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She shook her head. “That sounds very familiar.”
“How so?”
“I got pregnant at sixteen and that was about the worst thing that could have happened to my proper old-money East Coast family. My parents told me to leave and figure it out on my own.”
My jaw dropped. “How could they do that to you?”
Her eyebrows rose. “Sometimes people want something other than what you can give them. I’m not mad. I made my way south and worked on a ranch in exchange for room and board. I had the baby, a boy, and became part of the family I worked for. It all worked out.” She leaned toward me, and said, winking, “Obviously.” Her eyes crinkled in laughter.
“I like you, Nora.”
“I like you too, Camille. You’ll figure it out. We just need to light a match under you.”
I stood and shook my head. “All my matches are a bit soggy right now.”
Nora laughed and handed me her plate. I took it from her so I could clean up from our lunch.
I was just finishing up when everyone started making their way back to the campground. The sorority girls walked through the brush from the small lake, their hair wet and their clothes soaked.
Jacob gave them a reproachful look. “Try and keep me posted if you wander off. There are bears out here, and while they don’t come out often, I can’t protect you if I don’t know where you are.”
Their words were apologetic, but their faces were trying to hold in laughs.
Jacob clenched his jaw.
“Alright everyone, gather around. We’re going to take an easy trail hike along the river and up into the canyon, a little over a mile or so. Three miles, round trip. It’s beautiful mountain scenery and we may see a moose or White-tailed deer.”
We all circled around the campsite. I looked over my shoulder at the jagged mountain range. This didn’t look too painful, and it was kind of nice to be disconnected from my phone.
“Tonight, we’ll cook up a good dinner and then head out on the river in the morning.”
Jacob seemed happy with the nods and ‘yeses’. I waited for instructions as to where he wanted me.
“Cody will take up the back. Camille and I will lead. If you need our attention, tap the person in front of you, and so on. Or, simply stop and wait until Cody catches up to you.”
He handed everyone a hiking belt with two bottles of water attached and a whistle. “The whistle has a retractable string. If you get lost, simply pull it and blow.” He demonstrated, “Like this.”
A flush ran through me watching him blow on the whistle. I desperately wanted to touch him. His thighs were thick where his shorts ended, and the blond hairs on his legs were bleached from the sun.
He caught me staring, and I blushed.
With a wave of his hand, he motioned me toward him. “Everyone ready?” he asked the group.
They all said yes, and we walked toward the trail head.
We followed the well-worn dirt trail. A few boulders popped up every now and then, forcing me to concentrate on not twisting my ankle. It wasn’t until we reached the top and I turned to see the valley below that I realized how high we had climbed.
We stood above the tree line, staring down at the basin. Wildflowers bloomed across the valley floor.
I heard someone say, “This is incredible.”
It was so stunning that I almost cried. A few feet from me, Jacob looked like a Greek god. He was a calmer, quieter person than he used to be. I realized that I had put up so many facades around myself for the past five years, that I had never really looked at him. I pretended I didn’t care. I never questioned why he was ignoring me.
He caught me staring at him, and this time, neither of us looked away. Lines around his blue eyes were highlighted white from his tan face. He was thirty feet away from me, but the emotional space between us was years apart.
It was the first time in years I’d really looked at him, the first time I felt like he was looking at me…into me. I stepped toward him. His body turned to mine. A million words were bubbling up.
Tracy bounced in front of us. “This is so cool! I never imagined I could feel so small. So insignificant. It’s beautiful up here.” She twirled in a circle in front of me.
