“Probably about what a basket case I am.”
“Maybe a little,” he admitted, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “But it was mostly about how he needed things to stop being weird between the two of you. You’ve got him majorly stressed out. I’ve never seen him like that.”
We walked in silence for a bit before Harrison continued.
“We’ve been best friends for almost our entire lives. The way he grew up…he didn’t exactly have a lot of people in his corner.”
“I know,” I whispered. “He told me about his parents—what it was like growing up with them.”
Harrison’s eyes widened a little at that. “He never talks to anyone about his parents.” He sighed before continuing. “He might try to come across as this chill guy who doesn’t have a care in the world, but he’s the most loyal person I’ve ever met. You can always count on him when it matters. Don’t let his act fool you.”
“I don’t,” I said, meaning it. Oliver was a lot more to me than some free spirit.
Guilt twisted inside my stomach. I hadn’t wanted to make him stressed out about us. This was all wrong. We should be savoring our short time together. He should be the one back here, giving me a hard time while I struggled on this hike. We should be cuddled up by the fire together later tonight. I’d gone and messed it all up.
Our hiking boots hitting the dirt path was the only sound other than the distant chatter of the hikers in front of us.
“Do you think I’m too late to fix it?” I asked quietly.
“I think as far as Oliver is concerned, you’d probably never be too late to fix it.”
“We did it,”I gasped when we reached the clearing.
The rest of the group stood with their backs to us, looking out at the vast view. The sun was only inches from poking itself behind the tallest mountain range.
“Nice,” Harrison said. “I knew we’d make it.”
“Did you?” Oliver’s voice startled me as he stood from a nearby rock at the end of the trail and walked toward us. “Because I was five minutes away from heading back there and making sure one of you didn’t get attacked by a mountain lion or something.”
“We did our best,” I said, breathless from the hike and also from Oliver looking down at me with those piercing dark-brown eyes.
“Let the record show I could have gone a smidge faster,” Harrison said, backing away from us toward Lila and the rest of the group.
“Traitor,” I called after him.
He smiled before he turned and wrapped an arm around Lila’s shoulders.
Oliver watched his best friend retreat before returning his gaze to me. “You two seemed to have gotten along okay.”
“Yeah. We did,” I panted, wanting nothing more than to wrap my arms around him and breathe everything about him in. But a divide existed between us. One of my own making.
“Can we talk?” he asked, his expression unsure but inviting all the same.
“Please,” I said.
He loosely grabbed my hand and tugged me along next to him. We walked away from everyone else to the other side of the ledge. A fallen log lay facing the view like a bench. We sat on it, and he faced me instead of the beautiful view.
“Why are you trying to avoid me?” he asked.
Goosebumps pricked along my neck. “Getting straight into it, huh?”
“Aren’t you the one who says I need to do that more?”
“Right, of course.” Nerves bundled inside me, and I ran my hands along my leggings to calm them.
“Look at me,” he whispered.
When I met his eyes, they were staring at me intently.
