by Taylor Hart
“Fine.” Sara took off in a run. “But only if you think of this as a race like I do.”
Carey trotted to catch up with her. “Absolutely.”
Sara tightened her backpack. After running all summer on the ranch, she was ready for trail running.
Carey was faster, but he matched her rhythm. They got way ahead of the group. “Are we going to run this semester in the morning?”
“Let’s just manage the dance lessons for right now, okay?” Sara didn’t want to commit to anything with him.
Carey tugged at her arm, then stopped running. “Hey, I am never too busy for you. You know that, right?”
Putting her tongue in her cheek, Sara looked away from him. She thought, again, about how Beau had said he was unsafe. “It’s fine.”
“I just have a lot academically this year. I have a lot to get done before Sue gets home. You understand that, right?”
Sara jerked back to face him, searching his eyes. “Do you mean that?”
“What?”
“About Sue.”
He frowned. “Of course I do. You’re waiting for Jonathon and I’m waiting for Sue, right?” He cocked an eyebrow. “I mean you’re waiting for Jonathon still, right?”
Unrest filled her. Something felt off. “Yes. I just skyped him last night and his airline tickets are set.”
“Then you’ll be with him, right?” Carey asked.
Again, something felt off. She took off into a jog. “Right.”
Carey jogged beside her for a bit.
“So we’re good?” Carey asked, giving her a light nudge with his shoulder.
Mixed emotions were washing through her, but she focused on the dance lessons. “We’re good for the lessons with Martha and Larry, right?”
Carey snorted. “Sara, just say it’s about us, okay. Don’t pretend it’s about them. Just say you want to spend time with me.” He swiped at her hair playfully. “Cause maybe I want to spend time with you, too.”
Immediately, Sara stopped jogging. “What?”
Carey stopped and met her gaze, not responding for a few seconds. He bent and grabbed a branch from the ground and chucked it over the valley below, then he turned to face her. “Don’t you think we’ve been skirting this issue long enough?”
Sara coughed, unable to believe the man was really saying this.
Without preamble, Carey leaned in and kissed her.
Sara used both hands to push him back from her. Panic rose in her throat. “How dare you?”
Carey stepped closer. “Tell me you don’t feel this?” He pointed back and forth between them.
Confusion filled her. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He smiled and leaned in to kiss her again.
“Stop!” Sara took off into a sprint up the trail. “Stay away from me.”
Carey was instantly beside her. “Sara—c’mon.”
Sara put her hand up to stop the conversation. “I had no idea that you felt this way.”
The look on Carey’s face turned to one of anger. “Really? All the dancing, all the running, and all the time we’ve spent together. You didn’t have a clue?”
She felt simultaneously guilty and betrayed. “I always just thought we were safe together, like you were a brother to me.”
His face brewed even more anger. He stopped running. “That’s crap. Just crap.”
She stopped, too, unable to believe she’d been so blind to all of this. Her heart pounded into her ears. How could she not have seen this?
Carey yanked a branch from a tree and yelped out, quickly pulling his finger to his mouth.
“Are you okay?”
He pulled his finger out and looked at it. “Something bit me.”
Sara didn’t make a move to help. She was frozen. Frozen by all the things she’d missed. But she noted his finger had started to swell.
Out of nowhere, Beau and Michelle jogged up the path together.
No!
Beau stopped jogging, staring between them. “Hey.”
Carey grimaced at Beau and lifted his finger in the air at him. “I think something bit me.”
Beau hesitated, then moved toward him, examining his finger. “Yeah. It looks that way.”
He looked at Sara, expectantly. “I’m heading back. I’m not taking any chances on getting some strange disease. You coming?”
The truth was that she wanted to explode on him, tell him that he was ridiculous for thinking that he could kiss her. She crossed her arms. “No.”
Carey glared at her. “Really? You’re really going to let me run back and possibly have some allergic reaction with no one to help me?”
She didn’t respond. Part of her wanted to tell the man to suck eggs. The other part of her worried that he would really have a problem.
“I’ll go with him.” Michelle said, quickly moving to his side and looking at his finger.
“No, I’ll go with him,” Beau said, a bit reluctantly.
Carey angled his head and glared at Beau. “I don’t want you to come with me.”
For a few seconds Beau and Carey seemed to be in some kind of stand off.
Michelle let out a hyper laugh. “No, let me go. These new shoes are killing me. Who knew this hike would be so much work?”
Beau shrugged. “Fine with me.” He nodded to Sarah. “We’ll be buddies now.”
Carey nearly growled at him. “I guess you will.” He took off down the trail. “C’mon, Michelle. Keep up.”
Sara watched them go, disgust and anger pulsing through her.
“You okay?” Beau asked softly.
More irritation swept through her. “Oh, are you acting like you know me now?” She swiftly started up the trail.
Beau caught up to her. “What’s your problem, Fairbanks?”
She ignored him. The terrain turned to big boulders. She threw herself at the boulder.
Beau followed. “Would you stop for a second?”
Sarah hurled herself onto another boulder. “No, I can’t.” She didn’t wait for him, only turned and hurled herself at another boulder.
