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“You think I would tease you?” I asked him playfully, without answering his question. He looked a little annoyed at my coyness, but the eagerness trumped all the other emotions only a second later.
I leaned toward him. “You know I never just tease. How about this? I know you’re working next weekend, but it’s the last game before the playoffs. You give me your lucky ass on Friday night. If I win on Saturday, and we get into the playoffs, I’ll give you mine.” His pupils darkened and I kind of wanted to give him a hand job real quick just to say I’d made him come three times in one night, but I also didn’t think I should push our luck that far. I was afraid someone was already hanging around outside the shower room just to see who they’d heard in the stall.
I held out my hand to seal the deal I’d just offered him. He glanced up and down my body, checking me out unabashedly as I stood there in a towel waiting for him to shake on it, offering to let him fuck me if I won my next game. And we were nearly undefeated, especially since Jamie had come along. I had it in the bag and we both knew it.
A smile slowly spread across his face. He shook my hand. “Oh, hell yeah,” he said. I just grinned as I turned to put my clothes on.
We paused before we opened the shower room door. “Get some rest,” I said softly, giving him a quick kiss.
“I love you,” he whispered.
“I love you, too.” We peeked out the door before leaving, but there was no one lingering in the hallway. We separated there, heading back to our own rooms.
???
I texted him the next day. Did Mark give you any shit?
He sent me a laughing emoji. No. He told me nice job landing the star of our hockey team. Then I had to listen to all your stats from the past three years.
I laughed. Well, sorry your boyfriend is such a kick ass jock.
He sent me a middle finger emoji, and I cracked up again.
We met up at the coffee shop on Monday. No one who’d discovered our secret seemed to have said anything. Although some people were starting to look at us curiously, like they were trying to figure out why we were always together, no one seemed to know for sure.
I took him out to dinner on Wednesday, but we both had to get up early the next day, and our roommates were both home, so we parted right after eating. He made good on his end of our deal Friday night, when we took advantage of the fact that Jesse was at his own boyfriend’s. Jamie’s ass is what I attributed my stellar game to on Saturday.
The other team was really good. They were nearly undefeated in the season as well, and they were good enough to throw us into overtime. I wasn’t about to let them win, though, not after the promise I’d made to my boyfriend. Sorry guys. I’m ready to see what it’s like to bottom. We came back strong in overtime, and I didn’t let them score once. I was flying all over the ice, much more aggressive than I normally was, and I carried the win on my own shoulders. Even my teammates were looking at me like they were wondering what happened to me. See, Jamie? I told you I was ready for it.
I walked into the locker room a nervous ball of energy. I knew it would be late before I could see him that night since he was working, but I fully intended to keep my promise. I grabbed my phone from my locker to let him know we’d won, even if he wouldn’t see the text right away. When I unlocked my phone, though, I found his texts about Wally, about being scared, and about heading home on his own. Instead of making good on my promise that night, I ended up in tears at the police station. The rate at which things could turn really shook me, and the fact that Jamie was gone threatened to end me.
Chapter 22
April
“Are you sure it was here?” Jesse looked at Amber incredulously, “There’s not even a trace of a path here anymore.”
Amber nodded. “Yes. I’m sure. I marked it on the little map according to the big photo. That photo was old, and I had a feeling it wouldn’t be visible anymore. It was either right here, or really, really close.”
At least we had our resident astronomer to help us if we got lost and were still wandering the pathless woods after dark. She seemed confident that we would find the old tower ruins and whatever else was back there on the old trail.
Caitlin was hesitating, though. “So, we’re just going to take off walking through the woods then, even though we don’t see any kind of trail, and hope we’re going the right way the whole time?”
“It was here,” Amber insisted, “I know it was.”
We’d had a decent breakfast at the diner in town that Dolores had recommended. Even I had managed to eat a decent amount, knowing we were getting close to the end of our journey. It was my last hope, and I was clinging to it.
We’d gone to the hardware store and the drug store for supplies before heading out, since our trip had been so spur of the moment and we had little on us that was useful. Jeff was carrying a backpack full of water and snacks, the kind that actually had protein and fiber and things that would get you through if you got lost in the woods. I had a backpack that held a first aid kit, bug spray, flashlights, extra batteries, and a compass. I felt like we were about as prepared as we could get.
I inspected the area they were discussing. Jesse was right, there was no obvious trail, but as I looked at the ground more closely, my heart rate picked up. I called out, “Hey, look at this, you guys. Amber is right.” Beneath the overgrowth that had reclaimed the woods, I found some gravel on the ground in a couple of spots, spaced far enough apart that it appeared to have been a one-lane drive. It had obviously never been a public road, probably just made for the ranger’s vehicles. There were no signs around forbidding trespassers, though, because there was no path for anyone to find, so what could they really do?
“They’re right,” Jeff said, stepping beside me, “This is the path that was in that photo. Good job, Amber.” She smiled at him and looked a little proud of herself.
We all took off through the woods, quickly losing sight of the trail that had once been there. The trail that may have been an escape route for a young Wally and his family after a bear attacked their campsite and they’d taken refuge at a ranger station in the forest. I had no way to know if my hunch was right and they’d stumbled upon the rangers instead of being found by them, but if they had, there was a good chance he actually knew about a secluded cabin in his hometown where no one would ever think to look for him. If I was right, then he’d been there as a terrified child, but most people didn’t even remember it existed.
We kept walking, even though we could no longer tell if we were still on the old trail. As we got deeper into the forest, my confidence began to falter. The shadows danced around us like the doubts dancing around my mind. I felt like my assumptions were mostly correct, but finding what we were looking for was not so guaranteed. We had no way to even know if we were still going in the right direction. What if the road had curved? We couldn’t see any structures in the photo because the tower had already been torn down. There was no way to know if it had been a straight shot from the entrance of the trail to where we were going. I wondered how far we were supposed to walk before giving up. I would walk forever to find Jamie, but how far would my friends be willing to go? How far could we go without getting lost?
I noticed Caitlin pull a bottle of nail polish out of the messenger bag she was carrying. It seemed odd until she used the bright pink polish to mark a tree. About fifty feet farther, she marked another, leaving us a trail back. One easily noticeable that would last for what we needed, but one that would wash away with time and rain. “Good thinking,” I said, giving her an appreciative nod. She just grinned and gave me a wink.
