Chapter Seventeen

Chapter Seventeen

Logan

I pride myself on being a rational person. Thinking things through and not taking risks has got me this far in life relatively unscathed. And right now?

Right now I want to kiss Danielle.

I want to hold her close and never let go.

But that’s a risk, isn’t it?

She’s my best friend, has made it clear she’s not interested in dating anyone, and doesn’t even want to stay in Eastwood. Eastwood is my home. All my family is there…yet I’d follow Danielle anywhere.

I lower my gaze from her eyes to her lips, well aware that this might be the single most stupid decision I’ve ever made. But sometimes you have to take risks to reap the reward.

But a million what-ifs go through my mind, and for each one, I can find a logical reason to call bullshit.

What if things are awkward between us? It’s not like they haven’t been before. We’ll get over it.

What if the kiss is bad? There’s no chance in Hell it’s going to be bad.

What if she doesn’t want me to kiss her? All the signs are here: she wants this as much as I do.

That’s it. I’m doing it. It’s now or never. Danielle’s eyes start to close. I inhale and bring my face to hers.

“Excuse me?”

I come to a stop, lips just inches away from Danielle’s.

“Could you take our picture?”

What. The. Fuck.

I open my eyes and turn my head, seeing a young couple holding out a phone.

“We’re celebrating our engagement too,” the girl says, looking away from me and into her girlfriend’s eyes. Too? Oh right. Danielle has that big-ass fake diamond on her finger. I open my mouth, but no sound comes out. Everything inside of me is still in motion, set on finally kissing Danielle.

“Yeah,” Danielle says. “Congrats on your engagement.” Her voice is breathy, like she’s feeling the same way I am.

“Thank you,” the girl with short blonde hair squeals. “And you too. I think. You have that look in your eyes, and that ring is stunning!”

Danielle looks back at me, and the lie sits heavy in my stomach. It’s not fun pretending anymore.

“I’m a lucky guy,” I say, forcing myself to play the part I committed to. The lie is hanging on by a thread, and I’m not sure I can do this anymore. Because nothing I’m saying feels like a lie.

I am in love with Danielle. Having her this close yet so far hurts more than I ever thought it could.

“I’m the lucky one,” Danielle goes on, flashing a smile. How is this easy for her? Maybe she doesn’t feel the same like I hoped. She takes the phone and snaps a few photos for the newly engaged couple. They take their phone back and walk out of the water.

“So, the rope swing,” I start, looking from Danielle to the rope. “You want to try it?”

“I still think I’m going to get hurt.”

“I’ll help you.”

She wraps her arms around my neck again, pulling herself close. Her breasts press up against my chest, and I can feel her pert nipples through the thin padding on her swimsuit.

This woman is going to kill me.

“I’m a little scared of heights.”

“It’s not that high,” I counter. “I’ll go first. Prove to you that if I can do it—and that six-year-old over there—then you can do it.”

“That kid is at least twelve.” She releases me and falls back into the water, floating on her back. “And yes, let’s try this. But if I die, I’m haunting you for the rest of your life.”

“I don’t believe in ghosts.”

“Oh, you will once my angry spirit starts breaking all the top-shelf bottles of booze at the bar. But I’ll start out way more subtle than that. Dex will wake up at night, staring at the wall growling. You’ll start to wonder, getting just a little freaked out. Then things will go missing. Doors will shut on their own, along with flickering lights.”

“You’ve really thought this out.”

“I’ve wished angry spirits on people before. It’s fun imagining what would happen.”

I laugh. “You know you sound a little crazy every now and then.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing?”

I shake my head and swim forward. “It’s not at all. It’s one of the many things I like about you.”

“Many?” She follows me out of the water, wringing out her hair.

“What? That’s a surprise?”

She shrugs, and I hate how downtrodden she gets every now and then, like she can’t see her own worth. It doesn’t happen very often, and I know she works hard to keep her chin up no matter what is going on.

I help Danielle up the slick path to the rope swing. One person is ahead of us, and we watch them grab on, take a running leap, and then plunge into the water.

“Are you sure it’s deep enough?” Danielle asks, creeping toward the edge of the overhang. The rope swings back and I grab it.

“I’ll find out.”

Danielle lets out a gasp as I run and jump, swinging out over the water before letting go. I sink below the surface and pop right back up, treading water as I look at Danielle.

“Your turn,” I call.

She crosses her arms over her body and shakes her head.

“Don’t make me use the line.”

