“Something like that.” I laughed. “I’ve been pacing by the front doors for fifteen minutes now. I just thought I should get out and do something. I feel like I need to clear my head.” I heard weird noises in the background, like music or something, and it sounded like cars were starting and shutting off around Sawyer. Perhaps he was walking through a busy parking lot on the way into his meeting. “But I know you’re busy with your seminar or whatever. I guess I really just called to apologize for last night. I know we were in the middle of talking, and I left quickly.”
“Want to tell me about your night?” he asked genuinely. “You looked pretty shaken.”
“My dad may be sent to Stanford, if they can get him in,” I explained. “Words like heart transplant and such were being thrown around. I don’t know. We’ll just wait and see, I guess. That’s all it was. There’s not much to tell.”
“Well, tell me anyway,” he stated. My attention was diverted from our conversation as a horn honked right in front of the hospital entrance. There was a black Jeep outside, and a handsome guy in the driver’s seat was motioning his arms at me. “Walk forward twenty feet.”
I smiled once I realized Sawyer was in front of the hospital. I was suddenly ecstatic that I’d taken the time to do my hair and makeup this morning. My light-blue sundress fit me well, and I actually felt somewhat put together despite the tightness around my eyes from all the crying. I hung up the phone and walked through the hospital entrance, smiling as soon as I made eye contact with him.
“What are you doing here?” I asked as I approached the Jeep. “That was eerily stalkerish, like you’ve been out here waiting.”
“The conference center is attached to the hospital,” he said, pointing to an area of the parking lot behind him. “I had just pulled up to the lot when you called, preparing to head in to the first meeting. As soon as you asked me what I was doing today, the first thing that came to mind was rescuing you. So I’m here.”
I stared back at him in complete disbelief. “Well, I’m sure you have a lot to do today, with your meetings and whatever, so I don’t want to keep you from that,” I admitted. It felt somewhat selfish to encourage him to drop his responsibilities just because I had nothing else to do for the day.
“Come on, get in,” he insisted.
“Really, if you have events already planned for the day, I’m not trying to interfere with that,” I continued rambling. “I know you’re doing something important. I wasn’t looking for a pity party or anything. I just wasn’t sure what to do, where to go . . .”
“Get in the Jeep, Whitley Rose.” He pointed to the passenger seat.
I climbed into the vehicle, feeling more joy than I expected to experience under the weight of my current situation. I looked at my surroundings. There was a rental car sticker on the glove box and a small black briefcase on the backseat. Sawyer was dressed in gray pants and a crisp, dark-blue dress shirt. It seemed like odd attire to wear for driving around Lake Tahoe in a topless Jeep, but obviously he had had other plans when this day started. I was sure this wasn’t even on his radar before I called.
“Are you up for an adventure?” he asked with a boyish grin.
I nodded. In a way I felt careless in the moment, leaving my father in a somber hospital while I was out doing who knows what with a gorgeous guy I’d just met. A guy whose life was worlds away from mine, no less. We probably didn’t make any sense together. Not that logic had anything to do with it. After all, it was just a fluke we were in each other’s world for a brief period of time. We would finish whatever we were doing here in Mountain Ridge, then disappear back to real life in Nashville, where our paths had no business intersecting again. For the time being, it was the only thing that made me feel something other than sorrow, and grief, and anxiety over what was happening to my family. I needed the distraction of Sawyer Grant so very badly.
He pulled onto the highway, the wind hit my face, and I felt rejuvenated. He looked over at me from the driver’s seat, and I knew I was smitten. The way he made me laugh, the way he made me feel about my screwed-up life, and, most importantly, the way he made me feel happy when deep down I was terrified—at this moment it was something I couldn’t turn away from.
“Are you sure you won’t get in any trouble for whatever you’re missing out on today?” I asked with genuine concern as we drove.
