by Rebecca Rode
The group groaned, although I saw more than one person hide a smile. I’d heard a few people talking about the hot tub at the lodge. Now they’d have time for it.
I couldn’t blame them. Hot-tubbing wasn’t my thing, but a steamy bath sounded heavenly. Maybe a book. That sounded far more appealing than traipsing through the forest on tennis-racket shoes.
I was just finishing my sandwich when Sofia came up to me, her face bright with excitement. “Let’s talk.”
I followed Sofia a short distance away from the group. Micah watched us go, but the moment our gazes locked, he turned back to his food like it was something far more interesting than a second-grade lunch.
“Looks like you’re having fun,” I told her. “Is something wrong?”
“No. Micah is the perfect gentleman. Very kind and thoughtful and attentive. But he’s a little exasperating.”
I couldn’t have described him better. “What did he do this time?”
“He keeps dodging my questions,” Sofia whispered. “Micah doesn’t want to talk about me. He wants to talk about you.”
I froze. He what?
She shrugged. “I’m sure he’s just making conversation. Anyway, I really wanted to show you guys the cave, and we’re pretty close now, so I asked Micah if he would mind coming a little farther with me. I think we can still make it to the cave and back before the blizzard hits.”
Uneasiness crept up my skin. “And he said yes?”
“It took a little convincing, but, yeah. Will you come? You won’t regret it.”
“What about Tim?”
“Bring him. He’ll be eager to show off his Boy Scout skills, I’m sure.”
I glanced at Micah again. “I don’t think it’s wise to ignore a blizzard warning.”
“Even if it hits while we’re walking, we’ll be fine. Whenever they say there’s a blizzard coming, it snows a little bit and then it’s fine. We have snowshoes. We can walk over anything the sky unleashes.”
I looked up. It had darkened in the past few minutes, and the trees above us rustled as the wind picked up. “I’m not letting you walk into a storm alone with a guy, even if it is Micah.”
She clapped her hands. “Okay. Thanks for partnering with Tim. I feel bad I haven’t had the chance to talk to him much. Opinion so far?”
“I think he’s going to save the world someday with his enthusiasm for science and produce.”
She just nodded. “The lettuce thing. Yeah, I thought that was weird at first. But hey, if it feeds starving people in poor countries, why not?”
I cocked my head, confused. Sofia was defending Tim now? “Sure, yeah. Of course.”
“Well, anyway, go tell him the plan and see if he wants to come. They probably won’t miss four people, but just in case, we’ll hide in that patch of fir trees over there until they’ve gone.”
I glanced back at the group. They had hastily finished their lunches and were checking the straps on their snowshoes. Frowning at the sky, the guide stuffed the lunch garbage into her bag.
I caught Micah’s gaze across the group. He raised an eyebrow, then turned away. Odd. Why had he agreed to Sofia’s ridiculous plan? Did he want some time alone with Sofia, or was he simply worried about her going up by herself?
“I know this sounds kind of cliché,” I said, “but I have a bad feeling about this.”
Sofia fixed her gaze on me. “You have a bad feeling about everything. You need to start trusting people sometime, so it may as well be me, and now.” She paused, then lowered her voice. “They’re getting ready to leave. Time to hide.”
5
“I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU TALKED me into this,” Micah muttered from up ahead. Sofia walked next to him. I trailed behind them, trying not to get too far behind.
“You’ll love the cave,” Sofia said.
“So you keep saying,” he said. “You sure you know where it is?”
“Yep. I’ve hiked this trail a hundred times.”
“A hundred as in three or four?” I broke in.
Sofia shot me a glare, but I barely noticed. I was too busy focusing on the ground, keeping one foot in front of the other. My legs moved on automatic. If someone had stopped in front of me, I would have barreled right over them.
The wind had picked up even more, blowing snow flurries in my face. I resisted the urge to hug my body tighter. I couldn’t let Tim see how cold I was. A girl had her pride.
