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“Yeah, I don’t know why I said that,” he told her, shooting a look of fury at Cairns.
Something suspiciously like pettiness flashed across Danny’s face. “Maybe we can make it up to you,” he told Jessica. “What are you doing tomorrow?”
This time Silas pierced him with his best impression of Aunt Mary’s ultimateNow you’ve crossed a lineface, but clearly Danny didn’t give a damn about filthy looks.
“Working. But only until five,” Jessica answered, her tone now cautiously optimistic. “Why?”
“We’re going hiking out past Marble Lake Lodge in the evening,” Danny said. “To find some cool mines. You should come.”
“Hold up. We were going to do that during the day. And I thought you had to be at the station on Saturday,” Silas interjected.
Danny waved him off. “If we wait until evening it’ll be cooler. And then Jessica and I can come.” He smiled at her. “It’ll be fun,” he prompted. “Like old times.”
Silas clenched his fists by his sides. How many times had he told Danny to cut that shit out?
“Yeah, sure,” Jessica agreed, after a shy glance in Silas’s direction. He forced his face to remain neutral. What else could he do, after having acted like such an asshole? “I’d love to join.”
Disappointment dropped like a rock to the pit of Silas’s stomach. All he wanted was one more day with Meg, however he could get it. He already had to surrender to Danny, with his ever-growing chip on his shoulder. He certainly didn’t need to contend with Jessica, too, trying too hard to fit into what was already set in stone. One look at Meg told him he wasn’t alone in this, though she replaced her dismay with studied indifference an instant later, disappearing into the frigid water of the swimming hole in a graceful pencil dive.
Just shy of twenty-four hours later, Silas was only a quarter mile down the trail to the mines—his andMeg’smines—boxed in between Danny ahead of him and Jessica trailing after, with no room for escape. Meg somehow had taken the lead, a good fifty yards clear of Jessica’s now cheerful prattle.
It was already after seven, the sun below Marble Peak, so they took the shortcut up the slope at the far side of the lodge. When they’d connected to the Lakes Loop trail at the top of the ridge, Jessica hadn’t let up, Danny peppering her with questions whenever she paused for breath. One more “Then what happened?” or “Well, what didshesay?” and Silas was going to lose it.
On Danny, to be clear. Not Jessica. None of this was her fault, even if she was giving him a headache, twirling the chain of that J necklace of hers every few steps, the silver pendant catching the light of the sinking sun and flashing like a fish, leaving Silas blinded.
“You can signal for our rescue if we get lost,” he said, in as good a humor as he could muster.
“What? Why?” she asked, instantly worried.
“S-O-S,” Danny spelled out—literally—from up the trail. “He’s joking.” But instead of laughing, Jessica fisted her hand around the necklace, stilling it.
“I thought you might like that I wore it,” she said.
“Huh? Why?”
She seemed unsure how to answer, but for an instant her eyes flicked past Silas toward Danny. He remembered something Meg had said after graduation, how Jessica had been poking around, trying to figure out who had gifted her with the pendant. And a sinking suspicion dawned. He turned around and forced Jessica to pause on the trail, while Danny hiked on.
“Listen, Jess,” he said, “If Danny said anything about your necklace ... like, if he implied it was me who gave it to you or something, I want you to know it wasn’t.”
Her face fell, and he knew then he’d guessed right.Goddammed Danny.It was mean, plain and simple, toying with Jessica like that. Just like when he’d encouraged her to tease Silas with that towel yesterday. And had invited her along today. And why? Just because he’d never been able to get it into his stupid skull that Silas did not want to be with her?
A second possibility made itself known, tingling its way down Silas’s spine. Maybe Meg’s college plans were not at the source of Danny’s recent angst.
Once he allowed himself to go there, Silas’s certainty grew. Danny knew something. About him and Meg. And this was his way to throw awrench in things. But could Danny Boy Scout Cairns be that devious? Silas frowned into the early-evening sunshine.
Jessica misinterpreted the look and gave him a forced smile. “Guess it was from Sam, then,” she said with a lightness that didn’t ring true. But she tucked the pendant back under the neckline of her tee with two manicured fingers. “Shall we?” she said, gesturing toward the trail. “We’re falling behind.”
“Yeah,” he told her, offering a smile in return. “Want to lead on?”
Jessica waved him forward. “No, no, you’re the fearless leader.”
He promised himself he’d try to be, to make the best of this shitty night if he could, but as the brush and forest thickened, he grew angrier and angrier at Danny. It wasn’t that hard to dredge up more animosity—he was already bitter that Danny was with Meg, already jealous that the two of them were, right this very minute, far ahead on the trail, hiking together and leaving him stuck behind—and now this?
They were waiting for Silas and Jessica at the junction. “Finally,” Danny said. “I assumed you’d pulled some dumb prank and we’d be waiting to pick up the pieces.”
Silas just glowered at him. “Nothing like that,” he said tightly. But when they all resumed, Danny’s comment planted a seed of an idea in his head. So, Danny expected a prank, did he? They were on the switchback section of the trail, making their way slowly up the slope toward Long Lake, and if Silas cut a swath directly uphill, through the sagebrush, he could bypass the majority of the zigzagging route, arriving at the ridge well before the others. And if he hurried, he’d have time to hide himself, to wait for Danny to appear first around the bend. And then he would get a taste of how it felt to get messed with.
He stopped again on the trail and made a show of fiddling with his backpack. “Shoot. Something’s wrong with my strap.”