“Fine, I can do this all day, Sara.”
She stopped and heaved in a breath. “What, Mr. Hennings? You actually remembered my name?” She felt a bit unhinged in this moment. She turned back into the groupie persona from earlier. “Like ohmygosh, I’m so lucky.” She hyper clapped and glared at him.
Beau stood next to her, a small smile played at his lips. "I guess it was a mistake to give you the freedom of not having everyone know we knew each other outside of class."
It felt like they were sharing some joke but she didn’t like feeling that way. "Why would that matter?"
He shrugged. "I guess it doesn't. You were really ticked this afternoon, weren’t you?” he asked.
She put a finger into the air. “You were poor mannered. If you were one of my brothers, I would belt you one.”
Beau scoffed. “Okay, I guess, nothing like a good mountain to climb to make you feel like a man, right? Let's go."
Sara needed someone to fight with after Carey’s accusations. She started back up the path. “I’m surprised you could pull yourself away from Ms. Lycra. I feel embarrassed for all women because of the way a few choose to dress.”
He let out a chuckle. “Are you jealous of her?”
“No, I’m not. But, she is totally your type.”
Beau moved to her side. “And what do you know about types, Ms. Fairbanks?” He pushed past her and started up the next boulder. “Oh, wait, do you really want to talk about the root of your bad mood?”
“Stop.”
He let out a skittering laugh. “Okay.”
She followed him up the boulder.
When he got to the top, he bent and put out his hand. “Let me help you.”
She didn’t want to take his hand, but she did need help. “Fine.”
Their hands connected and something passed between them. Attraction, spark, call it any of those.
S
he steadied herself and yanked back her hand. “Thank you.” She didn’t want to say thank you but her father had ingrained manners into them their whole lives.
He crossed his arms. “Let me guess, Carey just realized that you don’t think of him as a boyfriend and … it ticked him off.”
She didn’t want to give anything away. “Please, just stop.”
Beau let out a long sigh. “What did he do to tick you off?”
Sara pulled off her backpack and took one of the water bottles out of her bag. “I would offer you one, but you’re being an idiot.”
He laughed.
She popped it open and guzzled it back. How dare he? She moved to the other side of the boulder and looked out across the rocky landscape.
Beau moved beside her, and she smelled his faint cologne—something spicy and tropical. “What did he do?"
Reluctantly, she whispered. "He kissed me."
This sent Beau into a roaring laugh. "Really?"
She felt ashamed. "I … he's such a jerk."
Beau sighed. "I'm sorry. The guy is a jerk."
She turned to face him. "Are you even allowed to associate with students like this?" She had been wondering why he was even here.
"What do you mean?"
"Like, I thought professors couldn't 'fraternize' with students or whatever." Even saying the words made her feel silly.
Beau laughed. "Fraternize?'
Everything was coming out wrong. "You know what I mean."
Beau nodded. "Yes, I do know what you mean." He sighed. "But, I'm actually not a professor, I'm just … a guy the department asked to teach a class."
She frowned.
He shrugged. "I was coming home for a while and one of my old friends heard about it and asked if I would do the class."
"Hmm." She didn't know what to think about it.
He pointed at her. "So, I'm not a professor or … really anything. I'm just a guy and, want to hear the stupid part?"
Now this had just gotten interesting. "Of course."
He shook his head. "The only reason I even came to the Varsity Fellowship is because I promised my mother I would."
That took her by surprise. She scoffed. "Why would you agree too that?"
His face went blank. "Lots of reasons I don't want to discuss right now."
Double weird. "Okay." It wasn't like she was pushing him to discuss anything, he'd volunteered the information. But she didn't bring that up.
"Let's focus on you, again." He flashed a smile. "And Carey."
"No."
Their eyes met and all this attraction fell through her. She didn't like it.
Beau nudged her. "You can’t stand the fact that all this time you’ve been dating guys that were, let’s see, what did you call Carey? Safe? Yeah, that’s right. In your mind none of them had a chance. None of them held a candle to this imaginary man you’ve created in your mind that you think Jonathon is. And, what you really can’t stand is that you’re attracted to me. You have been since I saved you—yes saved you.”
Sara staggered back into the rock wall behind her. She had not expected this. “You’re ridiculous and I hate you.”
Beau reached for her arm and held her upright.
Would he try to kiss her?
Chapter 9
Sara stared into Beau’s eyes, her heart racing.
He looked at her lips, then released her. “Can I have a bottle of water?” He flashed her a smile. “Please.”
Sara closed her eyes, swallowed hard, working to get herself calmed down. “Uhh—sure.” Her mind whirled. What was happening? She moved to the front of the boulder. Cautiously, she sat and hung her legs down the side of the boulder. Maybe she was going crazy. Jonathon would be coming home soon. She had to quit thinking about the way Beau looked or smelled or anything he was saying.
Beau sat down next to her. “You’d be a good hiking buddy, you’re prepared.” He lifted the water into the air.
She shrugged and sighed. “I don’t hate you. I shouldn’t have said that.”
Sara thought of the anger on Carey’s face before he’d ran down the hill. Had she really led him on? Sadness washed over her.
