by Eva Luxe
Perry and I bantered back and forth and I was glad we were off the topic of love. I didn’t need a woman in my life and I didn’t have to justify myself. I had my freedom and my trails, and that was all I needed.
Chapter 4
Cara
I was packed and ready for our hike. I had gone shopping and bought hiking clothes—thick leggings, hiking shoes, a comfortable yet attractive tank top, and a light jacket with some sort of thermo-technology in it, according to the salesman. I liked being prepared. I wasn’t a hiker. I hadn’t done it before but there was nothing wrong with trying something new, plus Rachel needed a sidekick sometimes. She didn’t enjoy doing things alone.
Rachel and I were very different. I was organized. I had a short-term plan, a medium-term plan, and a long-term plan. Without goals I became flustered. I thought long-term and lived accordingly. When I had been in school I had known what I wanted to study and what I had to do to get there.
On the other hand, Rachel didn’t plan for the future at all. She took every day for what it was. She only did what made her happy, when it made her happy, and everything else took second place. It was a fine way to live as a teenager, but as she got older, the difference between the two of us became more and more evident.
Now and then, Rachel seemed to realize that she had to do something about her life if she wanted to reach any goals, but it was like a novelty to her, an interesting idea, nothing more. We were great friends because we balanced each other out. I encouraged her to be a little more prepared for life, and to think about her future. And she pushed me into being spontaneous, to getting out, trying new things and having fun. We complemented each other and it worked. She was also a great friend to lean on when I was stuck about something, which was more valuable to me than the ability to let my hair down once in a while. It added value to our friendship, so I stuck to it.
Rachel and I had also been friends for so long that I couldn’t imagine what my life would be like without her. Those were the kinds of people I kept around me—the people I knew I would miss if they were gone. It was a sound rule to live by and it had worked out for me so far.
It was also the main reason I was still single. I was yet to meet a man that made me feel like I would be missing something if I didn’t have him in my life. So far, every man I’d met, even the polite ones, didn’t make any kind of lasting impact.
My life was way too perfectly planned for someone to make an impression easily. They had to really rock my boat. And that just didn’t happen in my world. I was happily alone, luckily, or I would have been in trouble. It was a good thing I was so content by myself.
My bag was packed with clothes for the weekend, and Rachel said she had a tent for us. I didn’t know how I would feel about sleeping in a tent, but I was willing to rough it for the sake of trying something new and spending time with my friend.
My friend who was now ten minutes late. I glanced at the clock again. I hated being late. Being on time and being responsible was important. I walked to the bedroom and tied up my hair, which I had left loose because I’d thought I had run out of time. My hair was long but I didn’t want to cut it. There was something about long blonde hair that was cute, in my opinion. I liked thinking I was something special to look at.
Rachel finally arrived.
“You’re late,” I said.
“You know what I’m like, you should have told me an hour earlier, then.”
Rachel hugged me. She didn’t care that I was upset about her tardiness, and I wouldn’t be upset for long. This was how we played our little game.
“Telling you to be an hour earlier would have made me feel bad. I know you’re not a morning person.”
“See?” Rachel said. “You love me just the way I am.”
I laughed. I couldn’t argue with that.
We packed my car and headed out.
“Have you eaten?” I asked. It was almost noon.
“I was too busy trying to be on time for your whiny ass,” Rachel said.
I shook my head and we stopped for food. We weren’t going to sit down in a restaurant after I had waited for Rachel, though. When we were in the car and headed toward the campground, Rachel sipped her coffee in the passenger seat.
“This is going to be so fun. We have all this awesome stuff happening right in our backyard and we never take advantage of it.”
“I guess it’s like that whenever you live somewhere. I bet people who live on the coast never go to the beach.”
“I would be on the beach every day of my life,” Rachel said.
“That’s because you never do anything else,” I teased. Rachel made a face and sipped more coffee.
“So, why hiking?” I asked. Rachel wasn’t exactly the outdoors type.
“I thought it would be fun to do something new.”
It was a fun way to do something new, she was right. But I was pretty sure it wasn’t just about expanding our horizons. Rachel had always been more than happy living in her small little life, without searching for something bigger and better. She had, however, recently broken up with her boyfriend, Paul. They hadn’t been together for very long, but where Rachel never invested herself in anything, she did give her all to a relationship. I knew she was hurting and there was no better way to get over a breakup than to keep busy.
I hadn’t had to deal with something like that in a while, but I knew from personal experience, as well as from watching Rachel work through one break up after the next. This hike was so Rachel wouldn’t have to be at home alone. I was more than willing to be there for my friend when she needed my company. Even if we didn’t talk about it at all.
“How are you doing? You know, after Paul,” I asked.
Rachel sighed. “Relationships are so overrated.”
“You always say that after you break up with someone.”
“Yeah, and I never seem to learn.”
I was silent for a beat before responding. “It’s not wrong to try again.”
“I guess not. But it hurts every time I try and fail. You’re lucky, you don’t have to go through this shit every time.”
