Page 99 of All Roads Lead to You

Logan pulled out his smokes and lit one up, then offered me one, but I shook my head. “Not really. I’ll fucking miss her like hell, but I’m more concerned about Hunter. I’m just itching to go back there and be with him. Fuck him that he won’t let me.”

“You’re not, like, really mad at him, are you?”

“Nah. I just… feel helpless, you know?”

“I get that.”

“They were there for me, and I need to be there for them.”

“You will be.”

We sat by the fire in the morning, sipping our coffee, and just holding hands before Logan let go and grabbed a hiking map of the area sitting next to him.

“I thought we could go hike the Bright Angel trail down to Indian Garden. The hike is about nine miles in total. Going down will be the easy part; climbing back up three thousand feet won’t be. We’ll need food and plenty of water, though there are stops we can fill up on water and places to take breaks in the shade. When we get back, I read about a really cool spot where we could sit and watch the sunset. Are you up for it?”

“Definitely. Sounds fun.”

We stuffed our backpacks with an extra canteen of water, some peanut butter sandwiches, several granola bars, and a couple of apples, while we strapped the other canteen to our bodies. We also brought sunscreen, but we’d already doused our skin because we’d be exposed to the sun most of the day.

It didn’t take long to reach the start of the trail to the Southern Rim from our campsite, but before we made our descent, I snapped several photos, taking some of Logan, and he took some of me.

The morning wasn’t too hot yet, but it soon would be.

“God, this place is gorgeous. Look at the colors on the cliff faces,” I said.

“It looks like it’s had some rain, too, because the plant life is pretty green and full. I bet the Indian Garden is gorgeous.”

The trail was relatively easy, so we’d probably run into a lot of hikers out there, but the view was to die for. No matter where we turned as we wound down the trail, we had a stunning view of the canyon. There were a lot of browns, but you could see varying colors of reds on the canyon walls, along with green growth and the bluest sky you’d ever seen without a single cloud. I made sure to take a lot of pictures.

Logan and I stopped at a resting point with shade and water at the three-mile mark. We sat on some rocks, ate our sandwiches, and washed them down with water.

“This place is totally epic,” he said. “It looks so ancient, yet you can feel this power behind the canyons like… they’re mysterious.”

“It really is. I’m glad we got to come. I’m glad I got to come with you.”

Logan looked around to make sure we had no onlookers, leaned over, and kissed me, tasting salty from sweat and peanut butter.

“I’m fucking glad Dad made me take you. It really changed our lives, didn’t it?”

“It really did.”

After catching our breath, we filled up our canteens with water from the spout provided, even though we still had quite a bit, and moved on.

“Fuck, it’s getting hot,” Logan grumbled, wiping the sweat off his face with his shirt as we walked. “It’s going to be hotter as we get down there. The sun bakes the rocks below, and it gets trapped down there.”

The temperature was definitely climbing, making the hike more of a struggle, though we were just winding our way down. I wasn’t looking forward to the climb back up.

We also started drinking a lot more water. It was a good thing there was another watering station and bathrooms by the time we finally reached the bottom.

I took several shots of Logan as he led us through the hike, his pert ass the main focus of some of my more inappropriate images. Who knew I’d be an ass man for a man? He was going to laugh when he saw the pictures I took of it… or punch me. It’d be totally worth it.

But when Logan turned his head back toward me for a second, I caught his face at the exact moment before he turned back around. He looked sexy, with sweaty hair spilling over the blue and white bandana around his head. He wore a small smile, and his eyes were filled with love and knowing. He gave me a glimpse of the man he was to become, full of confidence and acceptance with who he was. I really hoped my camera caught the beautiful expression that made my heart beat a little faster.

When we finally reached the bottom, we chugged our water and filled up our canteens before we sat down to eat a granola bar and an apple. Then we went exploring the Indian Garden, which was lush with drought-tolerant plant life. There were even some large trees offering plenty of shade to cool things down a bit. The temperature had to be at least one hundred, if not more. There was also a small creek trickling through, and we used it to splash water on our faces and arms before we soaked our bandanas and wrapped them around our necks.

Logan and I stopped by the donkey pen and petted their heads.

“Maybe we should take one of these back,” I said.

---