I climb onto the rock beside Cassie. She reaches out for my hand, holding me next to her.
“Beautiful, right?” she murmurs.
I nod. When I look over to Cassie, she’s staring at me again, those same googly eyes she gave me earlier. It’d be so easy to lean down and kiss her right here. I know it’s what she wants, but I don’t know if it’s what I want.
Sure, she’s beautiful. With her hair and face covered in a fine mist of water, she’s gorgeous. But all I can think about is how we ditched Harper.
Maybe that’s my issue. Everything comes back to Harper. I’m here because of Harper. My relationships have ended because of Harper. Harper clearly doesn’t feel the same way about me. She’s the one who tried to set me up on a date, after all.
It’s time to move on.
I let go of Cassie’s hand and wrap it around her waist instead. She smiles brightly, leaning closer.
“Oh, wow!” A voice comes in through the opening in the stone. A little boy scoots in, and his parents follow close behind.
I can feel Cassie deflate beside me at our second almost-kiss of the day.
“Come on,” I say, moving down off the rock and holding my hand out for her. I can tell she doesn’t want to leave, her eyes lingering on the waterfall and then back to me, but she takes my hand.
As soon as we’re off the rock, the little boy climbs up, barely waiting for us to get out of the way.
“Sorry,” the mom mutters, trying to reach out for his hand.
Cassie doesn’t wait for me as she makes her way out of the jutting stone. I see Harper as soon as we’re back out to the main area again. She’s partway down the dirt path, like she saw where we went initially but not where we disappeared to. She’s looking everywhere but where we are.
“Harper!” I shout. Cassie tugs on my hand, silently telling me to be quiet.
Harper turns, and it’s hard to make out, but I would almost swear it looks like she’s been crying. Her face is red and blotchy, but that could also be from the wind and water being sprayed everywhere. Her hair is nearly soaked, the wispy hair framing her face now clinging to her bright red cheeks. When she sees me, she looks relieved and runs over.
“Where’d you go?” she says, anger tinging her voice. If she’d been crying, the emotion has been quickly replaced. I can tell she’s trying to keep it together. Whatever emotions she has,she’s doing a good job at shoving them to the side.
“I wanted to show Luke a hidden waterfall,” Cassie says.
Harper turns to her, like she’s noticed Cassie again for the first time, and again, she’s fighting back some emotion. Her face reads a thousand things, but I can’t make it out.
“Here, I can show you,” I say, but Cassie tightens her grip on my arm to stop me. I hadn’t even noticed she had a hand on me.
“It’s fine,” Harper says, turning on a fake smile. She wipes off some wet hair clinging to her face. I notice a slight tremble as she moves, and as I run my eyes over her, I notice she’s covered in mud from the knees down. “I’m getting cold anyway.”
What had happened when we were gone? Cassie and I are wet, but not nearly as bad as Harper. She looks like she practically jumped into the waterfall. Harper shifts away, pulling her arms in tight and tucking her hands under her armpits.
“I saw a food stand over by the parking lot. I think there was a sign for hot chocolate,” I say.
“Oh fun! Let’s do that!” Cassie says, oblivious to Harper’s current state.
We make our way back, but I feel bad that Harper doesn’t get to see the second waterfall. Maybe once I get her warmed up, I can convince her to check it out. I’m pretty sure Harper packed us spare clothes in the car.
We come up to a bench that’s near the parking lot, and I stop there.
“Harper, you stay here, and I can get you a hot chocolate.”
She does as I say, sitting with the waterfall in front of her as a view. She still looks cold, but her mood has improved a bit.
Cassie sits beside Harper. “Grab me one too!”
I almost ask her to come with me since it’ll be hard to carry three hot chocolates, but I let it go. Harper could probably use the company.
They both give me an encouraging smile, so I walk away.
