Total pages in book: 25
Estimated words: 23676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 23676 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 118(@200wpm)___ 95(@250wpm)___ 79(@300wpm)
Him coming up to me and making small talk, though, managed to help my nerves a good deal, and seeing that he’s a man with a family like anyone else helped a whole lot too.
That anxiety has been replaced by this new anxiety, of not wanting to lose the attention of an incredibly hot guy and not making a total and utter fool of myself in front of him.
I’m sure I’ll get over that only for something else to replace it. I can’t ever just feel like everything’s going to be A-okay, now, can’t I?
I wait for Hawk, sitting on the hood of my car, my hiking backpack next to me. I think I arrived a bit too early in my fear of being even remotely late.
Soon enough, he rolls up in that maintained but kinda dirty pickup. He steps out of the truck, his own backpack in hand, flashing me that dashing smile of his.
He then sees my car, and a look of confusion hits him. “Uh, you drive that?”
“I drive what?”
He points at what I’m sitting on. “That thing looks like it meant for Rodeo Drive, not for driving to an actual rodeo.”
Oh, uh, shit.
This was a present for my eighteenth birthday. A Lamborghini sports car. I’d been driving it around since, just kind of accepting that it was perfectly normal to drive a top of the line sports car to the grocery store or the DMV or wherever else. I didn’t even give a second thought to bringing it to Evergreen Valley with me.
“I... uh... won it in a contest.”
“You won a Lamborghini in a contest?”
I nod. “It’s a car. It gets car things done. So I never thought too much of it.”
Why was I so worried if he found out I came from money?
I swallow audibly as other realizations hit me. Did Hannah see this too? She couldn’t just think I was an idiot working a part-time job to make payments on something more expensive than some people’s houses?
“I guess it does. It rides so low I’m surprised it doesn’t get caught up on some rocks. Those types of cars don’t get along with dirt roads at all.”
“Yeah, I’ve noticed. I’ve managed to get through, though.” I hop off the hood of my car and hoist my backpack to show I’m ready to go.
Hawk still stares at my car, perplexed by its presence. “I always thought if I won one of those things I’d just turn around and sell it, and buy something more appropriate to my tastes.”
“I guess I just never thought of doing that.”
“Well, let’s forget about your strange choice of vehicle. Shall we?” Hawk says, lifting his pack over his shoulder.
“I’m ready,” I say, psyching myself up for a big journey through the woods.
We start on the path, but we don’t stay on it for long. I don’t fear putting all of my trust in Hawk being the consummate outdoorsman he claims to be. He’s quick to tell me to watch my step with low branches, when to duck with higher ones, and when to avoid the poison oak bushes that are all too common throughout the Evergreen woods.
Which I definitely rushed past on my last forest adventure, and have been heavily applying anti-itch lotion ever since.
Together, we head higher toward the mountains. The upward journey is a bit rough at times, but I hold myself together.
“Just a bit farther,” he says, pushing up a hill.
I heave a deep breath but keep going.
“You need me to carry you?” he shoots back, barely phased by the distance we’ve traveled.
“I’m good. I can do it. I can keep myself together,” I say, powering through any weakness I’m feeling.
“Do you want me to carry you?” He gives me a glare that suggests he wants me in his arms for reasons unrelated to getting me up a steep slope.
Somehow, someway, we make it to where Hawk was planning on leading me to, all along.
And, with no surprise, it’s as gorgeous as he has hyped it to be.
We’re right before a huge mountain stream, almost wide enough to be properly called a river. It runs down the mountain and drops, creating a beautiful waterfall splashing onto the pond below, continuing right through the creek. The trees give way on both sides of the pond, creating such a beautiful frame for the eyes, the natural artistry of nature coming through in ways that a human’s depiction could never truly match.
It’s so breathtaking, I stare at it for a time, not even breathing.
“Really something, ain’t it?”
I nod. “Something, it certainly is. How long have you known about this spot?”
“A decade. Probably a decade and a half, more honestly. Serena and I used to come out here and try to race each other to climb up the side of the waterfall. I’d always win easily, and then she’d accuse me of cheating and say I should go easy on her.”