by Nicole Ellis
He worked through the dinner crowd, then closed the service window at seven o’clock. By that time, customers were only trickling in and he’d had a long day. Over at the Airstream, Charlotte was picking up stray objects outside of her trailer and tidying the outdoor items.
Her hair hung over her shoulders as she picked up a lawn gnome and smiled at it, then patted it and stuck it back near the trailer door. He felt a wide grin creep across his face. Although she may have done a lot of growing up since they were kids, she hadn’t lost the touch of whimsy that had always made people want to be her friend.
He’d been envious of that quality back then. Everything seemed to come to her easily, while he had to work for everything he got. Parker was the same way. They’d been friends, but Luke had always been partly jealous of how easy things were for the Gray kids. Now that he was older, he was coming to the realization that money didn’t solve everything.
Before he could lose his nerve, he jumped down the truck steps and strode over to her.
“Hi,” he said.
She looked up in surprise. “Hi. Did we have plans to work on the fundraiser tonight?”
“No. Actually, I was hoping you might want to come to dinner with me tonight. I’ve heard the Chinese restaurant is really good and I’ve been smelling barbecue all day, so it would be a welcome change.”
He smiled at her. He hadn’t been kidding about the barbecue smell. It had permeated every piece of clothing he owned, and although he loved the food he was getting a little sick of smelling like it. Soon he’d have to have a change of clothes ready to put on as soon as he came home so he could get a break from it.
She stared at him, not saying anything.
“Uh, or not.” He’d thought they’d connected earlier, but he must have badly misjudged the situation. Even though Parker had given him the okay to date his sister, an unrequited interest would make things awkward for all of them. The silence between them was deafening. He started to back away.
“Wait. Do you mean like a date?” She toed the ground in front of her, smoothing out the line of crushed shells that formed a path to the entrance of her shop.
He looked up, afraid to hope.
“Yeah. Like a date.”
She appeared to be considering it. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.” She gestured to their shared space. “I mean, we practically work together. And you’re my brother’s best friend.”
“So?” He raised an eyebrow at her. “What about it?”
“So, things could get awkward between us.” She picked up a female lawn gnome wearing a pink polka-dot skirt that was slightly out of place and pushed it firmly in line with the others.
“You mean more awkward than they already are?”
She laughed. “Yeah, good point. But still. What would Parker say?”
“He’d say go for it.”
“Wait. Did you talk to him about me?” She put her hands on her hips and looked quite miffed.
“Umm … Kind of.”
She made a face. “I’m going to have to talk to my brother about butting into my love life.”
“It wasn’t like that. I asked him if you were seeing anyone because I wondered why you were so busy.” He paused, thinking about his true motivation in speaking to Parker. “Okay, in hindsight, maybe it was a little like that.”
“I have a lot of work to do for the art show and for the shop. That’s why I’m so busy all of the time.”
“I know. He told me that.” He peered into her eyes. “So, what do you think? Would you like to go to dinner with me tonight?”
“No.”
No? Had he been misreading the signs she’d exhibited in the last few minutes? He could have sworn she was flirting with him.
She laughed. “I have to get some work done tonight, but maybe a rain check? I probably could use a break from work.”
“I’d like that.” Had she just said yes to a date with him? A thought occurred to him. “Hey, do you want to play hooky from work and go hiking tomorrow after lunch? Things shouldn’t be too busy on a Monday.”
She turned to glance at her trailer, as if contemplating his suggestion. “I don’t know. For a whole afternoon? I don’t think I can take that much time off.”
“Come on, it’ll do you good,” he wheedled. “You’ll come back refreshed and ready to take on the world the next day. Maybe we can work on some of the plans for the fundraiser afterward too.”
Her eyes searched his face. Finally, she spoke. “I guess I could do that. I do love to hike and I haven’t been out much this summer. It stays light out until pretty late this time of year, so we should be fine if we leave in the afternoon. There are some nice trails around here.”
“Great. Let’s meet here at two thirty, okay?”
“Sounds good to me.” She locked the door on the trailer and stuffed the key in her pocket. “I have to get going, but I’ll see you tomorrow.” She favored him with a sweet smile.
“See you then.” He waited for her to round the corner onto Main Street and then uttered, “Yes!” out loud. Until then, he hadn’t realized how much he cared about her and how badly he would have felt if she had completely rejected him. Now, all he had to do was to impress her with a perfect date. He could handle that, right?
10
“Are you ready?” Luke asked as he crossed from his side of the lot to hers. He had strapped his backpack on and changed into his hiking boots.
Charlotte glanced at him and smiled. “You look like you’re ready to climb Mount Rainier.”
“Is it too much?” he asked, gazing down at his clothes and pack.
She laughed. “No, you’re good. It never hurts to be prepared.” She looked ruefully down at the flowered sundress she wore. “I’m not ready though. I want to run home and change into something more appropriate for hiking. I didn’t think about that when I got dressed this morning.”
“No problem. I can wait for you here or walk over to your apartment with you.”
“You can come with me,” she said.
