Page 13 of Irreconcilable Attractions (Westwend Boys #1)
Colton
Derek and I fell into a rhythm quicker than I expected. Each morning, I shuffled out of my room barely awake and groggy, just as he’d be heading out the door in his work clothes, all neat and serious. We’d exchanged the usual ‘ Good morning ’ and ‘ Have a good day ’ before he’d leave.
And in the evenings, if I was off early, he’d cook for us. Every dish had been restaurant-quality. But, he kept buying these stupidly fancy cheeses that only came in blocks, which made me think he’d caught onto my cheese goblin ways.
We talked over dinner about our days. He was adjusting to the firm as a full-fledged attorney.
Someone in HR thought he was an intern again.
He had been accosted by the Stitches Club when they’d just ‘dropped by’ one day to welcome him to town.
I nodded along, offering my condolences on being sucked into a thirty minute cross-examination of his life, accomplishments, and plans for the future.
Internally though, I was wincing knowing the part I played in condemning him to his unwilling introduction with these women.
It sounded like Derek had been very gracious with them, winning over the elderly mafia with ease, and I breathed a sigh of relief that he found them charming, if a bit long winded.
We’d see how long that lasted, though. Donald, one the few reporters at the Daily Westwendian , had come by shortly after Derek had started at the firm to interview him, which had shocked the hell out of him till I explained that new hires and retirements were a whole section in the paper.
I told him about the wacky tourists we got, and the one espresso machine that threw a tantrum if we used certain beans.
Only those beans. One night he let me talk the entire time about this tourist couple who got into a huge argument in the middle of the cafe only for the guy to drop down on one knee and propose.
And of course, who showed up half-way through looking red-faced and like he’d run ten miles to get there?
Donald.
I’d been pretty sure I was in the background of one of Donald’s photo-op with the couple making a stupid face, so I’d mentioned I was excited to see the paper the next day. Derek had just laughed and suggested framing it if I made the final cut. Spoiler alert: I didn’t.
It was all very… domestic .
I kept waiting for the weirdness to set in, for the moment where things got awkward or tense or too close.
But, it didn’t happen. Not really.
Two weeks into our accidental domestic bliss, I burst out of my room and into the shared space on a Saturday morning, practically vibrating with excitement. “We should go to Darby’s Wish!” I blurted.
Derek was sitting at the table with his coffee, reading a book. He blinked up at me. “What’s Darby’s Make-A-Wish?”
I rolled my eyes. “It’s Darby’s Wish . Go get dressed and I’ll explain on the way. You’ll love it.”
He made a skeptical face over his mug. “Define ‘love’.”
“Come oooon , Derek.” I whined. “It’s super cool, and I’ve been wanting to show it to you. ”
He stared at me for a beat before sighing, long and dramatic. “What kind of outfit should I wear?”
“It’s in the national forest, so wear something you don’t mind sweating in.”
Derek kept watching me for a moment, amusement tugging at his lips. Then he shook his head, muttering something about triple-digit heat and personal vendettas.
I jabbed a finger at him, wide-eyed. “You agreed!”
He started to protest, but I was already halfway down the hall.
Legally binding agreement: secured.
The hike to Darby’s Wish was hot and dusty, the sun making even the shade oppressively hot as light flitted through the trees and danced across the ground. Derek trudged behind me, probably questioning every decision that led to this moment.
I told him the local lore about this particular spot on the way here.
“Darby was one of Westwend’s original settlers.
She was madly in love with a man who never noticed her.
Tragic, right? So, every night, she’d wish on the stars for him to see her.
One night, there’s a shooting star. She wishes again and boom,” I pantomimed an explosion, “The star drops from the sky and crashes into the forest.”
“She follows the sound, finds this crater filled with water, and just as she’s about to head back, the guy she’s in love with shows up.
They sit there all night, talking about the heavens and falling stars, and…
I don’t know, shit people in the olden days talked about.
Eventually, they fall head over heels, yada yada. Now it’s called Darby’s Wish.”
Derek had stared at me with this scrutinizing look like I was some shady snake oil salesman.