“What line?” She looks down into the water at me.

I hold one hand up toward her. “Do you trust me?” Aladdin is her favorite movie, and that line gets her every time.

Pursing her lips, her eyes lock with me. Then her whole body relaxes. “Yes, I trust you.” She grabs the rope and takes a few paces back, moving out of my line of sight. I know she’s afraid of falling, but she has nothing to fear. I’m right here to catch her.

I’ll always be here.

I move out of the way and watch her run to the edge of the rock. It’s only when she jumps that I notice she wrapped her arm awkwardly around the rope, probably done to ensure she’ll be able to hang on.

“Let go!” I yell, wincing since I know that rope is going to burn as she falls. She squeezes her eyes shut and free falls into the water. I swim back over right as she pops up from the water.

“That was so fun!” she says with a big smile on her face. “I don’t know why I was so scared!”

“How’s your arm?” We swim back to shallower water.

“My arm?”

“You don’t have a rope burn?”

She brings her left arm up. Her forearm is raw and little beads of blood pool on her skin. “Oh shit. I didn’t even feel that.”

I take her arm in my hands, bringing it closer. “It’s just a surface scrape. You’ll be fine, but that kind of thing can hurt.”

“I have a battle wound.” She tosses her head up, trying to look tough. We both laugh. “As long as it doesn’t get infected from being in this water, I’m good.”

“Let’s pretend this water is clean and filtered. It’s coming from a waterfall. People pay top dollar to drink pure water like this.”

Danielle laughs, looking down at her arm once more before sticking it back under the water. “I can live with that.”

“You did awesome,” I tell her, knowing she was scared to jump.

“Thanks. I hesitated. I want to go again and not hesitate this time.”

“Don’t wrap your arm around the rope this time.”

“Come with me?”

“Of course.”

We go back up the slippery rocks to the rope. Danielle goes first this time, and she doesn’t hesitate, not at all. I jump in after her, and we spend a while just floating and swimming around in the water before getting out and swinging off the rope again.

Back on the rocks, we eat the rest of the snacks Danielle packed for us, drying off in the sun that’s streaming down on us now. She finishes her water and stretches her arms over her head, looking up at the bright sky.

“Want to try and find that food stand next?” she asks.

“You’re really asking if I want to try and find food?”

She laughs. “Good point. When aren’t you hungry?” Her eyes glimmer when they meet mine. “No wonder your mom is such a good cook. She had four of you boys growing up.”

“And Quinn. She can eat like the rest of us.”

“Having one older sister growing up was rough enough. I can’t imagine having four older brothers.”

“It made her tough,” I laugh.

“That’s for sure.” Danielle unbraids her hair and piles it all up on the top of her head in a messy bun.

“Isn’t that heavy?” I ask, motioning to her hair. “Especially when it’s wet?”

“Yeah, but I guess I’m used to it. I’ve always had long hair. I’d miss it way too much to cut even though I’m so tempted every now and then.”

“It would drive me crazy.”

“Eh, it’s not too bad. I won’t miss finding hairs in my butt crack though.”

“What?”

Danielle laughs and grabs her shorts from the rock. “It happens to everyone with long hair, trust me. Hair just like falls out and goes right down in between my butt cheeks.”

“You’re being serious?”

“Yes! Ask anyone with long hair.”

I shake my head. “I am not asking anyone if they pull hair out of their ass.”

“Not really out of your ass, just the crack.” She pulls her shirt over her head and takes another lingering look at the waterfall. “I’m starving.”

“I didn’t know talking about pulling hair out of your crack could be so appetizing.”

A smile pulls up her face. My God…this woman is so beautiful. “You’re not the only one who is always hungry, Dawson.”

“Then let’s go get something to eat.” I look at my watch. “We need to hurry, though.”

“I don’t even know what time it is. It feels like we just got here while at the same time I know we’ve spent a decent amount of time here already. Do we have time to get food?”

“If we hurry, we should be fine.”

“Should be?”

I stand, reaching for my shirt. “Let’s not get lost this time.”

“You admitted we were lost.” She puts her shorts back on.

“Call it what you will,” I chuckle. “But we got here, right?”

Danielle freezes, taking her hands off the button she was about to snap into place and looks into my eyes. My heart is in my throat, and I swallow hard, pushing it back down. “You are right,” she says, and she gets a distant look in her eyes. She looks out at the water again, and I watch as different emotions dance across her face. “We got here.”