They walked next to each other, making awkward conversation. She wasn’t sure why she’d accepted his invitation to go hiking with him. Even though he’d apologized profusely for the way he’d acted toward her in high school, he was still her brother’s best friend.
When they reached the alley behind the bookstore, she opened the door and gestured to the stairs to her apartment. “Come upstairs if you’d like.”
She didn’t check to see if he was following her, but his footsteps sounded on the stairs behind her. After she let them in to her apartment, she disappeared into the bedroom and closed the door. When she came out dressed in a long-sleeve shirt over a tank top, long pants and hiking boots, she found Luke scrutinizing the paintings she’d leaned against every wall in the living room.
“These are wonderful,” he said. “I didn’t have a chance to see them very well before, so I’m glad I’m able to now. How long have you been painting?”
She stopped to think. It felt as though her art had always been an integral part of who she was, but the first time she’d picked up a paint brush and really tried to paint was in middle school. Her parents had worked long hours at their real estate company and she’d been home alone with her siblings every day after school in need of something to do.
“Since I was about thirteen.” It was hard to believe she’d been painting for sixteen years already. “What about you? Do you have any artistic talents? Or play a musical instrument?”
“Well, I played the flute in high school because my grandmother thought I should.” He grimaced. “I hated every minute of it.”
She laughed. “Music has never been my thing either. I love listening to all types of it, but I’m tone deaf if I try to play an instrument or sing.” She grabbed a backpack off the floor and gestured to the door. “Ready?”
He nodded and they walked down the stairs and outside.
“Where do you want to go?” he asked. “You’ve lived here longer, so yo
u probably have a better idea of where to go.”
“I do have a favorite place. The hike isn’t too strenuous, but it’s along the cliffs overlooking the water, just north of town.”
“Sounds good. Do you want to drive since your car is here?”
“Sure.”
They got into her car and she drove the few miles north to the trailhead on the west side of the highway. A few other people were parked there, but she found a spot in the small lot. A wood sign and an opening in the tree line indicated where the trail began.
They hefted their daypacks onto their backs and set out along the trail through a woodsy area. After a few minutes, they emerged from the trees at a lookout over the Pacific Ocean.
He walked over to the wooden safety rail and gripped it with his fingers, staring out at the horizon. “This is beautiful. I missed this so much.”
She cocked her head to the side. “But you were living in San Francisco, right? It’s gorgeous there too.”
He shrugged. “Maybe, but I never had time to see anything of interest. The only places I ever saw were my office, my condo and the gym.”
“Ugh,” she said, gazing out over the water. With only a slight breeze, the breakers were small enough today for little kids to bodyboard on, and it looked like many families had taken advantage of the pleasant weather. “That sounds miserable.”
Being outdoors was a huge part of her life, which probably explained her love of painting landscapes. There was nothing better than capturing a sunset over the Pacific with just the right shade of orange paint on a canvas.
He smiled. “It was.”
Watching him at the railing, she realized how little she knew about him even though they’d known each other for so long.
“Do you have family around here?” she asked.
A shadow crossed his face. “It’s just my Pops now. He and Grams raised me and my sister Zoe, who lives north of Seattle now.”
“Oh.” Although she sometimes hated having a big family living nearby, the thought of having hardly anyone around who was related to her was odd. “Are you close to your grandfather?”
He nodded. “Yes. He still lives in Haven Shores, although he moved into a retirement community after Grams passed.”
She could tell from his voice that his grandparents were important to him. It was funny, she’d never really thought about Luke having a family before. It was as though in his role as Parker’s friend, he was a one-dimensional caricature of a man. Now she was finding out what made him who he was.
She moved closer to the railing, standing just beyond touching as they stared out at the ocean together. She felt a connection between them, something that made her want to get closer to him. He looked over at her and smiled shyly. She looked up at him and returned the smile. He leaned closer to her, as though he was going to kiss her and her heart beat faster. Was this what she wanted?
He stepped back and took a sip from his water bottle. “Let’s see what the rest of the trail looks like.”
“Uh, sure.” A sense of disappointment came over her. She had wanted him to kiss her, but now the moment had passed. Perhaps it was for the best though as any romance between the two of them could be sticky because of his lifelong friendship with her brother. She’d hate to do anything to negatively affect that.
They walked side by side until the trail narrowed and they had to climb over a mass of gnarled tree roots to stay on the path. He walked in front of her and then held out his hand to help her over the roots.
She hesitated, then grasped his hand. Awareness zinged through her as their fingers touched and he pulled her to the other side, letting his hand linger against hers for a little longer than necessary.
“Thanks.” She looked down at the ground, surprised by the intensity of her reaction to his touch. She’d had her share of boyfriends over the years, but never had the familiarity she felt now with Luke. A warmth spread over her. With their history, she wouldn’t have believed they could work, but now she found herself wanting this date to go well.
“You’re welcome.” He flashed her a smile full of perfectly straight teeth.