“This seems more important,” he replied sincerely. He shot me a sideways glance, and I’m pretty sure I blushed. “Besides, I have a feeling I could get into a lot more trouble with you.” His lips curled into a mischievous smile, and I knew that was it for me: Sawyer Grant was going to be either my savior or my rock bottom—and right then I didn’t care which one.
Chapter 7
“How do you know where you’re going?” I questioned Sawyer as he maneuvered the Jeep down the highway around the lake. He checked his GPS as if he already had a destination in mind, which surprised me. I was the local—I should be the one showing him around. “I thought you’d never been here before? You look like you have some kind of plan.”
“I’m an excellent tourist,” he replied. “I’m a research guy.” He pulled a small, stapled set of papers out from under his seat. Top 10 Hidden Spots Around Lake Tahoe. “It was actually in the rental car already when I picked it up,” he admitted. “Have you been to all these places already?”
I thumbed through the papers as he drove. Most of the spots on the list were familiar. They definitely weren’t crowded with tourists like the rest of Tahoe, but plenty of locals seemed to know about them. Surprisingly, there were a few locales on the list that I hadn’t heard of. It was amazing to me that I could live in one place my whole life without truly knowing everything it had to offer. I had obviously spent endless days at various beaches around the lake, some of them busy and some more discreet. A few of the spots on the list looked pretty remote. Definitely not places the average tourist would know about.
“Please tell me we’re not going to Secret Cove.” I blushed, setting the papers down in my lap. “How have I lived here my whole life without knowing there was a nude beach nearby? I thought that was only a European thing! Oh, my gosh, what if my parents have been there before? I am so grossed out right now. Please don’t tell me that’s where we’re going.” I groaned.
“Really, nude parents? You went there with it?” He laughed. “Don’t worry, that’s not what I had in mind. We’ve never even had a meal together, so I doubt you’re going to get me naked already.” My mind quickly started to wander. “Have you been to number eight on the list?”
I picked up the papers and rummaged through them. “Eagle’s Cove?” I read aloud. “I’ve never even heard of it.” I studied the small picture next to the description. It looked like a quaint, beautiful, secluded spot with giant boulders and a small waterfall pouring out of the mountainside into a swimming hole. It was breathtaking in the photo. “I’m not exactly dressed for hiking,” I quipped, looking down at my sundress and three-inch wedge shoes. “Actually you’re not either.” I smirked, taking in his dress pants and nice shirt. “You really want to do this?”
“We’ll improvise.” He was beaming as he said it.
“What does that even mean? It says it’s a mile hike down just to get to this spot from where we have to park,” I continued, still studying the paper.
“I’ll go straight piggyback ride if that’s what it takes,” he joked. “Wait, you can hold my weight, right?”
I playfully rolled my eyes at him.
“I’m not afraid. This is happening,” he added.
“We don’t even have swimsuits. What are we going to do once we get there? Take a picture and leave?”
“We’ll just check it out.” He shrugged. “If we like it, we can come back to it some other time.”
I stared out the passenger side window, trying to hide the color probably rising in my cheeks at the idea of making future plans with this guy. He had said it so casually, as if we would certainly be hanging out aga
in, even though reality could set in at any moment with a phone call or text that would completely derail any of my plans. Part of me wanted to abandon this whole thing before it could begin, but I felt like it was already too late for that. Naturally I felt guilty for being away from the hospital, but they had kicked me out anyway for all the testing my dad had to undergo. Coupled with the fact that my brother already had plans of his own and Brie had to work, I wasn’t sure what else to do. I would just be in the way if I had stayed around the hospital, so I had to go somewhere. This seemed like a good escape for the time being.
“So you like country music, I take it?” he asked, messing with the radio dial.
“I like everything,” I answered. “Country is just my favorite genre to write. I love that it’s more like a story. For some reason that type of music comes easiest to me when I’m writing. It just flows out.”
“Are you going to let me read any of your songs?”
“Of course not.” I blushed. “They’re only half songs. Just words without music. It’s like poetry, except of course no one reads poetry anymore.”
