Above and Beyond (Twist of Fate 4)

“Right? I told Xander Oz ought to consider a kids’ line sometime. How fun are these? I can just see some celebrity parading their baby around in it on TMZ or something.”

He continued to catch me up on news from home, ignoring the elephant in the truck of his deception toward his dads of where he was this summer. My guilt over not telling them had subsided at some point, mostly because I’d determined that with me there to look after him, he was at least better off than alone.

As we drove farther away from the airport and through the natural vistas of the park, I felt the stress of the past couple of weeks melt away. Spending time with Lucky was easy. He was always happily chatting about something and I was content to ride the pleasant wave of his steady company and learn what made him tick.

It was a relief to have the old Lucky back again. He was once again the sweet, exuberant young man he’d been when I’d first met him, but somewhere in the back of my mind I’d stopped seeing him as a kid. He was beyond intelligent, resourceful, brave, patient and giving. While there was always a measure of competitiveness in SAR programs to be the top student, Lucky was the type of guy who wanted all of his classmates to succeed. And while he and I hadn’t talked any more about our night together or the things I’d told him about my past, he’d thrown himself into his vow to make a friendship between us work. It was a level of forgiveness I didn’t deserve, but he’d gifted me with it anyway. Admittedly, the whole friends thing wasn’t easy for me, especially since I hadn’t had many friends growing up besides Tag and my brother, but Lucky didn’t seem at all bothered by hesitations. Yes, there was always this underlying “thing” between us when we were together, but Lucky had kept his word to keep his hands to himself.

Which kind of sucked sometimes.

Like now when my fingers itched to settle on his thigh.

I shook myself free of the thought and focused on the twists and turns of the road before us. When we got close to the turnoff to West Glacier, Lucky made a funny sound in his throat. I glanced over and saw him looking longingly across me out the left window. “Why do you look like a kid who’s passing by a candy store?” I asked.

He blushed and looked forward again. “Nothing. Well, I’ve always wanted to hike Lake McDonald, that’s all. After flying over it so much and seeing it from the air.”

I glanced over at the turn for the famous lake. “Why don’t we? It’s only about seven miles along the western shore. Couple of hours, maybe. Then it’s only thirty more minutes to the festival. We’d be there by four. Doesn’t it go into the evening?”

All it took was him glancing innocently down at my knee for me to jerk the wheel to the left and turn onto Going-to-the-Sun Road.

“What are you doing?” he asked, clutching the handle on the door.

“We’re going for a hike. I may not be able to handle a 5K run, but I can handle a damned nature walk.”

I expected him to argue with me or take back his enthusiasm for the prospect, but he didn’t. Instead, he hooted in celebration and sat forward as if trying to catch a glimpse of the lake as soon as it came into view. A few minutes later, we were parked at the Fish Creek Campground and hopping out of the truck.

Lucky stretched and turned his head up to the sun, revealing a strip of tanned skin on his lower belly above the waistband of his gray hiking pants. The barest sliver of red briefs also peeked out above the waistband for just a second, but it was enough to heat my blood. I closed my eyes and shook my head.

Fuck. We’d been over this and over this. Friends. Friends only.

I cleared my throat. “It’s pretty flat. Should be okay in running shoes, but let’s fill our water bottles before we head out.”

He leaned into the footwell of the truck to grab his bottle and I watched his shirt fall forward over his back, this time revealing the peek of red underwear just below the twin dimples of his lower back. The swell of his ass in the nylon hiking pants made my palms itch. I clenched my fingers into fists.

I busied myself grabbing my own water bottle and a couple of protein bars out of a bag in the back. I shoved the bars into a cargo pocket in my pants and led the way to the restrooms to fill up our bottles.

When we finally got onto the trail, the bright sun was shining on the clear water of the large lake and the sky was an impossible blue with giant fluffy clouds moving slowly over the peaks in the distance.