I pulled up my shoulders. Lucky? Maybe. The only reason I wasn’t interested in a relationship, or at least told everyone I wasn’t, was because I had given up. I had tried for a while, but I could never find someone that understood me, that made me feel like they changed my life as I knew it. So, I’d started to accept that I might be alone forever. I knew it was a dramatic thing to think at twenty-six. It wasn’t like I had gone through my whole life without someone and I was destined to die alone. But I knew what I wanted out of life and there were so few men out there with any direction. All that the guys my age were interested in doing was drinking. I had never been the type of person to party all the time.
“Maybe you and I will both end up with our princes,” Rachel said after a while.
“Maybe,” I said. “I’m not getting my hopes up, though.”
“You’re so skeptical. Maybe you need to expect less. It’s hard to be disappointed when you don’t expect anything.”
I laughed. “If that’s your outlook on life, no wonder you’ve met guys that weren’t worth it.”
Rachel snorted. “Yeah, maybe. But I refuse to believe that any of this is my fault.”
“Of course,” I said, grinning. “It’s not like relationships take two people. To be fair, you have had a serious run of assholes. It’s got to be a record.”
We laughed as I turned into the campground and pulled up to an empty spot where we would set up for the night. Rachel and I climbed out of the car and looked around.
“This place is amazing,” I said.
“I can’t believe we’re only doing this now.”
“It’s only because you ran out of ideas about how to stay busy,” I said and Rachel stuck her tongue out at me.
“Come on,” I said. “Let's get started. The sun is out and there are people everywhere. Maybe we can even make a couple of friends.”
“Do you think hikers are hot?” Rachel asked, as we started grabbing what we needed from the trunk of the car. We would set up the tent later.
“Maybe it doesn’t work out because you only go for the hot ones.”
“So, what? Do I have to date someone ugly to be happy? Is that it?”
I laughed and shook my head. “That’s not what I’m saying. Just try not to look for men today, okay?”
“I can’t make any promises,” Rachel sniffed.
We started at the visitor center as someone suggested, then picked a direction to start the hike. As soon as we were on the trail and away from the groups of people, I wondered why I hadn’t done this sooner, too. It was breathtaking up here as we looked out over the Snake River. I had been over Perrine Bridge a few times and I lived right next to the river, yet somehow, I had never seen it the way I saw it now. It was a whole different outlook on the same place I had lived my whole life, and it was all so much more beautiful than I’d ever seen before.
It was amazing what a different perspective could make.
“Isn’t this amazing?” I asked, turning to Rachel. She looked unhappy and I stopped, frowning.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know if this was such a good idea,” she said. “I’m not built for activities.”
I laughed. Rachel had a good body, but she kept it that way by eating right. I trained to keep my body in shape.
“It will be fine,” I laughed.
“Easy for you to say,” Rachel said, and we started walking again. “You’re so much fitter than I am. I regret not running with you when you asked me to.”
It had been ages ago when I’d started running and had asked Rachel to do it with me. She hadn’t even tried. I didn’t mind doing things on my own so I hadn’t taken offense to it.
“This was such a bad idea,” Rachel complained again.
I laughed at her. “You’re the one who insisted we do this.”
“Yeah. You should have talked me out of it,” Rachel said. “Why don’t I ever listen to you?”
“I ask myself the same thing all the time,” I said.
“We better meet guys while we’re out here. That’s the only thing that will make it worth our while.”
I shook my head, still laughing at Rachel. The truth was I enjoyed it out here now that we’d come this far. I hadn’t thought I would, and in fact had hated the idea of taking a day off to come out hiking. But now that we were here, it was beautiful. I was so glad I had decided to join Rachel, after all. Maybe this wasn’t what she had had in mind, so she was disappointed.
I had thought it would be terrible and as a result, I was pleasantly surprised. I didn’t care who we met or what else we did. The view, being alone out here in the open, and feeling like I was able to breathe for a change was plenty.
Chapter 5
Greyson
I would have loved to set up camp along the trail like I had done a few times in other places, but here we couldn’t do it. It was a pity, I would have loved to sit outside my tent in the moonlight and stare out at the dark canyon with the sparkling river below.
It was good enough that we were here though. After Perry and I completed the ten-mile hike the trail we had chosen provided, we headed back to the campground. Tomorrow was another day and we would take another trail. I’d heard there were base jumpers on the Perrine Bridge and I wanted to watch them, if not join them. I loved the idea of being daring out here.
“We need to set up camp while it’s still light,” I said. I’d had to put up a tent in the pitch dark before and it was no fun.
“Yeah, let’s get started on that,” Perry agreed. He had been with me that time. We had been caught in a terrible storm and hadn’t been able to put up our tent in the rain and wind. We had to wait until the storm passed, and by the time it finally cleared up, it had almost been midnight. If we’d had a car we would have slept in it, but this had been one of the trips Perry and I had done on our motorbikes. Perry remembered that time as one of the worst trips we had ever had.
The funny thing was that I remembered it as one of the best. There was nothing quite like being caught up in the raw side of nature and coming out on the other end feeling more alive than ever.
