Renegade Path

Feeling brave or maybe drunk on whatever feel-good chemicals he’d released in my body, I tugged on his shorts. I tried to shove my hand between the elastic of his waistband and his hard stomach. “I want to make you feel good too.”

He sucked in a breath as my fingers grazed his rigid flesh.

I tried to lower myself to the ground like he had earlier.

“No.” He grabbed my elbow. “Absolutely not.”

I blinked. “What?”

“Not here. Anyone could find us and…I don’t want that for you.”

I raised an eyebrow. “And your hand down my pants was better?”

He frowned. “Than you on your knees? Yeah. Much better. No one would be able to tell what I was doing.”

Protecting me. Always. I reached up and kissed him.

“Give me a minute.” He squeezed his eyes shut.

I withdrew my hand and leaned against the wall, watching him take several deep breaths.

“Let’s go explore the park,” he finally suggested.

The noises from the back of the cave had died down. Embarrassed they might have overheard us, I was eager to leave.

“We can go to the overlook.”

“Guys!” Roman yelled. “We’re heading to the overlook.”

“Okay,” Chloe answered. “We’ll catch up later.”

Roman grabbed my hand and dragged me toward the waterfall. We studied the cascading water and the rocks to the right—opposite of where we’d come into the cave. This path looked easier. Roman went first, carefully testing the rocks. When he touched dry ground, he held out his hand.

“Watch yourself. It’s slippery in the middle,” he warned.

I gripped him hard with one hand and braced my other against the wall. Maybe my steps were too cautious.

On the second rock, I slipped.

Terror burned through my limbs. An image of plunging to the jagged rocks below flashed through my mind. I yelped and flailed my arms in the air.

Roman grabbed my elbows and yanked me into the safety of his arms. “You’re okay. I got you,” he breathed out. “I got you,” he repeated several more times.

He hugged me tight to his body and rested his back against the side of the mountain.

Below us, shrill threads of screams and laughter pierced the air. We carefully walked to the edge of the trail and peered over the railing. Looking like a line of marching ants, our classmates traveled the trail below us.

We quickly pulled back.

“I hope no one saw us,” I said.

He shrugged. “What are they going to do about it?”

I nodded toward the wooden staircase about a hundred feet in front of us. “Let’s get up on flat ground. I’m not cut out for extreme hiking.”

“I wouldn’t call it extreme, but yeah, let’s get off this cliff.”

“Whatever.”

Even though I wanted to break into a sprint, we kept close to the wall. I breathed a sigh of relief when we reached the stairs. I sprinted to the first landing and groaned. There had to be a hundred more steps to reach the top.

My legs were on fire by the time we made it.

“Why didn’t it seem like that many stairs on the way down?” I huffed.

“We were moving at a snail’s pace with twenty other kids?” Roman grinned at me. “Which way are we going?”

I pointed to a large, grassy path under a canopy of trees. “That way.”

Since it was a weekday, the park wasn’t crowded. We passed a few people walking their dogs. No one looked at us twice or asked if we were lost.

It took longer than I remembered to make it to the parking lot with the low stone wall overlooking Empire County and beyond. But when we finally did, Roman stopped and stared.

“Wow.”

“It’s pretty, right? You can see all the way to Vermont.” I pointed in what I hoped was the right direction.

We found a spot with the least number of trees obstructing our view and sat on the wall, staring out at the Empire City skyline, farmlands, lush green fields, and trees. “I’ve always wanted to come up here to watch the sunrise.”

“I bet that would be pretty.” Roman shifted closer and wrapped his arm around my waist. I leaned into him, resting my head on his shoulder.

After a few minutes, he curled his free hand around mine and rubbed his thumb over my knuckles. “Was that okay? What we…what I did back there?”

I lifted my head and met his concerned stare. “More than okay.” I touched my forehead to his cheek, my nose grazing the slight stubble along his jaw. “I wanted to do more with you. To make you feel good too.”

He skimmed his fingers over my cheek. “I feel good. I really liked…doing that…watching you. I just wish we’d been alone.”

“Me too,” I sighed.

“Hawkins! Hayworth!” an angry male voice shouted our names.

We whipped around. A furious Mr. Broom marched over the parking lot toward us. We both scrambled to get off the wall. I felt half-naked and silly in nothing but my bikini top and denim shorts.