Page 83 of Fall Into Me

“One word.” I held up a single digit over my shoulder. “Leeches.”

“Oh, please,” he scoffed, his heavy footfalls sure and steady where I had just tripped for the fourth time. “They were tiny!”

I spun to face him,myface now incredulous. “Tiny?” I wasn’t proud of my screech, but just talking about the leeches made it feel like I had a billion on me. “You took me to the same place three different times, and each time you said ‘No, Cali baby. There are no leeches on this trail.’” I did my best impression of his voice to drive the point home.

Fane’s laughter was rebounding off the trees around us. Hands braced on his knees. He’d reached that point of laughter where no sound came out at all, only wheezing air followed by a hiccup.

“Real mature, Fane.” I cocked a hip out and crossed my arms, holding in my own stupid giggles that were trying to claw their way out. Fane’s laughter had always been contagious, especially when he was like this.

“You sounded like Elvis!”he wheezed, trying to stand up but folding over again.

“Shut up!” I whined, my smile finally breaking through. “Stop laughing! This is important.”

“Okay.Okay.” He cleared his throat, trying to stand up, but one look at my face and he absolutely lost it. “I can’t look at your face!”

“Fane!” I walked back over to him and tried to hoist him up to standing. His hand reached out and wound around me, his forehead pressing against my collarbone. I could feel the vibrations of his laughter shaking my body and spent the nextfive minutes trying to peel him off me, repeating the words, “I’m so serious right now!” and “You better stop, or else!”

Apparently he found that to be equally as entertaining, until finally I got out of his hold, and he managed to stand up straight, fighting the last lingering bubbles of laughter that were still climbing to the surface.

“We’re here because this is another important part of why you need to leave Darling alone.”

“Yep.” He was pressing his lips together and nodding his head.

“And don’t hug me.”

“No hugs, got it.” Fane gave me a double thumbs-up that said, “Fat chance.”

“Fane, we’re not friends.” I crossed my arms and gave him my fiercest expression.

“No, we’re not.”

I jolted back at his agreement because I hadn’t expected—

“We’relovers.”

“What? No.”

“Way to lean into the role, Cali baby.” Fane did his own Elvis impression before hitting me with double finger guns and pushing past me.

It was only another few minutes of walking, of his laughter trickling back to where I was still tripping behind him, until we got to our destination. I knew he’d reached it because he went completely silent.

I walked up and stopped right next to him.

“Darling was originally called Darling Falls.” You could just barely hear me over the rushing sound of the waterfall right before us, held perfectly within its own secret little alcove that you couldn’t hear until you were right in front of it.

It was the most beautiful cascade of water you’d ever seen, so perfectly picturesque in the way it flowed over the cliff’s edge and down into the pool of water below.

The water was so clear it looked like rippling glass. Like something this untouched shouldn’t still exist in the world we lived in.

“Holy fuck.” Fane’s voice was almost entirely drowned out by the noise.

“When my dad’s dad was a kid, everyone was getting sick of families coming and using The Falls. The trail that led here was getting overworn. There was garbage everywhere, and everything was just being…used up. The people who came to visit didn’t care about how they left it, so everyone started to drop the ‘Falls’ off the end of the name of the town. Signs were cut down, and eventually the old name was phased out completely. They changed the names of the schools, businesses, everything.”

I knew this was a risky move to bring him here. If anything, this could be just the thing to convince him that Darling was even more appealing than it had been before, but I took a risk on knowing how he felt about being outside. How he always made sure to leave a place the way he’d found it.

“This could totally come back to bite me in the ass, but I don’t think I need to say too much more to show you why this”—I pointed in front of us—“is the best reason of all to leave this town the way you found it.”

Fane finally peeled his eyes off the water and looked down at me. “Not the best reason of all.”

---