Chaos Theory (Nerds of Paradise #2)(38)

“Then we’ll give it a try as soon as we have an opportunity.” She smiled at him, and Will’s heart felt light. “It will sure beat freeze-dried chicken and mashed potatoes for dinner.”

She laughed at herself, and the sound swirled up into the treetops, mingling with the birdsong. Will felt himself warming from the inside as they hiked on, down and down into the valley. As much as he tried to tell himself the warmth was from exertion, a deeper part of him knew it was so much more than that.

The farther down into the valley they hiked, the denser the vegetation grew. Even if he pulled out the map and compass, he would have had a hard time pinpointing exactly where they were. It was hard to see much beyond pine trees, occasional stands of boulders, and scrubby bushes. It helped his sense of place when the distant gurgle of the stream finally reached his ears. He had to fight the urge to stop and get out the map. At this point in the game, since they knew they were headed in the right general direction, it would serve them better to keep moving instead of second-guessing.

“Why does it bother you so much?” Again, Melody asked a question out of the blue.

“Why does what bother me?” Will kept his focus on the ground in front of them.

“Being called Darling.”

He frowned.

“It is your name, after all.”

“I think that’s why I hate it.” He spoke quietly, not daring to look at her.

“Because it’s your name?”

He hated talking about these things, but with Melody, he found it hard not to. “It’s weak. It implies weakness.”

“It implies sweetness,” she argued. “There’s a big difference.”

“Not when you’re in eighth grade and your gym teacher shouts it out across the football field.”

“Ah.” Melody shook her head. “Boys.”

“Yeah, well, I not only happen to be one, I’ve grown up around them.”

“Hmm.” When she was quiet for longer than Will would have expected, he stole a glance at her. She was frowning. At least until she caught him watching her. Then a slight smile pulled at her lips. “Okay, I’ll give you that boys can be pretty awful to each other, but why would you care?”

Will blinked. “Why would I care? That my classmates and da—other people would be cruel to me? Oh, I don’t know.” He stared straight forward again, fighting off old resentments.

“Yeah, but it’s just a name,” she plowed on. “It doesn’t mean anything. And besides, people can call you anything they want, but you know who you are.”

He nearly missed a step. Because that’s where she was wrong. He didn’t have the first clue who he really was.

No, that wasn’t right. He had the first clue. But if he wasn’t careful, that was about to be wrenched away from him by the one man who should have been a guide and guardian instead of a taskmaster.

They reached the stream at the bottom of the valley at last. It was relatively small and fast-moving. The valley between their ridge and the next looked to be part of an even bigger basin, and the stream must have run down toward an even larger valley. The stream was cold and clear, and they paused for a rest and to fill as many containers with water as they could. Will popped a few of the water purification tablets into each container, then loaded them into both backpacks before they headed on.

“We should probably get as far as possible before we stop for lunch,” he said.

Melody winced as she shrugged back into her pack. “I wish there was some magical way to make these things less heavy. Did we just add fifty pounds or what?”

“Not that much,” he said, looking ahead down the stream to plot a path. “But if it’s bothering you, I could take some of those bottles and stick them in my pack.”

She sent him a weary smile. “Thanks, but I doubt there’s room left in your backpack. And besides, the whole point of this shindig for me is to push myself, physically and mentally.”

“Whatever you want to do,” he said as neutrally as possible, but admiration swelled inside of him. And if he wasn’t careful, other things would start swelling too.

They hiked on, heading for a bend in the stream. Now that they were at the bottom of the valley, there were far more corners and turns that were difficult to see around. They made Will wary and had his senses on high alert. And with good reason too.

“Every time we went camping when I was a kid we would do a lot of hiking,” Melody was saying. Will wasn’t certain if she was paying attention to herself or if she was just talking to make noise. “I never had to wear a backpack like this one though. Mom and Dad always shouldered the loads, literally and f—” She stopped dead as they rounded a bend in the stream. “Holy cow.”

Will glanced to the side where Melody was staring and nearly stumbled over his own feet. On the other side of the stream, not quite fully concealed in the trees, a doe and a buck were going at it. Blatantly. Obviously. And the buck looked like he was having a really good time as he mounted his mate. Not even Melody’s sudden burst of laughter distracted it from its task.

“I’m beginning to sense a certain theme to this challenge,” she continued to giggle as Will nudged her to go on.

Heat crept up Will’s neck, taking over his face in no time. “What are you talking about?” he mumbled, knowing full well what it was.