Tim walked alongside me, occasionally glancing over at Sofia. I still didn’t quite understand why he’d agreed to come, but it hadn’t taken as much coaxing as I’d expected. Maybe he felt confident enough in his skills that a blizzard wasn’t an issue for him. Or maybe he wanted an opportunity to be alone with Sofia.
Or maybe he thought we were all fools and intended to save us from ourselves. That was the more likely scenario, one I could heartily agree with.
The first hour had been quite beautiful—leafless trees buried in snow partway up, tiny animal footprints in the clean white snow, the crisp air. But now everything looked the same, and a deep chill had settled upon us as the wind whipped through the forest. The sky had turned a dark, angry gray. With each step, I was reminded I’d have to take that same step the other way.
Micah was entertaining the same thoughts, if I read him correctly. He kept looking at the sky, then at his watch.
“So, Micah,” I said, needing to fill the silence. If I didn’t speak, Tim would continue on about some lettuce disease he was studying on the West Coast. “What do you do?”
“I work with cars.”
I flinched. Rhett had said almost the exact same thing years before. “You’re a mechanic, then.”
He chuckled. “You say that like I’m a Nazi soldier.”
“Her ex-fiancé was a mechanic,” Sofia broke in.
“But I’m sure it’s a fine profession that requires a lot of skill and precision,” I broke in. “I’m just surprised you haven’t used your degree. There must be plenty of work for mechanical engineers out there. I’ve never met a mechanical engineer who was also a mechanic.”
Micah shrugged. “It does sound strange when you put it that way. There’s no demand for mechanical engineers anywhere near Mission Verde. At first I started the car thing as a hobby, but it’s really taken off. I restore old cars—take in lost souls from the 60s and 70s and fix them up to sell. It’s an art, really. Sometimes you have to get creative when you need parts that are hard to find.”
“Does it pay well?” Sofia asked, raising her voice to be heard over the wind. It was far louder than it had been just minutes before.
“Pays the bills. Maybe a little more. Enough to make trips to Colorado to meet beautiful women, so there’s that. But let’s not talk about me. Sofia, I know you’re a personal trainer, which is pretty cool.” He turned to me. “How about you, Corie? Should I drop everything and become an author and make millions?”
I snorted. “Um, no. I got a small advance, but I doubt I’ll get much more than that.” Unless this Wake Up America interview went well. The one I was supposed to be packing for in a couple of hours. I bit my lip to keep my teeth from chattering. If it got much colder, I’d be shivering too violently to walk straight.
We came to a fork. Sofia marched up to it and chose the left trail.
“You sure this is the right way?” I asked, cutting off Micah as he started to ask the same question.
“Positive. It won’t be long now, and then we’ll be toasty warm.” She grinned as if she’d made a joke.
“We’re not staying at the cave long, right?” I said. “I want to be rested for my trip tomorrow.”
Micah turned his head in surprise. “You’re leaving tomorrow?”
“For New York.” Strangely, the admission made me a little sad.
He said nothing.
“Don’t worry,” Sofia said. “We’ll get you back in plenty of time.”
“We’re really doing this just to see the cave?” Tim spoke up. “Because I’ve been to th
e cave before, and it’s not all that spectacular.”
Sofia turned to glare at him.
“What?” Tim asked. “I’m serious.”
Sofia and Micah slowed, then stopped. The trail had disappeared right in front of us. One moment the trees lined our path like sentries, and the next we stood in front of a wall of rock plastered in snow.
“This is it,” Sofia announced. “Just in time, too. The snow’s really picked up. I can barely see anything.”
We followed her around to the right, toward an outcropping of rock jutting out from the mountain two stories high and at least thirty feet wide. The snow dipped below it, creating what looked like a bowl in the ground. Sofia slid down into it and disappeared. A moment later, she called out, “Who’s next?”
Micah motioned to me. “After you.”
Snow pelted my eyes as I slid down after Sofia, playground-style. My feet hit the hard ground a second later, and I stumbled to my feet and wiped my pants clean. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I felt my excitement fade. “It’s small.”
