftly.
“Right. What’s the story there,” he started, “you’ve really been coming here your entire life or was that another exaggeration from Sue?”
I chuckled. “When I was young my mom would take me, well, essentially drop me in Sue and Randy’s lap while she stayed in the cabin reading the entire week.
Eventually that turned into her dropping me off and then picking me up in town at the end of the week, and once I got older I’d either work here in the summers or bring my friends up for the week.
No one seemed to appreciate the place in the same way I do, it’s a second home to me and truthfully paradise on earth. ”
“Sue wasn’t kidding then.”
“No, definitely not. I know the camp and the surrounding areas probably better than I do my own neighborhood.”
Even having lived in Boston since graduating college, I would often take the T in the wrong direction—inbound and outbound is a ridiculous way to describe train directions—or I’d accidentally turn down the wrong street and need to make a massive circle to get back in the right direction thanks to the fact that the entire city runs on one way streets.
Driving around camp was simple, straightforward. There weren’t absurd traffic laws to keep track of or strings of red lights, there was just the dirt road and the occasional moose to watch out for.
“You’re exactly spot on,” he said.
“About what?”
“This place being paradise on earth.”
“You’ve been here a day,” I chuckled.
“And I can already tell there’s something really special about it.”
“If you keep coming back I might have to keep overtaking one of the cabins that same week,” my eyes widened at how quickly that flirty quip snuck out.
Evan was, unsurprisingly, unphased. “I’d happily allow it, so long as I get to shadow you for the week. Though we might have to discuss quiet hours for singing in the shower.”
There was no way to cover up my swiftly pinkening cheeks. I hadn’t felt banter this simple since the early days of dating Nick.
“I thought you said you liked my voice?”
Now I was playing it up. It all felt almost too easy.
This may all be a prank and the cops and paparazzi would be waiting in the parking lot, restraining order in hand, but damn, was it fun.
To keep myself grounded I had to tell myself that he’s an actor, and he was only acting like a normal cute flirty guy.
“I believe I said it was nice—”
A resounding thud cut Evan off mid sentence from my body crashing to the ground.
I got too in my head and missed a large twisted root jutting from the ground, which my ankle was now firmly placed under.
I was stunned by how fast it all happened, one second I was upright and now I was facedown in the dirt.