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I have to bury my face in my hand. How the hell do I deal with these people? And dragging Daniel into it like this?
“Well, I’m up for it if Riley is,” Daniel says, at last, taking my hand from my face and holding it in his big comforting grip.
“Daniel. I don’t know. It’s an advanced event and your kn—”
“Don’t worry about me,” he says before I announce his knee injury and prove Spencer has a point.
Whoops.
Squeezing my hand, Daniel locks his eyes on me.
“You really want to do this?” I ask him.
“Only if you do,” he says but I can hear the desire in his voice. He wants to do it.
“Are you all going to order?” the waitress asks our date crashers setting our bill on the table.
“Yeah but we’ll be taking ours to-go,” Spencer says, somehow making it sound like an insult.
Fuck it. If Daniel’s up for it, I’m up for shoving Spencer’s smugness up his ass.
“We will too, actually,” I say. “And meet you guys on the trail.”
“Yay,” McKenzie squeals.
The rest of the group, except Spencer, who left right away, shows their enthusiasm for our decision to join the hike before saying goodbye and heading for the counter to place their orders.
So much for a nice, quiet date.
∞∞∞
DANIEL
I’m going to regret this. We haven’t even started yet. Standing at the bottom of the hill and already I hurt, just from stretching. I can’t even remember the last time I wore hiking boots or wore athletic clothes in public. On the upside, I’m not the oldest person here. But the oldest person here looks in far better shape than me. So, I’m not sure I feel any better about it.
“We don’t have to do this,” Riley says.
No way. I won’t chicken out now. This is exactly the kind of thing I need to prove I can do to keep up with her. No telling how quickly she’ll drop me if I don’t at least try. I refuse to end up the stick in the mud that turned my wife into my ex-wife.
“It’s just an aggressive walk. I can handle it.” I give her a wink as the horn blows signaling the sea of hikers to start the climb.
This shouldn’t be too bad. The climb is only a little over a mile. At this pace, we’ll reach the end in about fifteen minutes. Compared to the two-hour drive to get here, it’s no time at all.
It doesn’t take long for me to realize I’m kidding myself. My knee is on fire. There’s no way I can keep this pace. Maybe on a flat surface but not on a steep incline. With every step, I fall further and further behind. Not that I ever thought I could win or even keep up with Riley and her friends but I had at least hoped I could finish.
“Daniel?” Riley falls into step with me.
“I’m fine. You go on ahead and I’ll see you at the finish.”
“I’m not going to leave you behind.” Her smile is sweet. Concerned. I hate that she has to feel this way. I can’t even see that guy… Spencer. He took off like a fucking rocket. Like I could have when I was his age. Riley absolutely could have kept up with him.
And she should have. She should be with someone like Spencer—well, not like Spencer because he’s an ass—but someone her age she can do these things with and who will not hold her back or be bedridden after the fact.
I try picking up my pace again. A few steps later, pain shoots up my leg. I do everything I can to hide my wince.
“We can just go back down,” Riley says. “Go back to your place and watch the food channel. I’ll bake. How do banana nut muffins sound?”
Really fucking good but I can’t quit. Not this close to the end.
