Page 92 of Better Luck Next Time

Finn laughed. “Is that what comes to mind when you think of Asheville?”

His heart was beating a little faster in his chest now. He was pretty sure she didn’t know, that it really would be a surprise.

She kept spouting off ideas, each a bit more ridiculous than the last, as he slowly navigated the road.

“Area 51,” she said as he pulled into the parking lot.

“That’s in New Mexico.”

“Nevada, actually,” she scoffed. “But you know what I mean—an Area 51-type place.”

“That you can buy tickets to go see? I’m actually sorry that’s not what we’re doing. I’m tempted to turn right around and find us some aliens.”

“Don’t you dare!” she said, laughing. “Then I’ll never know, and it’ll drive me crazy. Oh hey, you parked the car. Is this the walking part?”

“It is indeed. Wait for me. I’ll come around and get your door.”

He did, and she took his hand as she climbed down, hanging on to it.

“Admit it,” she said, leaning in to him as he closed the door. “You just insisted on the whole blindfold thing so I’d have to hold your hand.”

“I don’t think we need an excuse for that anymore,” he said. “We can’t seem to stop.”

She tripped a little on a twig in the paved parking lot and then gave him a playful shove. “Hey, you’re supposed to be my eyes.”

He started describing the terrain to her, careful not to give anything else away. “We’re stepping onto a gravel path through the woods. There are pines on either side of us. Up ahead, there’s a big group of tourists. We’ll say it’s a family reunion. Or wait, it’s more complicated than that—they discovered after their father’s funeral that he had a secret family. This is the first time the two sides have met.”

“So he’s dead?” she asked. “Man, your ‘Who are you?’ stories are always such downers.”

“Well, maybe they don’t mind so much since he was two-timing them both, but this is their chance to get to know each other outside of him. To be a family again.”

She was quiet at that, and it occurred to him that maybe he’d strayed a little too close to her own experience. To her situation with Jack and her father.

“Or not,” he said. “Maybe…”

But a screech cut him off. He turned to see a woman with aggressively dyed purplish-reddish hair barreling toward him down the twisty trail, dragging a short man with watery eyes and newsboy cap. The man looked reluctant, as if he’d prefer to be back at the hotel reading a newspaper.

“Bernard, he’s kidnapping her! Someone call the authorities!”

Bernard ducked behind her as she got closer, but the big group of people in front of them came to a halt and turned back.

“Hey, she’s blindfolded!” one of them shouted.

A big muscle-bound guy pushed his way through his group, gunning for Finn and Adalia. He wore a CrossFit T-shirt that didn’t bode well for Finn if he hoped to retain his nose in its current shape and size.

“Miss? Are you okay?” he asked, his eyes shooting murder at Finn.

“Haven’t you heard anything about Stockholm syndrome?” Dyed Hair asked, and Adalia snorted in amusement. “Even if she says yes, we can’t take her word for it. Could be he’s brainwashed her. OnPrivate Eyeslast week, a woman didunspeakablethings for the man who’d kidnapped her.”

“Are you sure that wasn’t a porno?” Adalia asked. She made no move to slip the blindfold down.

The woman’s eyes narrowed. “It’s the story that keeps me interested, not the sex. Are you here against your will? Hop twice if the answer’s yes.”

“How would that be any different than if she actually said yes?” Finn asked, genuinely curious. But he also wanted to de-escalate the situation. “Maybe you should take your blindfold down, Adalia.”

“Not on your life,” she said in an undertone. “You told me it was going to stay a surprise until the end, and I intend to hold you to it.”

“Are you being kidnapped or not?” CrossFit asked. He sounded kind of sulky about it, like maybe he’d hoped to make it into the paper.

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