Page 27 of The Facade

“You know not everything needs to be a race, right?” She gestured for me to hold out my arm so she could start wrapping it with the bandage. “Sometimes life is about the journey and not the destination.”

“I guess.” I gave a non-committal shrug. But since I didn’t want to get into a deep philosophical conversation about how sometimes bad things happened to good people to help you grow and all that crap, I decided to tease Cambrielle instead. I said, “But sometimes the destination really is where all the fun happens.”

Cambrielle arched a perfectly shaped eyebrow at me. “So you were expecting something fun to happen at the falls tonight?”

“You know the falls is one of my favorite places to have fun,” I said.

“But it’s too cold to swim in the water.”

“True.”

“So what were you planning to do at the falls then?”

“Well, I’m surprised it’s a mystery after all these weeks of me hinting. But…” I slipped a mischievous smile on my lips. “I was hoping to sneak behind the waterfall before anyone else got there and wait for you in case you got bored with Ben and wanted to finally take me up on that date.”

She groaned. “Are you ever gonna let that joke drop? We both know you’ve never once been serious about that.”

I narrowed my eyes, lowered my voice to my most seductive tone, and said, “You can’t tell me it wouldn’t be fun to try just once.”

I glanced down at her full lips for effect, and when I returned my gaze to her bright blue eyes, I imagined I saw a hint of anticipation in them.

Did that mean that me taking her to what was known as Eden Falls’ “make-out point” wasn’t exactly the worst idea to her?

My stomach swirled with heat as I imagined kissing someone again—kissing Cambrielle.

She was pretty—one of the prettiest girls I’d met, actually. And getting lost in a moment like that would be a nice way to distract my mind from everything that was going on. I never got lost in the moment more than when I was kissing a beautiful girl.

An image of Cambrielle and me kissing in the cave behind the waterfall came to mind, her back pressed against the rock wall with her legs wrapped around my waist as I pinned her there and kissed her until I forgot everything.

It wasn’t a bad image, actually.

But then I imagined Carter finding us and punching me in the face for defiling his sister, and all happy feelings were gone.

“Sorry.” I shook my head, hoping Cambrielle couldn’t read my mind. “I think I hit my head too hard when I crashed. Forget I said any of that. Apparently, I have a problem with taking jokes too far and obviously none of that would ever happen. Especially with your feelings for Ben and everything.”

Her gaze seemed to relax, and she nodded. “You don’t have a concussion, do you?”

Was I really acting that weird?

“I don’t know, are my pupils dilated?” I leaned closer so she could look at my eyes.

As she inspected my eyes, I decided I really must have hit my head hard because all I could think of was how she had the most beautiful blue eyes with little turquoise flecks that reminded me of the beaches in Hawaii.

How had I never noticed her eyes before?

Or how she smelled like an angel?

I blinked my eyes shut. What was happening to my brain? This was Cambrielle I was thinking about. The girl who made mud pies with me in the backyard when I was eight.

I must be going into shock or something.

The news from my dad combined with my accident must be making me delusional.

But Cambrielle leaned back with a shrug and said, “Your eyes seem normal.”

“That’s good,” I said.

She went back to wrapping the bandage around my hand and wrist, and my skin warmed under her delicate touch. She had nice hands. Her fingernails were painted a light-pink that appeared nice against her tanned skin.

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