Page 45 of Rook

God, no.

“Yep.”

With that, we climbed out of the car.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Tessa

Okay.

It wasn’t that bad.

I mean, yeah, my thighs were burning. And, no, I wasn’t wearing the right shoes for a hike. But it was actually kind of fun to get out in nature.

“Oh! Look at that!” I said, pointing off toward a rock where some sort of lizard was sunning itself.

“Looks like a chuckwalla,” Rook said, following my fingertip.

“Not quite as cool as those bighorn sheep, but still cool.”

“Yeah, who knew there were sheep in Death Valley?”

We were just scaling over a particularly craggy cliff when a small path opened in front of us, leading up into the colorful rocks we were looking for.

“It looks fake,” I said, stopping for a moment just to take it in.

It looked like someone had just splashed paint over the brown mountains, turning them shades of lilac, baby pink, and aquamarine. The higher up you looked, the darker the colors became until they met with the darker brown rock again.

“It really does,” Rook agreed.

My gaze slid to his profile, glad to find the same wonder on his face that I felt on my own.

“This was a great location idea.”

“Thanks,” he said. “Now, the only question is: how good of an actress are you?”

“I’m pretty sure I can fake shock and joy.”

“Good. I’ll make sure the camera is set to take like a million pictures so we can go through them and find the most convincing ones. How about we climb on top of that rock? The backdrop will be insane.”

As silly as it was, there was an unexpected twisting in my stomach as the strangest thought crossed my mind.

I wish this could be a for-real engagement.

I was glad Rook had started ahead of me to get up the steep hill because I felt the rush of water in my eyes and needed to blink it rapidly back before it leaked down my cheeks.

What the hell was that about?

I wasn’t someone who’d ever fantasized about grand romantic gestures—real or fake.

Though, if I were being painfully honest, that was because nothing in my life had ever even hinted at the idea that something like that could belong to me.

And here it was.

But it was fake.

I sucked in a deep breath and started climbing, having to bend forward to use my hands to grab the rocks so I didn’t just… slide right back down the side.

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