He cringed. “Dude. I didn’t need to know that about my friend.”
Luckily, she laughed and let go of him. “Dude? Did you seriously just call me dude?” Taking a step back, she laughed again. “And if I have to know that about your friend, you need to know it too. Misery loves company, right?”
She was kind of twisting in place and licked her lips as she looked up at him and honestly, he had no idea what they were even talking about.
“Um…”
“Oof. Okay. You are clearly exhausted,” she said after a moment. “So I’m just going to grab one of these chocolate bars because now I really want something sweet, and you need to just crawl into bed.” Her hands were back on him, turning him around and giving him a gentle shove toward his bedroom.
The woman was killing him, and she had no idea.
Stepping around him, Evie went and picked a candy bar from the box on the coffee table and grinned like she was getting away with something.
“Okay, what time are we meeting up in the morning and what are you planning to do with me?”
Oh, God…
Slater cleared his throat. “I was uh…I thought we’d hike tomorrow. We’ll start on the beginner trail and…”
“Nuh-uh. Now you’re totally wussing out. You said we were starting on a more challenging one.”
Me and my big mouth…
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll come and get you at eight and we’ll go over all the safety stuff, like I do with the guests.”
“Are any of the guests joining us?”
He seriously wished he’d thought of that. “No. Just us.”
“Sounds like a plan,” she said as she walked to the door. When she turned and looked at him again, his heart kicked hard in his chest. “Get a good night’s sleep because I plan on wearing you out tomorrow.” She gave him a cheerful little wave and let herself out.
“Holy. Crap.”
He’d hiked some of the highest peaks in the world, and somehow he had a feeling that an intermediate hike with Evie Parker was going to be the biggest challenge of his life.
“This isn’t the north trail,” she said the next morning.
“I know. I thought we needed to be a little conservative so I can see how you handle things. You already know what happened to Milo.”
“Yeah, but he went out alone. I have you with me. We could have done more than stroll, Slater.”
“We’re not strolling. This is one of the intermediate trails. And when I mentioned the north trail to you over a week ago, I was just throwing it out there. It wasn’t set in stone.”
There was something in his tone that bothered her.
Actually, his whole demeanor today seemed off.
Evie stopped in her tracks and waited for Slater to notice.
It took longer than she thought. He was over twenty feet ahead of her when he finally turned around. “What’s going on? Are you okay?” It was crazy how he sprinted to her side and immediately checked her for injuries.
“Slater…”
“Did you twist your ankle? Did something bite you?” He was crouched down in front of her and nearly made her fall on her ass as he lifted one of her feet and then the other to examine them.
“Slater…”
“Do you feel okay?” He straightened and pressed his hand against her forehead. “You don’t have a fever. Do you need to take a break and have something to eat? You said you ate breakfast and…”
