Page 92 of See You There

Luke thought for a minute. “All right. Give me five minutes.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Dahlia methim at the foot of the stairs, holding two water bottles. They walked in silence down the gravel slope to the main road, and Dahlia pointed at the brown trailhead marker farther up.

“It’s a three-mile exercise loop,” Luke said, reading the sign.

“Sounds good to me. I wasn’t looking to do any true hiking. Fresh air and exercise are all I need.”

They didn’t speak at first, both content to listen to the various loud insects around them and the birds singing. The heavily wooded trail kept the sun off, which was nice. Every few minutes, Luke clapped his hands loudly.

“What are you doing?” Dahlia finally asked, exasperated.

“I read somewhere that you’re supposed to make noise, so the bears stay away.”

“Bears? Do you really think there are bears here?”

“Lots of bears,” Luke said solemnly, as her eyes scanned the trees. “And rattlesnakes.” Dahlia’s eyes immediately fell to the path, and Luke laughed. “I’m sure we’re fine.” He nodded at a woman jogging in the other direction. “This is a pretty well-traveled path.”

“Did anyone tell the bears?”

The path was mostly hard packed dirt, but as they made their way farther, they followed a sign to a trail that branched off the main loop and the terrain rose quickly.

Luke took her hand to help her over a boulder blocking their path, sending a sizzle of electricity through her. Dahlia wished her body didn’t react like that every time he touched her—particularly if he wasn’t going to do anything about it. Luke released her hand once she was on secure footing again, and Dahlia brushed at the dirt on her knees.

“This might be a little more strenuous than I was expecting,” Dahlia admitted. “Pilates and yoga are great for toning, but I clearly need to up my cardio game.”

His eyes slid leisurely down her body, creating a trail of heat everywhere they landed. Dahlia made a show of watching her footing to avoid his intense gaze. She couldn’t figure him out. One minute, he looked like he was going to strip her naked. The next, it was like he was her platonic best friend.

She buried her frustration to ask, “Did you go hiking a lot growing up?”

Luke barked a laugh. “That would be an emphatic no. James and I were decidedly suburban animals.”

“You said you were a risk taker? I pictured you climbing mountains and going on thousand-mile hiking treks.”

He put a hand over his heart and gasped in mock horror. “Absolutely not! Besides, we were too busy with school and sports.” Luke looked up at the trees. “My mom wasn’t very active.”

“Oh.” Dahlia remembered what he’d told her about his mother’s diagnosis.

They were quiet for a few minutes, the only sound their feet crunching the loose rocks beneath them.

Luke sounded thoughtful when he spoke. “Even before the official diagnosis, it affected her physically. She said it was thelong hours she worked… Stress, that kind of thing. She didn’t really pursue a diagnosis until about ten years ago.

“Looking back, I think she must have been having symptoms a lot longer than she let on. She didn’t do heat very well, and her balance was never great. I’ve done a lot of research since then, and those are some of the most common symptoms.”

He smiled ruefully. “James asked her once if that’s why she signed us up for sports every day, because she knew she wouldn’t be able to keep up with us. We were energetic little bastards.”

“What sports did you play?”

“Most of them, except for football. I had to be gone in the summer and would have missed all the camps.”

“You were at your dad’s?”

“Yeah. Mostly I played basketball and swam.”

She took in his six-foot-two build. “I imagine you were pretty good.”

“Of course, I was!” Luke winked at her. “Though, believe it or not, I wasn’t very tall until I was about fifteen. Then James and I grew almost four inches in one year.”