“That’s the point, silly,” Sofia said. “That’s why singles come up here.”
I stared at her in confusion. “It’s just an outcropping of rock. You said it was amazing, worth the trip, a must-see.”
“Come on, Corie. Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten how to make out with a guy. This is where everyone comes for a little companionship.”
Companionship? I stared at my friend, who raised a mischievous eyebrow. She had to be kidding. She wasn’t doing this to me—not my best friend, the one person I could rely on.
Micah slid down and stood, nearly scraping the ceiling with his head. He kicked at an old soda can. It bounced off the rock wall with a clang. “Well, it’s cozy, if nothing else.”
I couldn’t help it. I stood there, staring at him in disbelief, breathing hard. He was in on this too. No wonder he’d agreed to come up here. And Tim had already admitted to being here before. With another “sophisticated individual,” most likely. As that realization hit, Tim entered and smiled like he recognized the place.
Stupid, stupid, stupid.
“Corie,” Sofia said slowly. “What’s the matter?”
I pulled out my phone. It didn’t work up here—it didn’t work at the lodge most of the time, either—but I’d kept it charged anyway. It was 5:03 p.m. My stomach sank. If we left now, we wouldn’t get back until nine or ten. Assuming we could even make it back in the middle of a blizzard.
“Corie?”
I pulled Sofia aside and whispered. “I didn’t come up here to make out with Tim. He’s not my type, and even if he was—” I didn’t want a boyfriend or a hookup or anything else. She knew that. “And I definitely don’t want to sit here and watch you kiss Micah.”
Her cheeks colored, and I realized my words had echoed off the cave walls, loud and clear. Micah folded his arms, covering his mouth with a fist. I wondered if he was clearing his throat or hiding a smile.
“That’s what I love about you,” Sofia said. “You don’t even see it.”
“See what?”
“I’ve been trying to set you up with Micah, you dingbat.”
Micah had turned away. His shoulders bounced ever so slightly, as if he were laughing. Tim just watched Sofia with a strange look.
I lowered my voice to a whisper. “But last night you said you wanted to pursue him.”
“That was a last resort. I’ve known since I met Micah that I had to get you two together. The fact that you already knew him was just icing on the cake. I figured if you talked enough times, you’d see he was different from your pessimistic view of men in general, you know?” She cocked her head and shot me her infamous puppy-dog look. “And when that didn’t work, I tried to make you jealous. Finally, I concocted this brilliant plan to get you guys alone up here in my very favorite place. Micah was kind enough to come along for our sake. And Tim—” She turned and gave him a quizzical look. “Actually, I’m not entirely sure why he came.”
“Boredom,” Tim said, although he looked at the floor when he said it.
My heart felt like it would gallop right out of my chest. This wasn’t happening.
“For what it’s worth, Corie,” Micah said, “I didn’t know she was trying to set us up. I swear it. She just said you really wanted to see the cave, said you were going to sneak up there and she’d feel better if a guy came along.”
Trust me, Sofia had said. Then she’d flat-out lied to Micah.
When would I learn? When someone had to convince you to trust them, it was a good sign it shouldn’t be done. Our disastrous double date months before had only been the beginning. Now she had sprung a man on me in the Rocky Mountains, of all places, when she knew I wasn’t ready. And right now that man watched me as if every second I hesitated I was driving a nail deeper into his heart.
“Well,” Sofia began, “Tim and I are going on a walk. We’ll let you two have some time alone to work this out.”
“It’s a full-on blizzard,” Tim exclaimed. “Can’t see a thing. We aren’t going anywhere for a while.”
“I’m leaving,” I squeaked.
"What?" Sofia said.
“I understand why you’re upset,” Micah said. He raised an eyebrow at Sofia. “You don’t want to be here, and that’s fine. But it’s getting pretty bad out there. We’d better wait out the storm.”
“And how long will that be?” I asked.
Nobody spoke for a moment.
Tim finally shrugged. “Hours. We may have to wait until morning. We should be fine, though. I have a water bottle in my backpack, and the snow building up outside the entrance will insulate us a little from the cold.”
