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She looks down at her feet, then back up at me, eyes wide. “You did.”
“You said you wanted to hike with some friends, but didn’t have good shoes. You were supposed to hike with me someday.”
“We should do that sometime.”
“You haven’t hiked in those boots even once, have you?”
She huffs. “Can you tell me later what a terrible person I am for working all the time instead of going hiking with friends? Ishould have left half an hour ago, and I need coffee before my head falls off.”
I get up, grab a mug from the cabinet, and fix her coffee just the way she likes it. “You’re hiking today?”
“I wouldn’t call it hiking. I just have to walk through the woods for a bit.”
“You’ve never been hiking before in your life.”
“You don’t know that. Maybe I hiked all the time as a kid.”
I chuckle. “I know you too well. You told me you’ve never hiked. You wanted the boots as incentive to start.”
“When we jog, we go up the trail into the woods. That’s the same thing.”
“Not even close. If you want to hike, I’ll go with you. We can go this weekend.”
She averts her eyes, fiddling with her bag like she’s checking the strength of the zippers. “Sure, maybe. Don’t you need to be at work?”
Daisy’s usually not one to hide or pretend, but she’s changed since her recent firing. I hate that she feels like she has to hide things from me. “There’s a Bigfoot running around out there. Do you really think it’s a good idea to go into the woods alone?”
She huffs and pops her fists on her hips, fully facing me and fully on the defensive. “Why is it any of your business, Noah? I’m an adult and I can handle myself.”
I step toward her. Her anger doesn’t scare me, especially not since I see a whiff of fear behind it. “I’m on your side, Daisy, and I want to help. If you need to get out of the house today and burn off some steam, I’ll take a few hours off and go with you. Or if you just need a friend who listens without judging, I can be that person.”
Her shoulders slump as she sighs. “I’m going to meet with the author I’m trying to steal from Lovemore Publishing today. I know how you feel about it and I don’t want a lecture, okay?”
Ah, now it all makes more sense. And it’s so much worse than I thought. I bite back all the things I want to say, because I don’t want Daisy marching into the forest alone, but also because I trust her. That’s what I forgot when I lost my temper before.
She’s a good person at heart and she’ll find her way back to that. She’s let herself get caught up in this idea that keeping her job at Tenth Avenue is the only thing that matters, but I have to believe she’ll come around. If she doesn’t, she’s not the woman I think she is and there might not be any way to help her.
I learned the hard way, years ago, that I can only help someone if they want to be helped.
I hand her the coffee, our fingers brushing and sending a thrill through me. “What does any of that have to do with you going for a hike today?”
“Thank you.” She takes a sip and closes her eyes for a moment. “You make it better than I do.” She seems to remember we were having a conversation and her focus intensifies. “This author lives in the forest and the only way to get to her is to hike in. It’s fine. I have a GPS address for her.”
My laugh bursts from me without forethought, but it only takes seconds for me to understand it was the wrong reaction.
“I can walk through the woods and follow simple coordinates. You and my sisters seem to think the only thing I can do is read books, but I’ve survived on my own for years. I’vethrivedon my own. I can do this on my own.”
I grip her shoulders gently, and she doesn’t shake me off. She doesn’t meet my eyes and her shoulders are tight with tension. “You don’t have to do this alone. You’ve thrived in a city, but you’re not experienced in the woods. I am. Let me go with you. Even experienced hikers know it’s not the safest choice to hike alone.”
She crosses her arms over her chest and huffs, a strand of hair falling across her face. “You have to work.”
I push that hair back behind her ear, my knuckles brushing the smooth skin of her cheek. “I’ve got no appointments scheduled for today. If I go in, all I’ll do is worry about how to get more patients and that’s no good for anyone. I’ll even give Gentry the day off.”
Her expression softens. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to have some company.”
“Great. Give me twenty minutes to change and pack a bag, and we’ll head out. Why don’t you map the coordinates and figure out which trail head we should start from?”
Her eyes go wide. “Right. Of course. I knew that. I’ll just… Um, I’ll just get started on that.”
