Moving quickly, I turned a few corners until I was at our spot. My chest deflated at the sight of the empty space. Of course he wouldn’t be here. I hadn’t shown up the previous night, and we hadn’t made a different plan. We had barely had a chance to speak yesterday. Still, I had hoped I’d see him.
“You came.”
Gasping, I spun around to find Eli towering over me. He smiled, showing off that dimple that I had been missing. “I was worried you might have slept soundly again.” The tone of his voice told me he had never believed my lie.
“I’m sorry.” I nervously pulled down the sleeves of my oversized sweatshirt.
His mouth twisted into a puzzled frown. “Sorry for what?”
“For earlier. When you tried to talk to me after Sofia went off. I should have sat down with you—had a conversation. I-I was just a little shaken and I needed a second.”
“Calla.” He gripped both of my shoulders. “Don’t apologize for that. I just want to know if you’re okay. Rachel came and talked to me after she finished berating Sofia. She gave me the gist of what was said. You have to know it’s all complete and utter crap.”
I fidgeted with my hands. “I know she was just trying to get into my head.”
“Did it work?” he asked, tilting his head.
“Maybe a little,” I confessed.
“No, please don’t listen to her,” he groaned, dragging a hand across his face. “Trust me, I am not getting bored the more time I spend with you, or whatever the hell she said. In fact, it’s the exact opposite.”
His declaration sent my stomach into a tizzy, but it also tied my tongue. “It’s just—there’s been a lot going on. I’ve been all over the place today.”
“I wish I could have been with you all day.” Eli lowered his head and met my eyes.
“Actually, Grant gave me some really good advice earlier. I’m glad we got to work together.”
Eli shook his head and scowled. “Grantgave you good advice? Now I really am nervous.”
I shrugged. “He’s not so bad.”
“I’ll have to take your word for it,” he said, unconvinced. “But you’d better have been joking about picking him at the end of this thing because, spoiler alert, I won’t take that well.”
He stared down at me for another moment and giddiness simmered in my chest. The way he looked at me might scare me, but it also made me feel lucky. Like no matter who walked by Eli wouldn’t even notice as long as I was in front of him.
“Hey, can I show you something?” he asked, his eyes alight with excitement.
“Um, sure?”
Eli snatched my hand and led me back down the hall in the direction we’d just come from. But instead of turning toward our rooms, he continued straight ahead.
My hand in his felt undeniably right. These stolen moments had me questioning my initial resistance. Was I really so scared of getting hurt that I’d risk losing out on the first person in years who had made me feel anything?
When I was with Eli, an emotion I had almost forgotten about took hold of me.
Hope.
Eli paused when we arrived at a flight of stairs, then carefully walked up them. I let go of his hand so I could grip the railing, not wanting to trip in the dim light. The worn stair treads creaked with each step.
“Are we being too loud?” I hissed.
“Half the fun of sneaking around is the possibility of being caught,” he said, glancing back at me.
“I would strongly argue against that sentiment,” I whispered.
Obviously, I had known the lodge was much larger than the area we were filming in. Production hardly let us leave the one floor, yet the outside of the lodge promised dozens of rooms across multiple floors.
Eli stopped at the next landing and led me down a hall that looked identical to the ones on our floor.
