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Lightning splinters the sky above as thunder rumbles several seconds later. I keep my gaze to the front as my legs eat the distance between me and the little red dot that marks Vi’s location. She’s moving quickly, but not fast enough to escape me.
My mind races with ideas of how to get her to trust me. It’ll be difficult. We’ve let her believe we hate her. Luckily, she’s still the girl I know by heart, even if hers is closed to me.
“One! Two! Three! Ready or not, here I come!” I yell as I open my eyes.
A quick glance around Violet’s backyard, the gate at the back swinging open in the warm summer breeze, gives me all the hints I need about where to go first. I run through the gate and jump over the puddle we made messing with her mom’s watering can. The houses on our street back up to the edge of the National Forest with several well used hiking trails nearby.
I stop to think about which way she’d go. The one on the right leads to a field of wildflowers that she loves, but that seems like the obvious choice. Vi never goes for the obvious choice. She’s always making me guess what her next thought or idea will be. Aside from her hugs and how she always smells like cherries, it’s my favorite thing about her.
Loose pebbles roll under my feet as I run up the other trail. This one is steeper so I grab at tree trunks and branches to help propel myself up. I can barely hear anything over the whooshing in my ears so I pause to listen. A branch snaps off to the right of me and I hear the unmistakable sound of her giggle.
A wide smile stretches across my face as I race off the path and through the underbrush. “I can hear you laughing, Vi.”
“You’ll never find me, West,” she taunts back with another giggle.
I get to a clearing with an outcropping of rocks and know she has to be hiding somewhere in them. She doesn’t climb trees anymore because she had a nightmare last Halloween about getting chased into a tree by a pack of wolves.
I carefully step toward the rocks, looking for any sign of her. Looking down to make sure I’m not walking on anything loud I creep around the largest boulder. When I’m almost all the way around it I see the purple ribbon her mom weaved into her braid this morning.
Her back is to me as I approach, quiet as a mouse. She’s crouched between two rocks, most of her body hidden from sight. I lunge and wrap my arms around her, yelling out, “I found you!”
She startles, but doesn’t fight my hold. Instead, she turns in my arms and hugs me tight. Her hair tickles my face, but I let her hug me as long as she wants.
“I thought for sure I’d be up here waiting for you to find me all night,” she says.
I pull back when she drops her arms, her light blue eyes as bright as the cloudless sky above us. “I’ll always find you, Vi. Always.”
“Pinky swear?” She holds her pinky out.
“Pinky swear.” I wrap mine around hers and shake once.
A beep from my phone pulls me from the memory. Glancing down at the screen, I see that she should be within sight. I barely notice as heavy raindrops fall around me. Then I look up, and about twenty yards away, I see her.
ChapterFive
Another rumble of thunder breaks overhead, closer than the last few. It would have been nice if they had let me keep my phone so I’d know if there was a flash flood warning. I need to get away from this stream, just to be safe.
I scan the banks for a game trail to follow with the hope that it will be easier to retrace my steps that way. Just as soon as my eyes land on a small opening in the underbrush on the opposite side of the creek, big, fat raindrops begin to fall, landing on the rocky ground with clumsy thuds. I pick up my pace to find a place to cross the stream.
“Violet!” A familiar voice carries to me from about twenty yards away.
Fuck.
I immediately turn and start running in the opposite direction. How the fuck did he find me so easily? Ugh. I’m not making fast enough progress because I can hear his footsteps catching up. The rain is really coming down now and it’s getting harder to navigate the slippery granite rocks and uneven ground. I slip on a mossy boulder, landing hard on my left shoulder.
“Would you fucking stop running, Vi,” West yells as he hauls me to my feet. His gorgeous green eyes reflect the foliage around us, even as they narrow in annoyance at me. “You could get hurt.”
“Like you give a fuck.” I squeeze my shoulder, wincing as I will the pain to dull.
“We need to get out of the rain and away from the creek bed. There’s a flash flood warning.” He drags me toward the cover of the forest, but it doesn’t escape my notice that he doesn’t deny not giving a fuck about me getting hurt.
I shake free of his grasp. “I’m not going anywhere with you. I’m not losing.”
“The hunt is suspended until the storm passes.” He sounds sincere, but looks annoyed at my continued hesitation. “Pinky promise.”
I stare dumbly at his outstretched pinky. He hasn’t touched me in years, in fact, he goes out of his way to avoid any physical contact at all. I hook my pinky around his, uncomfortably aware of how different it feels to do this now. His hand dwarves mine. A tiny wounded corner of my heart flickers back to life as our eyes lock, a hint of warmth shining through. Goosebumps rise on my arms and I’d like to blame it on the skies completely opening up and soaking both of us, but I can’t. Not when familiarity and comfort run through my blood at the simple touch.
“Come on,” he says as he shifts his hand, linking our fingers and tugging me along behind him. “I saw a fire lookout tower due west.”
