Page 24 of The Facade

HadIdone something wrong?

I had no idea.

But since he obviously wasn’t going to tell me what was going on right now, I just climbed onto my ATV and managed to claim my spot directly behind Ben who had taken off after Elyse.

I’d just have to figure Mack out later. Right now, I would focus on enjoying this ride and the chance I had to hopefully make a somewhat good impression on Ben despite being tongue-tied earlier.

We passed the golf course and drove into the more heavily wooded part of my family’s thousand-acre property where the land hadn’t been developed yet aside from the dirt trail we were driving on.

As we went over the small bumps in the road here and there, I let myself sink into the present moment and appreciated the view I had of Ben from behind. He was handling the ATV well, his body anticipating all the dips and curves in the trail.

I should probably be embarrassed at how much I was staring at his backside, my gaze running over the shape of his tall, toned body under his fitted gear, but since no one—my brothers included—could see my eyes under my helmet and goggles, I just let myself enjoy the view. Checking out his broad shoulders and narrow waist, I imagined what it would be like to share a four-wheeler with him, the same way Carter and Ava were.

I usually liked riding alone, since driving the four-wheeler was where most of the fun was for me, but I could certainly appreciate the idea of sitting behind Ben and wrapping my arms around his torso for safety. I would scoot up close with my chest against his back, letting the side of my face rest between his shoulder blades.

Yeah, that would be nice. I could just breathe him in and see if being close to him felt as good as my imagination had made it feel during my daydreams. He probably smelled and felt really good.

I sighed, wistfully thinking about living in a reality where that fantasy actually came true.

Would it be totally obvious if I pretended like I ran out of gas and needed him to give me a ride?

Probably.

Ben turned a corner on the road, and I was forced to look at the beautiful, forested scenery around me for a moment. The trees looked like they were on fire from the bright orange and red leaves. There was a place where the road divided, giving the option of taking an offshoot path through the trees that would eventually meet back up with the main trail. I slowed down since I wasn’t quite sure which way everyone had chosen to go and scanned the area to see which way Ben had gone.

I spotted him on the underdeveloped trail a moment later, his ATV leaving a cloud of dirt behind it about fifty feet ahead of me. I was about to head in his direction when out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of a figure dressed in a black riding suit with a red stripe down the sides driving his four-wheeler down the side road.

Was Mack trying to race ahead of Carter and Ava? He was going so fast.

The road he was on sloped up into a hill, and for a few short seconds, he was air-bound after taking a jump. My heart stopped as I watched him fly through the air. A sudden surge of panic filled my chest when I saw that just when his four-wheeler was supposed to hit the ground, it hit something on the road that was hidden from my view instead.

And then Mack was flying off his machine.

7

Mack

“Hey, you okay, dude?”a voice—Ben?—called from behind me.

I was lying on my back in the middle of the Hastings’ woods and feeling like I’d just been hit by a train.

One minute I’d been pushing my gas pedal to the floor and driving down the road as fast as I could, and the next thing I knew, the sun was blinding me, and I was flying through the air after hitting a tree that had fallen across the road.

“I’m okay,” I said, slowly sitting up and brushing some dirt and leaves off my arms and legs, my body already groaning in pain from the movement. “I guess I kind of blacked out there.”

“Blacked out?” Ben’s dark eyebrows knitted together, like he was worried I was drunk or something.

Which, no, I wasn’t—even if I sometimes considered breaking into my dad’s liquor cabinet on the days when I wanted to numb myself from reality.

“I mean—” I cleared my throat and removed my helmet, setting it on the ground beside me. “The, uh, the sun blinded me, and I guess I didn’t see the tree in time.”

Ben looked skeptically at me, but then seeming to decide it wasn’t his problem to worry about, he shrugged and offered me a hand up.

“Thanks,” I said.

I had just gotten to my feet when Cambrielle’s four-wheeler rushed toward us. She jumped off the ATV when she was ten feet away and called, “Are you okay, Mack? What happened? Are you hurt?” as she yanked off her helmet and goggles.

“I’m fine,” I said before she could get too worked up. “Just decided to make things exciting for a minute.”

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