Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Zane
“Remind me again why we let you pick the trail?” Wren calls from behind me, her voice laced with accusation.
The path we’re on narrows as it winds deeper into the woods, and I glance over my shoulder before replying, “Because I have superior navigation skills.”
“I doubt that…since we’re lost,” she shoots back.
“That’s a wild accusation.”
Beside me, Maxinne lets out a soft laugh. A loose braid drapes over her shoulder, strands of brown hair framing her face. I smile at her proudly, because she’s slowly becoming a pro at hiking.
She’s dressed for the trails in fitted shorts, a simple tank, and boots laced tight. There’s a faint flush to her cheeks from the incline, and I have to force my attention back to the trail before I trip over something. Her beauty has distracted me the entire hike.
“I don’t know, man. We’ve been walking uphill for the last twenty minutes.” Ashton lets out a low chuckle from behind us.
“It’s called elevation gain,” I add, ducking under a low-hanging limb and brushing it aside so Maxinne can pass. “It’s part of the experience.”
“The experience of dying?” Wren pants.
I glance over my shoulder, walking backward for a few steps to face them both. Wren’s cheeks are flushed, red hair sticking to her temples, and looks about two seconds away from mutiny. Ashton seems unfazed by this hike, even though he’s complained the entire time.
Maxinne snorts under her breath, her shoulder brushing mine as she steps past me. “You both did say you wanted an adventure today.”
Behind us, Wren groans dramatically, and Ashton mutters something about turning back. A bead of sweat slides down the back of my neck, and I swipe at it absently as we step over a stretch of exposed roots.
The air is thick and muggy but not as suffocating as it could be.
Last night’s storm knocked the edge off the heat, leaving everything damp and heavy instead of blazing.
Honestly, I expected the trail to be a lot worse.
There’s been a few fallen branches and debris here and there in our path, but other than that, things are clear.
Ashton called Maxinne early, looking for a reason to get out of the house before the work week started breathing down our necks again.
She mentioned our planned hike and invited him and Wren along, who she’s made friends with, apparently.
I’m not going to lie, I was looking forward to having this time alone with Maxinne, showing her one of my favorite spots in Covewood, but if having Ashton and Wren here makes her happy, I don’t mind.
“You holding up, alright?” I ask Maxinne.
“Mm,” she hums, nodding. “I think so.”
“’I think so’ doesn’t sound convincing.”
She exhales a small laugh. “I’m not used to this kind of heat.”
“Welcome to Kentucky in June.”
She tips her head back, looking up through the trees where the sunlight filters in soft, broken patches. “I thought after a storm like that, it’d cool off the temperature a bit.”
“It has,” I say. “Trust me, this is much better.”
She hums softly, but when her gaze returns to me, there’s a thoughtfulness reflecting in it. “I didn’t want to ask you last night, but I was wondering what made you fearful of storms.”
I let out a slow breath, my eyes tracking the trail as Sven trots ahead of us. I consider brushing it off and making a joke or changing the subject. But it’s Maxinne, and we’ve never really done things surface-level.
“When I was ten, we lived in a small trailer before we moved to Covewood. It would rattle even when a truck passed by, let alone a storm.”
The woods seem quieter now. Even Wren and Ashton have gone silent behind us, their usual commentary replaced with the soft crunch of their steps.
“One night, a tornado touched down, and we didn’t have anywhere to go except the small, cramped bathroom. All of us crammed into the bathtub together. My dad braced over us, and my mom was praying out loud, her voice shaking as much as the walls were.”
Maxinne’s expression softens, and she slows her pace to match mine.
“The next morning, we walked around the neighborhood. Less than half a mile down the road, houses were just…gone. People I knew and kids I played with lost their homes. No one died, thankfully, and it could’ve been much worse. But storms like that stick with you.”
Maxinne’s fingers brush against my arm, and it’s the lightest contact, yet somehow, it’s everything. I glance down at where her hand lingers. My breath hitches, not enough for anyone else to notice, but enough that I do.
This attraction between me and her is becoming unshakeable, and that makes it harder to pretend it’s nothing more than friendship.
The more I try to hide my feelings, the more they seem to grow.
One small touch shouldn’t knock the air out of my lungs.
And one look from her shouldn’t undo every boundary I’ve tried to put in place, and yet I can’t find it in me to stay away from her. If anything, I crave more.