“I do,” he replied sweetly. I couldn’t tell if he was mocking me. “I swear. Fitzgerald, Whitman. Not all the time obviously, but when I’m in the right mood for it.”
“Seriously?”
“I told you, I grew up reading a lot.” He shrugged. “That’s what I do for fun.”
“Sounds like you have a booming social life,” I teased.
“My schedule is busy and erratic, so when I have downtime it’s usually the middle of the night,” he explained. “Reading relaxes me. It’s the only way I can shut off my brain from everything else I have going on.”
“That’s what writing is for me,” I agreed, understanding exactly what he was saying. “Sometimes late at night my head is spinning, and it’s the only thing that calms me. I stop worrying about everything else around me, and I can just get lost in what I’m doing. I absolutely love it.”
“Sounds like the two of us could get into some real late-night trouble together,” he said sarcastically. He winked at me, and I smiled back. He turned the Jeep down a small dirt road off the highway. I’d never seen this trail before, and I was still amazed by the fact that someone could take me somewhere new around such otherwise familiar surroundings.
He pulled into a small cutout and parked. There were no other cars around, but that probably had a lot to do with the fact that it was early on a weekday morning. By the size of the parking area, only a few other cars could fit here anyway. No wonder this was such a hidden spot.
“So, are you ready? I believe the writer describes this place as ‘the hidden paradise of Tahoe,’ if I’m not mistaken. No one is describing the nude beach that way, that’s for sure.”
“I can’t believe we’re doing this.” I snickered, shaking my head. We climbed out of the Jeep and made our way to a steep, narrow trail. It had been trampled on enough to suggest we had the right path, yet there were plenty of overgrown bushes laid out over the walkway that I had to watch my step closely. Within the first minute or two of walking, my foot ever-so-slightly slid on the rocky dirt beneath me. Sawyer quickly reached out his hand and grabbed mine.
“So next time we’ll wear hiking shoes,” he stated, not letting go of me.
“I don’t think I even packed any,” I mused. I hadn’t had plans to do anything adventurous while I was in town. I figured I would just be at the hospital a day or two until my dad got better, and at the house while he recovered for another day or so, and then I would have headed back to Nashville. Obviously I hadn’t planned for any of this.
“Then nude beach it is.” He laughed. He clutched my hand tightly, and we continued down the trail. It was the most amazing view. Huge pine trees surrounded us, and the sparkling water of the lake stood out in the middle of it all, glistening in the bright sunlight. The water was bluer than any I’d ever seen, and the mountains around us were majestic. It was one of those views that made you feel like a tiny, insignificant human alone on a magnificent planet. I had yet to meet anyone, a tourist or a local, who wasn’t completely in awe of Lake Tahoe’s scenery. It was one of those images that would forever be burned in your mind, no matter how many lakes you saw before or after.
“I’ve seen a lot of pictures, but nothing prepares you for how this looks in person,” Sawyer stated as if he was reading my mind. “How are we the only people out here? This is incredible.”
“Most people have real life to get to.” I smirked. “It’s bad enough I pulled you away from yours just because I don’t have much of one at the moment.”
“It makes me think we have it all backward.” He shook his head. “This is what people should be doing all the time. People spend all their time planning, and worrying, and working toward something. But then that’s it, right? Your time is up, and that’s all you did—the worrying and planning and all that.”
“This is the opposite of the kind of pep talk I need right now.” I giggled. “My mom constantly tells me I need a plan. Spreadsheets. Budgets. More tangible goals. Boring, boring, impossibly boring things. I don’t have it in me. I just want to sit somewhere beautiful and write. Every day. For the rest of my life.”
“You’re pretty much doing that, right?”
“Well, that’s the problem,” I admitted. “My landlord disagrees with my plan. As does the utility company, and so on. So I need another plan.”
“Not here.” He shook his head. “Not in this place. No plans.”
