Page 64 of Say Yes to the Nemesis

I nod. Definitely didn’t think about bug spray. Internally, I admit I usually don’t. Spray matters more in swampy areas, but I don’t expect to need it much today. Still, they say good luck is ninety percent preparation, ten percent perspiration. Or whatever.

JacqLyn, Daisy, and I start down the trail. For a long while, it’s pretty flat with only a little elevation as we go. JacqLyn hikes with us for a while before breaking away and moving faster. If it were a date with just the two of us, I’d try to keep pace, but as it is, Daisy and I are already ahead of most of the contestants.

As we walk, Daisy tells me about her hometown. Nashville, Tennessee. How the city throws a huge country music festival each spring. She goes into a long, funny story about the antics she and her friends got into this year. I laugh. I can’t even see JacqLyn anymore by the time she finishes.

Eventually, I slow down.

“I’m going to wait for some of the others to catch up.”

She makes a face and says, “Okay, slowpoke. I’ll try to catch up with JacqLyn. See you at the top.” A cameraman breaks off and goes with her, so I feel pretty good about letting her go.

Wren and Raven are the next pair of hikers. I wait for them. They’re laughing at a joke Wren just made when I fall into step with them.

Raven looks me up and down. “Okay, I just have to say. Those are some serious hiking boots you’ve got on.”

I glance at my black boots and laugh. “They’re pretty metal. They’re for more serious hiking than this, but it’s what I had.”

“I thought for a second you were turning goth like me. You know I love a goth boy.”

Wren snorts and I laugh.

Divya seems unbothered by the exercise, but when a bee buzzes near her head, she screams and shoos it away frantically.

“Are you crazy? Don’t do that,” Wren says. “That probably makes it more interested in you.”

“For sure,” I add.

“Nobody told me I’d be going on hikes into the wilderness for a man,” Divya says primly. “Especially a man that hasn’t even kissed me.” She arches a brow and crosses her arms.

I shrug and smile. “So sorry to bother you, my lady. Dost thou needeth a piggyback ride?”

Divya shoots me a glare. “Hardly,” she says.

I turn my head to look at Wren, who’s fallen a bit behind. She’s making it all right, but she’s sweaty. The boots she’s wearing look like something Gene Simmons would wear onstage.

“What’s up, Buttercup?” I ask gently.

She looks off into the woods and screws up her face. “Nothing is up.”

“No?”

She looks at me, then at the camera, then back at me. “No,” she says heavily.

That gets my mind working. Obviously, there are some things she wants to say, but won’t. Not with the cameras on her. That’s more than fair.

But that doesn’t stop me from trying to figure out what she’s thinking.

I hike ahead as the trail starts to incline more. She’s flushed, breathing a little heavier than usual. When we hit the switchback, she slows down a lot. I pause and let her catch up a few times before she shoots me a crabby look.

“You don’t have to stop for me,” she mutters.

“We’re on a date. A group date, sure, but still a date. If I don’t stop for you, then I’ll just hike this whole trail alone. Not really interested in that.”

She juts her chin. “You could just go a little faster. Catch up with Divya and Raven.”

“But I don’t want to. I want to stay here and talk to you.”

Wren purses her lips. When the trail hits another steep switchback, she stops and stares up the slope like she’s not so sure about it.