Page 38 of Just One Season
“Bear?”
Lucy frowns and rubs her neck. “Not bad.” She turns to her dog. “What do you think? Bear?”
Bear wags his tail and gives a short yip.
“Bear it is.”
“That dog will never learn his name.”
Lucy shrugs. “Meh. Names are overrated.”
“What about nicknames?”
“Those are not overrated at all.” Lucy pulls out her phone and snaps a picture of him. “I always text my friends when he gets a new name.” Lucy gives Bear a pat on the head.
“Should we go swimming?” I nod to the beautiful waterfall.
“Um, no? I didn’t bring a bathing suit. And it’s warmer out now, but the water is freezing.”
“Thought I’d ask.” I shrug casually, but I’m really picturing us stripping down and walking into the cold waterfall. I nod toward the trail, and we continue walking.
“I’m not sure how Atticus will react to our plan,” Lucy says.
“I’m going to talk to him tonight, we’re hanging out at your apartment, actually.”
She whips her head toward me. “Tonight? Okay. Maybe I’ll let you talk to him first. He might take it better from you—I’ve probably embarrassed him enough already. He’s lectured me ten times on the layout of that hallway since the locker room incident.”
I laugh, remembering how freaking adorable Lucy was that day. Her face was redder than it is right now.
She groans. “And I already told him that I’m not at all interested in hockey players. Hanging out or dating.”
“What? Why aren’t you interested in hockey players?” I’m definitely offended.
“It’s not just hockey players. It’s… all men.” Lucy sneaks a glance at me. “I just feel like I can’t trust that people are who they appear to be, if that makes sense. With Ron—my ex—I was so sure things were amazing, but they really weren’t. I couldn’t see it.”
“Sorry. He sounds like an asshole.”
“Yup.” She attempts a smile, then trips on a rock.
“Careful.” I hold out my arm to her, and she slips her hand in the crook of my elbow like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
“Then again, Atticus might end up being on board with this. He’s got bigger issues with our father than I do. Once he knew how things went down with our mother, he basically hated him. And after I went to college, he refused to spend time with him. Now he only sees Richard occasionally when he’s in the D.C. area and with me.”
“He doesn’t really talk about it that much.” I knew Atticus wasn’t close to his father, but I didn’t know the details.
“Atticus pretends he doesn’t care, but I know it hurts him.”
We weave our way through a rocky part of the trail, and I’m careful to continue scanning the area ahead of us. I was mostly kidding about the mountain lion thing. It’s not common to see them on the more popular trails, but we’re in the mountains of Colorado, so you have to be ready for anything.
So when I spot the rattlesnake, I know just what to do.
Unfortunately, we didn’t go over snake protocol.
At first, Lucy doesn’t notice it.
CHAPTER 11
Fake Dates