My jaw tightens as I force myself to look away, dragging my attention back to the trail ahead. The plan was to stay friends, not to slowly fall for her. Yet, somewhere along the way, my heart decided it wasn’t interested in the plan at all.
This is exactly why I made my list in the first place.
It’s meant to protect me from this exact kind of recklessness.
Maxinne checks none of the boxes, and yet, somehow, she’s become the only thing my heart yearns for, which seems less like attraction and more like standing at the edge of something wildly out of my control.
“Alright,” Ashton’s loud voice cuts in from behind us. “What’d we miss? Why’d it get so quiet up there?”
Maxinne’s hand drops from my arm, as if the moment never happened, which is hard to do as I try to pretend that I didn’t feel it everywhere.
I clear my throat and take a step forward, putting a little space between Maxinne and me—space that I don’t actually want. “Enjoying the hike, man.”
“Mm-hmm,” Wren hums skeptically. “That’s not suspicious at all.”
“Maybe we finally broke him,” Ashton adds. “Too much ’elevation gain.’”
I huff a laugh, shaking my head, but my gaze flicks back to him for a second.
Ashton is my best friend, and the last thing I want to do is cross a line that costs me our friendship.
He told me to not get involved with Maxinne.
The reminder settles heavily, cooling whatever sparked to life a moment ago.
Sven’s sharp bark cuts through the tension, and he barrels past us, tail wagging, paws kicking up dirt as he disappears farther down the trail.
His bark echoes ahead, and with it is something else.
I slow my pace, tilting my head as I listen.
The sound of running water carries through the wind.
It’s faint at first, a whisper threading through the trees, until it starts growing louder with every step.
“Tell me that’s what I think it is,” Wren says, suddenly reinvigorated.
“That,” I say with a grin, “would be your reward for not passing out.”
Sven barks again as he runs around the bend.
The trail opens up, and a waterfall comes into view.
It spills over a jagged rock face, a wide curtain of rushing water crashing into a clear pool below.
Sunlight catches the spray, shining a small rainbow through the mist that drifts through the clearing.
The air instantly cools, and the scent of wet stone replaces the humid heat of the woods.
The sound of the rushing water fills the space, drowning out everything else.
Sven charges straight into the shallows, barking like he’s announcing his victory to the entire forest. Beside me, Maxinne goes still.
Her eyes are fixed on the water as she soaks in every inch of it. I don’t admire the waterfall, though.
I admire her.
The mist drifts toward us, settling against her skin, getting stuck in the loose strands of her hair. One curls at her cheek, and her lips part in awe. My legs pull me to her before I can stop it.
“Was it worth the hike?” I ask, setting my backpack and cell phone down onto the ground.
Maxinne nods, her eyes still on the waterfall, and she lifts up her cell phone to capture a photo. “Absolutely.”
A small smile curves her lips, and her gaze holds mine for a beat too long before she turns away.
“Finally!” Wren’s voice shatters the moment.
She drops her bag onto the ground, yanking off her boots and socks before running toward the water at full speed. Ashton mimics her.
“Last one in has to buy us all ice cream!” he calls back.
“We all know Zane is going to do that anyway.” Maxinne shouts, laughing once she sees my surprised expression.
As soon as they hit the water, Wren lets out a full, unfiltered squeal. Ashton follows with a sharp inhale that turns into a groan of relief. “OH—yep—that’s cold,” he chokes, but his smile is wide.
Wren surfaces, pushing wet hair out of her face. “I take back every bad thing I said about this hike.”
“I told ya so.” I holler.
Beside me, Maxinne chuckles, the sound carrying over the rush of the falls.
She slips her backpack off her shoulders, setting it carefully on a dry patch of rock, but doesn’t move toward the water.
Instead, she watches Ashton and Wren with her arms folded loosely across her stomach, a hesitant smile tugging at her lips.
Ashton splashes water in her direction. “Maxie! Get in here.”
“I bet it’s freezing!”
“That’s the point,” he argues.
Wren waves her in dramatically. “Come on.”
Maxinne shakes her head and doesn’t budge. “I’ll…ease into it.”
I glance at her, then back at the water, then at her again. A slow grin pulls at my mouth.
“Ease into it,” I repeat and start taking off my boots, “or jump in and get it over with. Which do you think is the better choice here?”
She squints her eyes at me and takes off her boots and socks, placing them next to her other items. She steps a little closer to the edge, testing the water with the tip of her toes before immediately pulling back.
“It is freezing.”