Page 71 of Hide and Sneak
Cara is laughing with another saleswoman and looking up at Maren, who stands at the top of a jungle gym made of thick, crisscrossing rubber straps. “Going up is easy. Let’s see you climb back down,” she teases, getting her phone out to video.
“There’s a slide,” the saleswoman suggests, gesturing to the opposite side of the platform.
“No, I got this!” Maren calls.
Famous last words. She steps out onto one of the straps. It gives more than she expected and she falls backward. Her ass goes through the center of the square formed by four straps. But she doesn’t get stuck. Instead, it folds her in half like a lawn chair and her whole body slips through. Suddenly, she’s hurtling toward the ground, falling through each level faster than the last. The lowest level catches her as we die laughing.
Maren lies on her back, one leg dangling down to the mat, and one arm still hooked on the strap above her. “Are you stuck?” I ask, when she stays there for a moment.
“I’m too old for this shit.” Her words only make us laugh harder.
I step onto the mat as she sits up. “You look like a spider in a web.”
She takes my hand for balance while she extricates herself from the grid of rubber and climbs out.
“I’m sorry,” the saleswoman says, still giggling. “That never gets old.”
“Are you okay?” I ask as we make our way out the door.
“Yes, but the damn thing tried to tie me in a bow.”
Cara snorts, climbing into my backseat. “It’s not the kind of rubber room I thought you’d end up trapped in.”
“I think I peed a little on the way down.”
“Let’s go to the hotel and get cleaned up for dinner,” I suggest, wiping my eyes.
It’s been a good day. I’ve got the equipment ordered, visited a couple of book stores with my friends, and now we’re at a Mexican restaurant for dinner and margaritas.
“Do you know when you plan to have your grand opening?” Cara asks, once we get our food.
“If everything goes well, it should be around the end of the year. I thought maybe I could do a sort of test run by holding a free holiday party there for the Happy Haven residents. Everyone could bring their kids and grandkids.”
“That’s a fantastic idea. Cooper and I were talking about doing a toys for tots sort of thing. We could provide the gifts,” Maren says.
“That would be amazing.”
Maren and I get a text at the same time containing the video of Maren’s trip through the rubber bands, and Cara grins at us. “I didn’t want to forget to share it.”
Maren rolls her eyes but her lips tilt up and she forwards it to her husband. “Cooper is going to love this.”
My first instinct is to send it to Sutton, and the realization gives me pause. This isn’t fuck buddy behavior. None of our recent behavior would fall into that category. All of our cuddling and time spent together, I just sort of let it happen and now I’m not sure what to do.
I forgot to text Amos when we arrived like I promised so I send him a picture of us instead. He sends one back that I can’t resist texting Sutton about. Why are they holding axes?
When I look up from my phone after our little text exchange is finished, Maren is looking at me.
“What?”
“You’re whole face is a smile. Is that Sutton?”
Damn it. With a heavy sigh, I lay my phone down. “Fine. I admit it. I’m catching feelings. I think I need to end things.”
“Hold up,” Cara says. “You have feelings for him?”
“It’s his fault. All I wanted was sex but then he started rubbing my back and the stupid cuddling, then we went on a date I didn’t realize was a date but it definitely was. And now I’ve been away from him for not even twenty-four hours, and I want to text him to see how his day went and tell him about mine. Why did I even start this?”
They listen until the end of my rant, then share an amused glance before Cara says, “Okay, slow down. Remind me why this is a bad thing? Do you think he doesn’t feel the same?”