Sofia clasped my shoulder and frowned. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know the storm would move in so fast.”
I broke away. “You tricked me. My flight leaves tomorrow morning.”
She tried to pull me into a hug, but I pulled away. She sighed. “You’re right. I’m the worst friend ever. I really only wanted you to be happy. We just had different ideas of what that meant, I guess.”
I stared at her, the one person I’d allowed myself to trust. She’d betrayed me. Tricked me. Manipulated me. And now my dreams were at stake. I should never have come.
I looked at Micah, who watched me with eyes full of sorrow. He said he had come here to find a lasting relationship, but he hadn’t responded to Sofia’s advances. Her fake advances. Over the past few days, he’d texted me, sought me out, asked me questions. He’d come out here in a blizzard against his better judgment. Not for Sofia but for me. He had a stake in this as well.
This whole thing had been a performance, and I the unknowing cast.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Micah said. “Please. I swear I didn’t know.”
“Just—don’t,” I said, breathing hard. “I’ve got to go.” Then I plunged out of the cave entrance.
6
I STUMBLED UP THE SNOWBANK, blinking away the wet, heavy snowflakes that stung my eyes.
The world had turned white in our short absence. Our footprints from earlier were nearly filled in. I focused on placing one foot in front of the other, using my gloves to help pull myself up the slope. The new snow fell apart in my hands, refusing to hold my weight.
"Corie, wait!" Micah called from below.
I quickened my pace, stumbling up the hill even more quickly. But as I reached the top, my foot clipped the back of my planted leg, pinning it as I swung forward, and suddenly I was going down.
I felt a pop. A sharp pain stabbed through my knee and I hit the packed snow on my side. I gasped and rolled over onto my back, holding my leg. The snow was soft and bitter cold around me, above me, everywhere, but I barely noticed.
Micah reached me in an instant. "Are you okay?"
I sucked in air through my clenched teeth. “My knee.”
“Keep it still. You may have torn something. May I?"
I nodded, and he gently took my knee in his hands. He straightened it just
a bit, and I gritted my teeth. “Ow.”
He frowned. "That's not good."
"What happened?" Sofia shrieked from the bottom of the embankment. "Is she all right?"
“You may have torn a ligament,” Micah said, ignoring Sofia's frantic call. “Or worse. Can I help you up?”
My mind was numb. “Yes,” I managed.
But instead of assisting me to my feet, Micah lifted me into his arms.
“Hold on to my neck," he said, grunting and clutching me tightly to his chest. I threw one arm over his shoulder, using the other to support my leg. Pain sliced through my knee like a serrated knife, momentarily shoving away the embarrassment I knew would come.
Emotions swirled and surged within me, fractured and disorienting. The pain made it all run together in my mind. Being embarrassed while snowboarding and Sofia’s trick today were bad enough. Now my body had issued the ultimate betrayal.
This would have been so much easier had Micah not been so sweet about it all.
It was a slow process, but descending the sharp hill sideways allowed us to descend the embankment without slipping. I was all too aware of where Micah’s body was pressed against mine. His shoulders were far too toned for a mechanical engineering major, and that usual warmth at his touch was hard to ignore. When we reached the bottom, he ducked under the rock overhead and we reentered the cave.
He set me down gently, slowly, on the hard ground. In those short moments, Micah's head had been covered in white. Even his eyelashes glittered with wetness. He wiped his face clean with one snow-covered arm. “Take deep breaths and try to focus on something besides the pain.”
Sofia scrambled to my side, all business. “Where does it hurt?”
Micah unzipped his coat. “Just her knee, but it can hurt like a broken bone.” He rolled his coat into a ball, then tucked it up underneath my hurt knee to keep it slightly bent. I clamped my mouth shut, refusing to groan. "That should keep it stationary at least. Just don't straighten it. Something could be loose in there."
"I have to get back," I said through gritted teeth.
“Why?” Micah said in frustration. “What’s in New York that can’t wait?”