Chapter 15 Juliette #2
“Due to ice and snow conditions, the lower observation deck is closed for safety,” the guide announces as the doors open. “But you’ll still get incredible views from the upper deck and the two viewing portals.”
We emerge into a tunnel carved through rock, the walls rough and damp. The temperature drops immediately, the air thick with moisture. And as we walk the sound of the falls get continuously louder.
The upper observation deck is a covered platform. Cold air seeps through the openings, carrying mist that settles on everything like fine rain.
My family spreads out across the deck. My dad immediately goes to the windows with Owen’s dad, comparing angles for photos. Olivia is already taking selfies. Garrett and Melissa stay near the entrance, both looking miserable in the cold.
Rodriguez pulls me further down the hallway toward one of the portals, a rough opening in the rock that frames the falls perfectly.
We’re partially sheltered here, tucked into the alcove, but the noise is still deafening.
He leans in, his mouth close to my ear so that I can hear him over the roar.
“The water droplets look like diamonds in your hair.”
I turn to look at him, not sure I heard him right over the noise. He’s still close and I can see the water beading on his eyelashes, the way his hair is getting damp at the edges. Close enough to see that he’s completely serious.
“No wonder your skating students think you’re a princess,” he says, reaching out and lifting my braid off my shoulder, and there’s no hint of teasing in his voice. No smirk or cocky grin. Just Rodriguez looking at me like I’m something precious.
I open my mouth and nothing comes out. My entire vocabulary has apparently abandoned me because Rodriguez just said something so cheesy but meant every single word and I actually don’t know how to process that.
He’s still watching me with this half grin on his face, mist settling on both our faces, the falls roaring around us like they’re the only sound in the world.
Then suddenly he leans forward and presses a kiss to my forehead, then the tip of my nose, quick and playful but somehow more intimate than anything we did last night.
I’m holding my breath, frozen in anticipation but his lips meet the corner of my mouth, just shy of my cheek, before he pulls back, grinning like he knows exactly what he just did to me, winks and says, “Come on, your dad wants a family picture.”
He turns and walks away, and I’m left standing in the portal completely speechless.
Because he just kissed me three times without actually kissing me and somehow that’s more devastating than if he’d just pulled me to his chest and kissed me properly.
I watch him pose with my family, his easy smile back in place, like he didn’t just completely rewire my brain.
My hand comes up to touch the corner of my mouth where I can still feel the ghost of his lips.
Back at the visitor center, everyone heads inside to warm up and Rodriguez keeps looking at me like I’ve never looked better, even though I know my hair is a disaster from the mist.
“I’m going to fix my hair,” I tell him. “I’ll be right back.”
The bathroom is crowded with other visitors doing the same thing, fixing their makeup, drying off, assessing the damage. I do what I can with paper towels, but my hair is hopeless. It’s going to dry weird no matter what.
Rodriguez is waiting for me with two cups of hot chocolate as I leave the bathroom.
“Extra whipped cream,” he says, handing me one. “Because you’re extra sweet.”
It would sound so dumb coming from anyone else, but I’m torn between wanting to roll my eyes at him and melt at his thoughtfulness.
We find a spot by the windows overlooking the falls. My family is scattered around the visitor center, my parents examining a historical display, Olivia shopping for souvenirs she probably doesn’t need, Owen’s friends debating where to go for lunch.
“This is nice,” Rodriguez says, looking out at the view.
“The falls?”
“This.” He turns to look at me instead. “Getting to just exist with you for a whole day. No performance, no pretending. Just us.”
“We’re still pretending. That’s literally the whole point of you being here.”
“Is it?” He sets his cup down on the windowsill. “Because it stopped feeling like pretending.”
I’m trying to figure out a way to deflect, to maintain this distance. My brain scrabbling around for something, anything that could be a safe reply.
Then he smiles.
Not the cocky grin he uses on everyone else. Not the charming one that makes people like him immediately. The real one. The one that reaches his eyes and makes him look younger and completely unguarded and like he’s letting me see something he doesn’t show anyone else.
And everything else just stops.
The noise of the visitor center fades. The conversations around us blur into white noise. My family. The tourists. Everything.
It’s just him looking at me like that, and my sudden realization that this is what I was missing before.
This feeling of the entire world narrowing to one person and being okay with it. Of wanting to exist in the same space just because they’re in it.
I never once felt this with Garrett. Never felt my breath catch just from someone smiling at me. Never felt like I’d rather be exactly where I am than anywhere else in the world.
“Why are you staring at me, JuJu?” He says it like he knows exactly what I’m thinking. As if all my thoughts are painted on my face for him to see.
“Jules!” Olivia’s voice cuts through the moment we were having. She appears next to us, phone in hand, completely oblivious. “We’re doing lunch down the street. Everyone’s ready to go. You guys coming?”
“Yeah.” Rodriguez answers before I can even process the question. “We’re coming.”
He offers me his hand, while my brain is still trying to catch up to what just happened.
Because I just realized I’m falling for him.
And from the look on his face as he threads his fingers through mine, thumb tracing over my knuckles, he knows it too.