Now, hiking on the trail, he was oddly silent which had my hackles rising. I may not have known him that long, but I could tell he was brewing something in that big head of his.
“You realize how stupid that story is, right?”
God, sometimes I hated always being right. It was a blessing and a curse.
I turned back to him slowly, trying not to let the tone of his voice set me off. “Come again? I think I heard something that sounded like Darby’s Wish slander, but I know that can’t be right.”
“I mean, we’re talking about a meteor impact. A literal cosmic event. The whole forest would’ve gone up in flames. The settlement wouldn’t have survived.” He lifted his hands toward me like he was expecting me to just smile and nod along.
I opened my mouth to argue against him, but shut it quickly.
I had to live with this man after today.
We’d been getting on just fine up till this point and I wouldn’t let my big mouth get in the way of that.
I wasn’t going to say I was offended that he’d question one of my town’s oldest lores but… I was offended.
“And let’s say it didn’t cause mass destruction,” Derek continued, taking my silence as some sign I was feeding into this propaganda, “Only two people felt the impact? No one else noticed the fireball from the sky?”
I turned back around to walk a little faster than before, feeling my eyelid twitching as I held my tongue. I wanted to tell him he could just talk to the hand, but my ass was better to look at. Not that a straight guy like him would notice.
“And it doesn’t strike you as historically inaccurate that some unmarried woman spent the entire night alone with an unmarried man? The town would have been scandalized. Even if they were just talking, which, let’s be honest, they weren’t.”
Yeah, that was the last straw. I stopped, whipping back around. “Oh my god, do you not have a single romantic bone in your body?” I hissed at him indignantly.
Derek’s jaw went slack and he blinked at me with a look on his face like I’d been the one trying to debunk his favorite town legend.
Shaking my head, I tried to calm myself by letting out a slow breath.
“I appreciate you like logic and want stuff to make sense, but some things are better left with a little mystery, don’t you think?” I tried to keep my voice even as I offered the olive branch.
“I think if a town is going to come up with a story to market a swimming hole, they should come up with one that is a little more plausible.” He shrugged.
Throwing my hands up with a groan, I turned to begin making my way along the trail again.
“This isn’t a place tourists come, Derek.
It’s like a town law not to bring tourists here, so the story isn’t something from a brochure.
I’m bringing you because you live here now.
You’re one of us, so you better start acting like it and get on board with the legend. ”
Thankfully, that seemed to shut Derek up.
When we finally reached the clearing, the sight before us made the heat an afterthought.
The trees opened up into a small alcove, where clear water glinted under the direct light of the sun.
Wooden walkways led out over the shallows toward the center which dropped into a deep, still pool where the dark blue of the water looked almost unnatural.
Those same walkways continued on around to a sloped cliff that rose on the far side of the space.
Stacks of wide, flat rocks made up the cliff face and had ladders that climbed up the sides of them.
Stepping off the dirt path, a sense of peace washed over me that always came with being in the perfect stillness here.
“Wow.” There was a reverence to Derek’s tone as he followed me out onto the walkway.
I bumped his shoulder slightly with a smirk on my face when he caught up to me. “Told you so.”
He huffed out a laugh and made his way out toward the edge that overlooked the deep pool.
“Do people cliff dive here?” He asked, looking over his shoulder at me.
“Not from the actual cliff. But yeah, people jump off the rocks in front all the time.” I said, jutting my jaw toward the ladders.
The spot was popular amongst the locals because the pool of Darby’s Wish was perfect for people to perform tricks without fear of hurting themselves.
The pool was wide enough to allow a certain degree of error in case you slipped or didn’t jump far enough off the rocks.
But that was also the reason it was so heavily guarded from tourists.
A place like this would be overrun and trashed before we could blink, and the majesty would be lost.
Derek leaned over the walkway, peering down into the dark blue depths, squinting like he was trying to solve an intense math equation on the water’s surface.
“What’cha looking at?” I questioned as I came up beside him and slipped my hands into my pockets.
He shot me a teasing grin. “Looking for that fallen star.”