Page 14 of Mess With Me
He grunted. Clearly she didn’t find him too gruff. He liked that he wouldn’t have to tiptoe around her tender feelings.
A short while later, he pulled into the gravel parking lot of the Fieldridge Reservation. Some of his hiking club was already there—a mix of people ranging from twenties to forties, just one couple, most of them were single. He figured once you were married with kids, you had less time for Sunday afternoon hikes. If he had a kid, he’d just strap him or her onto his back and take them with.
Ally hopped out of the Jeep before he could open her door. He met up with her.
She centered her hat on her head. “Introduce me to everyone.”
He walked over with her and introduced her to the one married couple, George and Diana, then to some of the guys, Rob, Mike, and the two Matts. The women stared at her tick-resistant outfit. All the women wore jeans and long-sleeve shirts. Nobody wore a hat. All socks were under their pant cuffs where they belonged.
He gestured toward the women. “This is Trina, Hillary, Becky, Sarah,” he paused, squinting as he tried to remember the last one.
“Maria,” she supplied.
“Yes, Maria. Sorry. Not great with names. This is Ally, first-time hiker.”
“I’ve hiked before,” Ally said with a grin. “The mall is my preferred venue, but I read up on hiking and I’m all set.”
The women looked her up and down. “That’s good,” someone mumbled.
“It’s to keep ticks away,” Ally explained, pointing to her socks. “And light colors to make it easier to spot them.”
That launched everyone on their own tale of Lyme disease. Many people had been exposed, but if you pulled the tick off within twenty-four hours, you were usually safe. Caught early, antibiotics took care of it. Caught late, it was a long haul to recovery.
“See, Ethan?” Ally said, giving him a poke to the shoulder. “I told you it was important.”
“You did.”
More people showed up. Eight guys, six women. Their fearless leader, Rob, a crunchy guy with long brown dreads in a loose bun, announced they’d waited long enough and the rest of the group could catch up on the trail. Or as he put it, “You snoozed, you probably boozed.” He had lots of pithy expressions involving alcohol and pot.
At first, Ethan walked with Ally, but her stride was so much shorter and her pace so slow, it became almost painful to keep stride with her. She waved him on, already out of breath thirty minutes in. It was a gradual uphill climb.
“Do your thing,” she panted. “I’ll catch up.”
“Sure?”
“Yes, I’ll be fine.”
A half hour later, Ally trailing increasingly behind the group, they all stopped for a hydration break. It was a good stopping place in a small clearing with some flat boulders to rest on. He crossed to her side where she sat leaning against a tree.
“You doing okay?” he asked.
She nodded and took a long drink of water.
He dropped his pack and stretched. He loved a hard physical workout; something he’d learned in high school was better all around for everyone. It focused his energy and dramatically decreased the number of fistfights he got in. He chugged some Gatorade and watched Ally.
She took off her hat and fanned herself with it. He hated to say it, but she looked completely exhausted. She was sweating, cheeks flushed pink, hair flattened in scraggly blond locks around her cute pixie face. She wasn’t used to hiking.
“Jeep’s unlocked,” he told her. “Why don’t you head back and rest? I’ll meet you back there.”
She eyed him. “I amnota weenie.”
He grinned. “At the end of this trail is a nice view—a huge lake surrounded by trees.”
“Describe it for me. Make it real. I need the motivation.”
“Sure.” He looked off in the distance, trying to bring it all into focus from memory. “Well, the water is blue with light ripples. Plenty of fish—lotta trout, small mouth, yellow perch. Sometimes you’ll see a turtle sunning itself on a log. This time of year, the trees are just starting to turn color around the edges of the lake, bright reds, oranges, and yellows. Blue sky that seems to meet the treeline. So much sky, feels like a bigger sky there.” He kept going, remembering tons of little details. He’d spent a lot of time at this lake, fishing and camping. “You’ll love it,” he finally concluded, turning back to her.
She was asleep.
