Chapter 10 #3
“There’s a store downtown you should visit while you’re here,” he says after a few steps.
“What kind of store?”
He grins. “They sell homegrown seeds, herbs, and spices. A few houseplants, essential oils, you name it.”
“That sounds like my kind of store.”
“I thought so.” His eyes glint like he knows something I don’t.
“Maybe you could go with me sometime?” I ask, trying to keep my voice casual, though my heart picks up speed.
He hesitates before answering, “Yeah.”
He looks down at me, giving me a friendly smile, and the doubts I had before about us possibly building a friendship together dissipate for a moment.
“Okay, that’d be— Zane watch out!”
Zane’s boot catches on a hidden tree root, and he pitches forward, both of his arms flailing before he tumbles down. I hear a sharp grunt followed by the snap of twigs under his weight. He lands with a thud on his side in a bush, his boots sending a cloud of dirt into the air.
Sven whines and licks Zane’s face. A high-pitched buzzing erupts from somewhere nearby before Zane yelps, swatting at the air as several wasps zig-zag toward his face.
Sven bolts away as Zane jerks backward but not quickly enough.
One of the insects lands on his cheek, and he grunts in pain and smacks a hand against his skin.
It leaves a bright-red welt that instantly swells.
“Zane!” I shriek, rushing to his side.
His eyes are wide, lips parted, and there’s a thin streak of sweat on his forehead.
His cheek is already swelling where the wasp stung him, and pain flashes across his features.
He swats at the air again, more out of reflex than coordination, before sitting up.
I kneel beside him, swatting away the rest of the wasps who thankfully buzz away, and reach for my backpack.
“Hold still,” I say, fumbling inside until I pull out the small plant I’d shown him earlier. I place it into my hand and rub against the leaves for a second, bringing out its natural oils which will help to sooth his stinging wound.
“What are you doing?” he asks, but I ignore him as I take the plant and press it against the sting.
My hands brush against his cheek, and our knees touch as I hold the plant in place. He flinches at first then relaxes under my careful touch.
“Better?” I ask softly, our faces only a few inches apart. There’s a sense of longing that coils tighter the longer I remain in Zane’s space, especially when my body registers the moment his eyes dip to my lips.
“Yeah…thanks.”
I need a distraction, and so I reach into my bag and pull out the first aid kit he packed for me. “Hold this,” I tell him, placing his hand onto the plant to keep it in place, and I grab a large Band-Aid to place over it. “There. Leave that on for about twenty minutes, and it should help.”
He rubs his cheek, his eyes lingering in a way that promises this moment isn’t over. “You’re something special, Max.”
A flustered laugh escapes me, and I quickly shove the kit back into my pack, hoping my face doesn’t betray how his words make me a little lightheaded.
“You’re not so bad yourself.”
We both grin, the tension between us eases a fraction, especially as we turn and watch Sven jumping and nipping at the air, chasing a wasp away.
As we make our way back down the trail, Zane’s presence brushes close enough to make my skin tingle.
Every now and then, our shoulders nearly bump, and neither of us bothers to create more space.
It’s a small thing, but I find myself secretly hoping the trail never widens enough for us to drift apart.
Before we know it, the cabins appear ahead of us. There’s a flutter of anticipation flowing through me, knowing the evening is about to end. When we reach my front porch, I drop my pack onto the first step with a soft thud, and Zane lets out a low whistle.
“Well, we didn’t have to wrestle a bear today, so I’d say this was a successful hiking experience.” He chuckles, though I can’t ignore the subtle weight in it, like he, too, might be reluctant to break our time together.
I glance up at him. “Yeah…it was.”
He rubs the back of his neck, shifting his weight from one foot to the other, as he opens his mouth like he’s about to say something, but then he changes his mind before trying again. “Can I have your phone number?”
I raise a brow. “Yeah, sure.”
“In case you need me for anything. You know, while you’re here,” he adds quickly.
I pull my phone from my pocket and hand it to him. His fingers tap a few times before he hands it back to me. I look down and see that he’s saved his number into my phone and sent himself a message so that he can have my number too. A wide grin spreads across my face.
“Thank you. For today,” I tell him.
“You too.” He steps past me toward his cabin. “Good night, Butterfly.”
He turns around, and I watch as he and Sven disappear into his home. I glance down at his contact in my phone, my chest feeling strangely full. Covewood is supposed to be a temporary stop in my life, but the longer I’m around Zane, the harder it is to remember that.