“Thanks,” she says.
She drops her arm to her lap, but she doesn’t move otherwise, still so close to me that I can feel her body heat. All I’d have to do is turn my head, and I’d…
…what? Be face-to-face with Silas’s little sister?
Be an inch from kissing a girl who’s going to leave town again the moment she gets a job offer?
Be maddeningly close to betraying my best and oldest friendship, all for something that has zero chance of working out?
“You think you can reach it?” she asks.
I lower myself to the rock, stick one arm into the water. Not even close.
“Shit,” says June.
I wriggle out further, my chest off the rock.
Still no good. It’s far out and down deep, probably three or four feet.
“Maybe we can try me holding your feet?” she says.
“It’s not gonna work,” I say, and push myself to standing in one quick movement.
“I bet I can find a branch that’ll reach,” she says, standing next to me and brushing her hands off. “If I rip one off a live tree do you promise not to—"
She stops talking as I pull my shirt over my head. Her mouth clamps shut.
I swear she turns slightly pink, and I don’t hate it. I don’t hate it at all.
“June, don’t you know better than to deface trees around me?” I ask, bending and taking off my hiking boots.
“It’s just minor— uh, are you going in?”
“It’s much simpler than letting you dangle me,” I tease, stuffing my socks into my boots and tossing them behind me.
“Oh,” she says, and now she’s definitely pink. “I’m sure it’s nothing, you don’t have to—"
I unbutton my pants. I shouldn’t. I’m pushing this too far, but June’s reaction is like a drug, flustered and blushing, the way she keeps darting a glance at me and looking away.
“You can avert your eyes if you’d like,” I suggest.
“Right,” she says, and turns around.
I admit to being slightly disappointed.Chapter TenJuneLevi Loveless just stripped in front of me.
Levi Loveless, taciturn arborist, quiet nerd, and solitude-loving mountain man, just stripped in front of me, and he was smiling while he did it.
I’m confused.
I’m also turned on. Very, very turned on. So turned on that I’m surprised how turned on I am, and I’ve definitely had semi-sexual fantasies about Levi before.
This is nothing like last week in the library, with all the whispering and the almost-touches. Nope. These current thoughts are raunchy and highly inappropriate and definitely involve Levi on top of me with my legs wrapped around his—
“Got it,” he calls.
I open my eyes and take a deep breath.
“What is it?” I call back, not turning around.
There’s a snapping sound.
“I think it’s some kinda hair thing,” he says. “I’m decent, you can look.”
I turn halfway, and then immediately turn back because he is not decent, he’s standing waist-deep in water still very definitely naked. Water that was dripping down his chest, his abs, making his shoulders and arms shine in the sun.
I exhale and stare at some trees, concentrating on them so I stop thinking dirty thoughts about Levi, my platonic friend.
Trees are kind of phallic, I think.
“You said you were decent!” I shout.
“This is decent,” he says.
“No, that’s still naked,” I say.
“All right, I’m sorry,” he says, and there’s splashing. Sloshing. The sound of clothes being picked up, pants being pulled on.
“I’m wearing pants now,” he says, and finally, I turn. He holds the object out to me, and I take it, ignoring the fact that he still isn’t wearing a shirt.
“It’s a hair clip,” I confirm. “Maybe one of the murderers is a woman?”
“Or someone somewhere upstream is a woman,” Levi says, finally pulling his t-shirt back on.
Thank you, Jesus.
Sort of. My feelings are complicated.
I turn the hair clip over in my hand. It’s one of those claw-style ones that look like chompy animals with teeth. I’m not quite sure what they’re called, my hair’s too straight to use them. They just fall out.
Levi sits on the rock to put his socks and shoes on.
“Ready to head back?” he asks.I look up the tall, steep slope.
Very tall. Very steep. Very covered in slippery pine needles.
“We didn’t climb down this,” I say. “Are you sure we’re going the right way?”
“Yes, I’m sure,” Levi says, patiently. “You don’t remember scrambling down this?”
“Not this,” I say.
“It’s easier than it looks,” he says. “They key is to face forward, grab onto trees, and really dig your toes in.”
He points.
“Put your foot there, and grab onto that,” he says.
I do it. He points to two more objects, a tree root and a rock. I grab one and put my foot on the other, and before I know it, I’m bear-climbing up this slope.
Turns out that Levi’s right and it’s not that bad, it just looks daunting from the bottom, but as long as I’ve got a good handhold, it’s all right. Not easy, but all right, and we climb up the slope together, though he beats me.