Of the Trees(24)

“Together,” Cassie whispered. Even in the dark, Cassie could see he was shining with hope, excitement. A thrill coursed through her, and he shared it, she knew.

“We’re good together,” he said, pinning her with his words. “We fit.”

Cassie’s breath caught and held, sure that this would be the moment he finally said it, told her how he felt. She nodded.

“I know you’ve felt it, too,” he continued. “Our pace, how much mileage we cover, it’s so much easier with another person. And my mom would ease up a lot if she thought you were coming with me. She gets on me about that all the time, the dangers of going it alone.”

She felt hysterical laughter bubble up inside her, and she couldn’t hold it in. “So we make a good hiking team? That’s what you mean?” she asked through a laugh.

“Yeah,” he said, nodding. “It’s safer to do it in pairs and I’d rather you than some guy I’ve never met before.”

“And what do you think my mother would say to that?”

“I thought your mother loved me?”

“Yeah, she does, for keeping an eye on me in parking lots and always walking me to my door—”

“Well, I’m a gentleman.”

“—but maybe not for camping out with for months at a time, sleeping next to every night!”

“Oh,” Ryan grunted, his voice thoughtful. “But, we’re not … I mean … ”

“Yeah, well, you’re still a guy.”

“Which makes me safe!”

“And, in a mother’s eyes, makes you dangerous.”

Ryan fell quiet after that, and they both finished their hasty dinners. Ryan offered her a candy bar for dessert. She took it, chewing slowly as she followed the beam of the flashlight he produced off the trail and toward the road. He called his mom, and they waited in the dark, uncharacteristically quiet for after a hike.

Mrs. Buckner arrived quickly, driving the pair four miles back to Ryan’s car. Her questions were expected; they were her usual.

How was the hike?

Did you see any bears?

What about weirdos?

Ryan and Cassie took it in turn to answer, grinning over at each other between rounds. Cassie jumped out when she pulled alongside Ryan’s car, thanking Mrs. Buckner for the ride.

“She’s gonna flip when you do finally go,” Cassie remarked, waving to Ryan’s mother as she pulled onto the main road. He laughed.

“Not if you come along,” he teased.

“No, that’ll be my mom flipping out then.” She pulled open the passenger side door, throwing her pack on Ryan’s back seat. She looked over the car when she heard Ryan’s muffled swear. “What?”

“A branch or something must have fallen, hit the car,” he said, frowning. He gestured at the side of his car. “There’s a freaking scratch the size of my leg over here.”

Cassie walked around the car, noticing immediately the three-foot gouge in the side of the car. It was pale white, shining like the underbelly of a fish, on the deep maroon of the car’s painted side. She pulled up her phone’s flashlight, aiming the light at the mark.

“A branch, you think?” she said, fingering the indentation. “Must have been huge. Which one?”

Cassie stepped around him, looking to the leaf-strewn ground. Her light cast a round circle, overlapping with Ryan’s, as the two of them looked around. There were branches, smaller ones, but nothing Cassie thought could have caused the damage on Ryan’s car. She turned back to find him scowling.

“Well, it sucks to think that someone was out here just screwing with other people’s stuff,” he muttered, obviously not seeing anything around his car that could have caused the damage either. “I guess I’m lucky the car’s such a piece of crap anyway.”

Cassie offered a wry grin and shrugged. The wind kicked up for the first time that evening, and she shivered, shoving her hands into the warm fleece-lined pockets of her jacket. He nodded for her to get in the car and she hurried around to the passenger side. Ryan slid behind the wheel and pulled his door shut. A thrill coursed up her spine as his door slammed closed, leaving her alone and isolated in the dark outside the car. The wind swirled fast past her and in the sudden rush, something low yet almost musical sang past her ears. A gentle, whispered laugh. She brought her shoulders up, hunching into her jacket, feeling eyes on her back as she yanked the car door open and leaped inside.

“You okay?”

Cassie blinked, looking over at Ryan. She had been scanning the edge of the forest across the road. The shadows seemed alive, shifting and moving between the trees. Cassie knew that was merely an illusion, that there really wasn’t a group watching her from the woods. The laugh she imagined was probably just the wind. Still, she felt spooked. Her nightmare and the carnies were swimming through her mind.

“I’m fine,” she answered, forcing a smile. “Good to go?”

He nodded, twisted the key in the ignition and was rewarded with the rhythmic turning of the engine.

Ryan drove her home, flipping through the radio stations. She tried to catch his eye when he looked her way, but he avoided it, his gaze darting between the radio knob and the road. It wasn’t until he put the car in park, throwing his door open to walk her to her house, that he spoke again.