The air was cooler as they moved into a more forested area of the trail. Charlotte looked up in appreciation at the canopy of trees heavy with green moss that dripped in tendrils from branches high overhead. The trees themselves were massive, with huge burrs that stuck out from the sides. She breathed in the mixture of salt air and rich earth that you could only find near the ocean.
“I really missed this,” Luke said.
“All those years as a Boy Scout and you quit going hiking. Tsk, tsk.” She shook her head. “What would your scoutmaster say?”
Luke laughed. “He’d probably look at me in disappointment and say something like ‘Young man, you need to get away from those electronics more often,’ just like he did when I was a kid.”
They reached the spot where Charlotte usually turned around.
“We’d better stop if we want to get back before it gets dark.” She laughed. “Besides, I’m starving and I can’t stop thinking about that Chinese food you mentioned yesterday.”
“A woman after my own heart. I could eat too.”
They retreated the way that they’d come, stopping at the overlook again to watch a man on the beach below throwing a stick for his dog. The dog leapt in the air to catch it, then ran jubilantly back to its owner. She closed her eyes for a moment, enjoying the warmth of the air, the sense of summer freeness, and the presence of the man beside her.
When she turned to move back onto the trail, her left foot caught on a tree root and she tumbled to the ground. Pain shot upwards from under her hiking boots.
“Charlotte!” Luke rushed over and knelt on the ground beside her. “Are you okay?” His eyes roved over her body, assessing her for any injuries.
“I think so.” She pulled up the leg on her jeans, revealing some scraped patches of skin that stung as though she’d dipped them in a vat of turpentine.
“We’d better get you cleaned up.” He threw his bag down on the ground and rifled through it until he found a small first aid kit. He pulled out an alcohol wipe and a large square Band-Aid. “This is going to hurt.”
Charlotte grimaced. By this time her ankle was throbbing, but she didn’t want to make a fuss.
He washed the wound with the alcohol wipe and applied the bandage, then looked at it with satisfaction. “Done.” His attention moved to her face. “Are you okay? You’re so pale.”
She tried to force a smile on her face but failed. “It’s my ankle.”
He quickly unlaced her boot and pulled it and her sock off, revealing swollen flesh. He touched the injury and she winced.
“If you’d told me any later, we’d have had to cut the boot off.”
“I didn’t want to complain.” Her excuse seemed lame now that she could see how bad her ankle looked.
He palpated the ankle, causing slivers of pain to shoot up her leg.
“Ah!” she yelped.
A look of horror came over his face. “Are you okay? I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“I know.” She sighed. “That hurt worse than I’d expected.”
“I’m sorry.” His eyes met hers. “Can you move your ankle at all?”
“I can try.” She took a deep breath, then slowly rotated her foot while he held it above the ground. His fingers were warm on her flesh, but even his touch did little to soothe the pain.
He set her foot down on the ground with care and tugged the sock back up over her ankle. “I don’t think it’s broken, but in my non-expert medical opinion, you’ve got a pretty bad sprain.”
She looked down the trail. “Now what? How am I going to get back to the car?” Visions of a litter hauled by hulking men flashed through her head. This had to be the worst first date ever.
He assessed her gear. “Your pack looks pretty small. I think I can tuck it and your boot inside mine.” He took care of that, then put the backpack on and looked down at her ankle. �
��Do you think you can stand if I help you up?”
She bent her right leg, leaving her injured left foot on the ground. “I think so.”
He reached down and pulled her to a standing position. While holding her steady, he positioned himself beside her injured leg and hunched down slightly. “Put your arm over my shoulders.”
She leaned in and wrapped her left arm over his shoulders and around his neck, and he gently grasped her hand with his left. He then reached his right arm across her waist from behind. Despite the pain in her ankle, the gentle pressure of his hand on her waist was very pleasant.
“Okay, now let’s try this.” He stood upright again, taking much of her weight himself, and nudged her forward as she hobbled along with him. “If you get tired I can carry you, but let’s see how this works first.”
“Okay.” Her ankle still throbbed, but concentrating on moving forward, and his touch, helped her to focus on something other than the pain. Soon, she got into a rhythm of hopping on one foot as he continued to support much of her weight and kept her from falling. All that yoga she’d been practicing for years was coming in handy now to keep her balance.
“Do you want to stop?” His voice rang with concern.
“Uh, maybe for a minute.”
He helped her to sit down on a log and she stretched her right leg out and wiggled her foot. She wasn’t used to hobbling on one leg.
“I think I’m ready to go now.”
“Let me know if you need to stop again,” he said. “But we’re almost back to the trailhead.”
She nodded and leaned against him again. He felt warm and solid with her arm around him. A few times she wobbled awkwardly while hopping along, and her free hand instinctively clasped over his hand around her waist in a slight panic. But every time his grip around her waist tightened ever so slightly to hold her steady, and she allowed her fingertips to linger for just a moment and lightly trace the back of his hand as she pulled hers away.
Finally, they were back at her car. He fished in her pack for the keys and unlocked the car, then opened the passenger door for her and lowered her to the seat. She winced as her ankle hit the side of the car as she moved her legs inside. Luke bent down to lift her leg and place it carefully inside.