The trail ended in a place even more awe-inspiring than the photo we had stared at before the hike. The boulders around us were massive, and the mountain we had traversed led to a cove where water trickled down the mossy stones and over eroded branches into a circular swimming hole. The boulders surrounding the hole made it private from the rest of the lake. The trees around us made it feel like we were inside a cylinder of sorts. It felt shameful that we were the only people here enjoying such beauty and even more devastating to think that most people in this universe would never get to experience such a brilliant spot on this planet.
“I cannot believe I’ve stared out at this lake my whole life and I’ve never seen anything like this,” I said quietly, taking it all in. “I think this is the best place I’ve ever been.”
“Agreed. Promise me we’ll come back here.” He smiled, leading me to the water’s edge.
I wasn’t sure how to respond. It all seemed too surreal. We kicked off our shoes and put our toes in the water. Tahoe was always freezing, and the way the boulders blocked the sun from the water didn’t help the temperature, yet neither of us flinched once our feet were submerged.
“I think we need to swim.” Sawyer raised an eyebrow at me. “How can we be in a place like this and not enjoy it? Come on.” He started unbuttoning his dress shirt. “I have an idea.”
“Why do I feel like your idea involves us taking off our clothes?” I replied awkwardly.
“Not exactly,” he stated, taking off his shirt first. He dropped it on the rocky, pine needle–covered sand and peeled off his black V-neck undershirt. He held it out to me. “Would you feel comfortable in this?”
I appreciated that it was black at least. If it had been a white undershirt, there was no way I could have done it, but this seemed doable.
He peeled off his dress slacks, which were already wet around the ankles, and tossed them next to his shirt. He was going to have sand everywhere later, but it didn’t look like he cared one bit. He stood in front of me in nothing other than his black boxer briefs, and I may have stopped breathing. His body was far more toned than I expected it to be, and I couldn’t help but stare at his hip bones and abs as they jutted out above his underwear line. He looked like he belonged in a magazine. If I was going to die drooling, this was the place for it.
“Are you coming in?” he asked, distracting me from the thoughts raging through my brain. “I won’t look.” He turned away and dove into the water, leaving me on the shoreline with his T-shirt st
ill in my hand. Without thinking about it any longer, I pulled my sundress over my head and slipped on his shirt. I was extremely thankful it hung long enough to cover the parts that needed covering. I wasn’t a prude by any means, but I’d always been in long-term relationships. The idea of moving quickly with a stranger never appealed to me, although the silhouette of Sawyer’s body dripping with water beads in the summer sun was quickly changing my mind.
I slipped off my bra from underneath the shirt and threw it on our growing pile of clothes. I knew I needed it to be dry when we dressed later. I plunged into the water, both shocked and comforted by how cold it was. It was refreshing and piercing all at once, and a smile spread across my face. Sawyer’s mouth mirrored mine, and he motioned for me to move closer to him.
“This is better than spreadsheets,” he said softly, “right?” I nodded, staring back into his green eyes. That was such an understatement. This exact moment was better than most things I could imagine. I wasn’t thinking of heartache at the moment. There was no chaos surrounding me. I wasn’t bogged down with the bitterness I felt about what had had happened with Kip or Wes. I felt happy, as if my life was somewhat put together, though I knew it was far from that. But this moment, under the summer sun with someone so warm and funny and compassionate—it was like life had paused for a moment. I finally didn’t feel out of place, despite the randomness of it all.
He reached out his arm under the water and gently slid it around my waist, pulling me into him. Ever so slowly, his lips moved nearer to mine. I couldn’t take the anticipation, so I hungrily closed the distance between his mouth and mine. His lips were warm and wet from the water, and they kissed me back with as much intensity as I felt coursing through my own skin. My hands rested on his chest, and I could feel the strength and firmness of his body underneath my fingertips. I feared how quickly things could progress between us here; surely I wasn’t ready for that with everything else I had going on. Although I wasn’t sure just how much I was against it either.
Half-Truths Page 6