Beau looked out across the rock formations. He leaned back on his hands. “Are you okay?”
Sara didn’t want to talk about it, but the guilt was consuming her. “I guess I should be more careful of the way I act. I really don’t mean to hurt people, but—it seems like that’s what I’ve been doing lately.” Her dad’s face flashed through her mind. She glanced at Beau. “You might not believe me, but I didn’t realize Carey liked me like that.”
Beau let out a long breath. “I actually believe you, Sara.”
She laughed.
“What?”
“Nothing.” She laughed again.
“What?”
All the laughter faded inside of her. “I was just remembering the first time I met you.”
He didn’t respond.
Suddenly she felt guilty again. She tried to change the subject. “I—I your class is . . . well, it’s not awful.”
He smiled. “Thanks.”
Sara gazed at the dark clouds forming above them. “So you grew up here?”
He nodded.
“Why did you leave Laramie?”
Beau looked thoughtful, but he didn’t answer. He stood. “I just felt a raindrop, we better start back.”
Sara stood and tightened down her backpack. One thing that people took seriously in Wyoming was the weather. “Yeah, we better go fast.”
Beau gestured in front of him. “Ladies first.”
Sara crouched low and gripped the boulder as she edged down. Her foot slipped. Pain ripped through her ankle. She slammed down on her back.
Beau quickly slipped down the boulder and knelt beside her.
“Dang it!”
A serious look swept his features. “Are you all right?”
Sara rolled onto her side and pulled off her backpack. “My ankle, I’ve sprained it regularly since junior high basketball. I’ll just put a wrap on it, and we’ll go.”
Beau took the pack out of her hands rummaged through her supplies. He pounded an emergency ice pack into the rock and then pressed it to her ankle. Expertly, he wrapped it with an ace bandage.
“You’ve done this before?”
He tucked the end of the bandage into the main part. “All peace core volunteers get a lot of training in first aid. And they need it.”
“Oh.” Sara didn’t know what to say. Peace Core volunteer was not what she had pegged him for.
He stood and reached out to help her stand. “I hate to do this, but we have to keep going.”
Sara took his hand. “Yeah, we do.”
Beau went down in front of her and then helped her slide down. It was a tedious process, but Beau didn’t seem to mind.
Sara felt grateful and embarrassed. She didn’t want his help.
Then, things got even worse. It started to hail. The hail stung her skin like pellets hitting a tin roof. “This is ridiculous.”
Beau pointed in front of her. “Huddle into that ledge.”
Sara crawled over to the ledge.
Beau squeezed in beside her.
Sara tried to keep a space between them. “I don’t want to huddle.”
He frowned at her and pulled a poncho out of her backpack. “You’re huddling.”
Beau draped it over their legs and put his arm around her, pulling her into him. He nodded to the poncho. “Are you always this prepared?”
Sara tried to focus on the hail and not on the warmth of his closeness. Or the cologne that smelled really good. “What?”
He pointed to the pack. “Do you always bring this pack with you?”
“It’s ranch life. My dad taught courses in CPR and First Aid. He made sure we all had training.” At the thought of her dad, she felt even more tired.
“Oh, that’s right, the three older brothers.” Beau said it nonchalantly.
Sara frowned
. “What?”
Beau shrugged. “I remember you talking about hating to be saved because of your overprotective brothers.”
Sara was confused, trying to remember telling him that.
Searching her eyes, he smiled. “It’s okay, you were out of sorts that day. Of course, it was the day you lost the love of your life.” His tone was overly dramatic.
She jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow.
Beau let out a half chuckle. “What?”
She thought, again, about that day. How she must have looked. So helpless.
He poked her in the side. “Oh c’mon it’s kinda funny. You should have seen yourself that day. You were pretty lovesick.” He paused, surprising her by brushing a hair out of her face. “Nothing like today. No, I would say that Carey was all alone in his crush on you.”
Her heart thumped faster and she didn’t like the way he was looking at her or the fact she’d noticed his wet hair. Rolling her eyes, she looked away. “Whatever.”
They sat in silence for a few minutes. Sara couldn’t stop herself from shivering. The hail let up for a little bit, but the rain intensified. Lightning pulsed through the sky and the clouds covered the moon.
Sara tried to quit thinking about the way his hair had been longer when she’d first met him. “When were you in the Peace Corp?”
“Oh.” His features settled into a sad look. “Umm, a few years ago.” He pulled away from her but kept his arm on her shoulders. “How’s the ankle?” He touched the wrap lightly.
Sara realized their noses were almost touching. She turned away quickly. “I just hate the dark.”
Beau leaned closer. “It’s not that dark.”
The initial warming from huddling started to wear off and she shivered harder. “It’s going to be.”
Beau scooted closer. “I get it.”
They were quiet for a few moments.
“Bear Lake,” he muttered.
“What?”
He sighed. “When I was twelve my family went to Bear Lake.”
“O-kay.”
“Well, I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and it felt like I turned around three times and I couldn’t find our tent. It was even darker than right now. And I remember I was terrified. I kept walking and walking and all the trees began to look the same.”
“What happened?”
