Page 84 of Stuck with You

“You’re right, it is,” Clary agreed. She looked thoughtful as she considered what I’d said, and her eyes seemed to cloud over as she looked at her laptop screen. She stared at the quiz for several seconds before she closed the lid of her laptop and smiled at me. “And I don’t want our last day together to be spent doing some stupid test.”

She gathered her books, piling them on top of one another, and stood up.

“What are we going to do instead?” I asked. She didn’t have to tell me twice to give up on doing homework. But this was totally unlike Clary, and I was intrigued by what she was thinking.

“Anything but this.”

I laughed. “That’s some plan you’ve got there.”

“Well, I don’t know. Do you want to watch a movie together?”

I shook my head. If I was going to have one last day with Clary, I didn’t want to spend it in front of a screen, and another plan formed in my mind. “No, I have a much better idea.”

“What is it?”

I started to grin. “We’re getting out of here for the day.”

Her curious gaze was immediately overcome by caution. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“We’ll still be following the rules, trust me.”

She looked into my eyes, assessing me before she slowly started to nod. “Okay.”

My heart warmed at how far we’d come in our relationship. She was now quick to believe my words rather than question them.

“So, where are we going?” she asked.

“It’s a surprise. But, grab your swimsuit. The weather is finally starting to turn nice.”

“You want to go swimming?”

“Just get your things and trust me. All will be revealed when we get there.”

* * *

“It’slucky I’m almost ninety percent certain you’re not a murderer,” Clary said. “Because I have no idea where we’re going, and this road you’re taking me down is the kind of route a serial killer takes when they want to dump a body in the woods.”

I scoffed. “You’re only ninety percent certain?”

“Well, for someone who doesn’t play PlayStation, your aim was far too good when you were playing that World War II game with your brother the other day.”

“And that means there’s a ten percent chance I’m a murderer?”

“Yep.” She laughed. “Nobody’s that good at that game.”

“Clearly, I am.”

She rolled her eyes in response.

Admittedly, she had a point—about our route, not about the ten percent chance I was a killer, obviously.

A dense forest bordered our town, and we were currently bumping up and down as we drove along one of the many fire access tracks in the area. Ruts and uneven gravel paved our way, and huge fir trees bordered the tiny path. I had to drive slowly, and it took a good twenty minutes of rough driving before we reached our destination. The place was so remote I could see why Clary thought it would be a good place to dump a body. The hard trek was worth it though.

I slowed the truck when we reached the end of the track. There weren’t a lot of people who knew about this spot, but I was relieved to find there were no other cars in sight. The dirt road meant that not many people bothered to come out here, and I’d only ever seen the odd person when I’d been here before.

Clary was curious as she looked out the window to see where we’d stopped. “What is this place?” she asked, turning back to me. “Aside from a place to dump bodies, that is.”

I grinned in response. “My grandpa used to bring me here to swim in the summer,” I said. “There’s a lake a short walk from here, and people sometimes use the area for hiking.”

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