She’s not just talking about the waterfall, and I wait for her to go on. But she doesn’t, and she finishes buttoning her jean shorts and then picks up the backpack, putting it on. I hold out my arm, and she loops her arm through mine. We start toward the trail again, stopping to let a large group of hikers coming up to the water pass us by. They’re seeing the waterfall for the first time, and their reactions are pretty priceless.

“Tourists,” Danielle says, shaking her head. “You know I come here once and I’m basically an expert. Though I do wish I could come back and finish the rest of the Road to Hana.”

“We will,” I tell her, deciding it right then and there.

“When? The wedding is tomorrow and we’re leaving the next day.”

“I didn’t mean this trip. We’ll come back to Hawaii. Do things on our terms.”

She comes to a halt, turning to look at me. Her sea-green eyes are wide, and her face is slack with shock.

Then she smiles.

The jingling of dog tags gets our attention, and a very muddy yellow lab comes barreling down the path, dragging his leash behind him.

“Brody!” someone yells. “Get back here!”

Danielle goes to pick up the leash and the dog whirls around, jumping on her and smearing mud all over her top.

“Hey, buddy,” she says, petting the dog, whose tail is wagging hard, making his whole butt wiggle. It reminds me of Dexter, and I don’t care how lame it makes me to admit I miss my dog right now.

“I’m so sorry,” Brody’s owner says, panting as he slows to a walk and grabs the leash. “Brody, down!”

“It’s okay,” Danielle says, giving Brody one more pet before he tries to come and jump on me. “I like dogs.”

I scratch Brody under the chin, getting mud on my hands but not caring. Dex would have a hay-day on this trail too and would be just as muddy if not muddier.

“He’s only a year old and has too much energy.” The owner struggles to hold onto Brody, who gets excited to see the water.

“He’s a sweet boy,” Danielle tells him.

“He’s lucky he is.” The owner shakes his head. “Sorry you got all muddy.”

Danielle waves her hand in the air. “I was already muddy before. It’s no big deal.”

Brody pulls his owner forward to the water, and Danielle loops her arm through mine again. “And now you’re thinking about Dex, aren’t you?”

“How’d you know?”

“Dex is to you what cats are to Quinn.”

I raise an eyebrow. “I am not that borderline certifiable.”

“Depends on who you’re asking.”

Shaking my head, I start forward. “We need to get going if we want to stop at the farm truck.”

*

The way back to the road wasn’t much easier than the way up to the waterfalls. Danielle kept up, though, and pushed forward every time I suggested we slow. Her childhood wasn’t spent roaming through cornfields and woods like mine was.

There’s a small line at the farm truck, and Danielle is so excited to buy some sort of sugarcane drink she read about online I don’t have the heart to tell her we’re really cutting it close on time. Assuming we don’t hit any snags on the way back to the resort, we’ll have just enough time to change and run downstairs to the lobby to meet everyone for the rehearsal.

We order a ton of fruit and a few specialty items we’re told you can only get at this location, and slowly walk through a mowed clearing as we eat.

“Thank you, Logan,” Danielle says, thanking me for the millionth time.

“You don’t have to keep thanking me, Danielle. It’s not like it’s torture being here with you, even though you are pretty terrible to be around every now and then.”

Danielle punches me in the shoulder. “Right? I’m the worst.”

We both laugh, and Danielle holds out her drink, telling me I have to try it.

“Isn’t that amazing?”

“It’s really sweet, but yeah, that’s good. I want to add some rum to it.”

“Ohhh now that would be good.”

We finish our food and walk back to the car. Danielle looks through the photos she took on the hike, and then puts her phone down, resting her head against the seat. We make it another mile or so before she dozes off, which is a good thing, because we run into a bit of a traffic jam. And by traffic jam, I mean a few cows wandered off the grassy hillside and are standing in the road. It’s not an uncommon thing to have happen back home, and while the people in the car ahead of us are sitting there not knowing what to do, I put our car in park and get out.

It takes a few minutes to shoo the cows away, and Danielle wakes up when I get back in.

“I didn’t mean to fall asleep,” she grumbles. “Were you out of the car?

“Yeah.” I pull my seatbelt back on. “There were cows in the road.”

“That’s random, and not what I expected to hear. I almost forget people have to have normal lives in order to live here.”

“Right? It’s easy to think it’s nothing but a tropical utopia all the time.”

“Exactly.” She looks at the clock. “Oh shit.”

“Yeah…We’ll make it. I think.”