We unloaded the tent and rolled it open. It was a four-person sleeper. I had left my two-man tent that I used when I was alone, at home. It was better to have more space. Two men in a tent never wanted to be squashed up together and it was good to have space for our gear, too.
The sun was starting to set. Halfway through our mission to get the tent erected, we paused and appreciated the sunset. It was beautiful. The sky was painted with splashes of orange, purple, and gold; everything the light touched seemed aflame. As the large orange disk sunk slowly below the endless horizon, the colors changed and the world tucked itself in for the night.
“I’m not going to be able to do this for the next couple of weekends,” Perry said, when we turned our attention back to the tent.
“Why not?”
“My boss is sending me to New York for work next month. It looks like I’ll be there for a while.”
“So, I’m going to have to do this alone?”
“I’m afraid so,” Perry said. “But you’re not fooling anyone looking so down about it. I know you love being alone.”
I grinned. I did love being alone. Taking off on my bike for a hiking and camping trip was one of my favorite things to do.
“That doesn’t mean I’m not disappointed. I like our spontaneous little trips.”
“We’ll do a long one when I get back to make up for lost time,” Perry said.
“I’m holding you to it.”
Perry and I carried on putting up the tent while we bantered and joked, working together to get our beds ready for the night. We were about done when Perry nudged me.
“Look at those two,” he said, nodding in a direction. Two women had returned from the direction of the visitor center looking worn out. Judging by their attire they had been hiking, too. One of them, the blonde, caught my attention. She looked more upbeat than the other and she wasn’t so stiff. She had obviously had a better day on the trail than her friend. They had stayed until very late. It was almost completely dark with the last light of day slipping quickly away.
We watched the two women as they walked toward a car across from ours. They hadn’t even pitched their tent yet.
“We should help them,” Perry said.
I stifled a groan. “We’re not helping them.” I wasn’t in the mood. I knew what Perry’s plan was. He was going to be the knight in shining armor, and in return he might get some ass. I had seen this routine many times and it usually worked. Perry knew exactly what he was doing.
But I was out here to enjoy myself and my freedom, to break away from the life I had led until a month ago.
“Come on, it’s the right thing to do,” Perry said.
I shook my head, but Perry headed toward the women and I sighed. I watched as he greeted them and started a conversation. The brunette was visibly interested, standing upright even though she had been the one to come back with stiff legs and a pinched face. The blonde looked as uninterested in getting to know Perry as I was in getting to know them. Maybe, if she felt the same way, they would decline Perry ’s help.
I watched the brunette giggle and twist her ponytail through her fingers and I figured she would agree to let Perry help her without caring what her friend thought. Much in the same way that Perry hadn’t given a shit what I thought. Brilliant.
Just as I thought, the brunette nodded enthusiastically, and Perry turned toward me. I watched the blonde as she rolled her eyes. She turned her face in my direction and I looked away so it wouldn’t look like I was staring.
Because, as uninterested as I was, the blonde was definitely worth staring at. She was a stunner with a body to die for. I hadn’t seen her eyes because I had looked away, but I wondered what they would be like if I could get a good look into them.
&
nbsp; I shook off the thought. I didn’t care. I wasn’t here to pick up women.
Perry came back to our tent with the brunette eagerly walking beside him and the blonde following reluctantly behind. She looked as unsure about it as I was.
“This is Rachel,” Perry introduced the brunette. “And her friend, Cara.” He introduced me to them and Cara turned her eyes to me. They were beautiful; large and brown with dark lashes, despite the fact that she seemed to be a natural blonde.
“This is their first time hiking,” Perry said.
I could have guessed that.
“We don’t know a thing,” Rachel giggled as if it was funny. “I don’t even know what we’re going to do with the tent.”
“You don’t know how to set up the tent?” Cara asked, and she sounded incredulous. It was easy to see whose idea the hike had been. Rachel shook her head at Cara with an innocent face and Cara rolled her eyes. This had happened before, obviously.
“We’ll help you,” Perry said.
I shot Perry a dark look. We had planned our trip so we didn’t have to set up a tent in the dark. I didn’t feel like doing it anyway, now. And I didn’t like being volunteered for work I wasn’t in the mood for.
“Oh, that’s so sweet of you,” Rachel said, in a syrupy voice.
“It is,” Cara said, but she wasn’t trying to flirt. She sounded like she understood what Perry had just promised them. It made it marginally better.
We walked across to the girls’ tent and Perry and I pulled it open. Rachel stuck to Perry’s side and he explained to her what to do, but it didn’t look like she was listening. Cara, on the other hand, was pulling her weight, catching on quickly and doing what needed to be done.
“This is hard work,” Rachel complained, when she let Perry take over.
She was so irritating. She walked toward Cara and pulled her closer. “Why don’t we go take out our bags? We’re just going to be in Perry’s way.”
She dragged Cara to the car with her, which only pissed me off more. This was their tent. It was nothing to me if they had to sleep under the stars. It was a clear night and it wasn’t too cold.
