Page 1 of Fight

Chapter 1

“Seriouslythough,Ineedto know what happened to you to make you such a judgmental jerk.”

Jake came to an abrupt stop and turned around quickly. Lena didn’t stop fast enough though, and her small, soft body crashed into his chest. He hissed in a deep breath, and glared down at her.

“Oof.” An ungraceful sound escaped her lips as she stepped back and glared up at him accusingly from an inch or two below his chin. “You did that on purpose.”She held herself tense as her eyes narrowed into sharp daggers.

Jake’s first instinct was to apologize and make sure she was okay. But he resisted that bit of insanity, fixing a smirk on his face as he looked down at her dismissively.

She was short and slight, and wearing the dumbest clothes he had ever seen worn on a hike. A purple “romper”, as she’d called it, and white tennis shoes. One day into their backpacking trip and her shoes—along with the rest of her—were covered in smudges and dirt.

Hell, her clothes shouldn’t even matter…but they did, because they were impractical.Practicality and comfort should be the first and foremost considerations taken when hiking and camping. But her clothes didn’t bother him as much as the fact that she filled her perfectly adequate backpack with painting supplies…no mess kit, no water bottle, no pad or sleeping bag to sleep on. She just figured those things would be waiting for her in the woods? That some kind of magical, fairy godmother looking out for every one of Lena's damn needs would magically feed and hydrate her out here?

If there was such a person, it was her friend, Annie, who had cheerfully shared all of her hiking and camping supplies with Lena, and waved off her friend’s ineptitude as charming and hilarious.

Jake had been able to keep his mouth shut for much of the overnight trip that he’d embarked on yesterday with Annie, Lena, and their friends, Ian and Morgan. When he’d caught her trying to stop for a painting break, he couldn’t help but mention that there wasno painting in hiking—a la Tom Hanks inA League of Their Own—which had elicited the current request for more information on why he was such a judgmental jerk.

“Look Helena, we’ve just gotta finish this hike. Then, you can go get a manicure, paint a pretty picture, and eat some bon bons or something. But for now, kindly shut up and leave me alone.”

Her face worked itself through a torrent of emotions and unsaid words. “Leave you alone?” she asked incredulously.“You’ve done nothing but make snide comments about me since I met you.” She looked around wildly. “Annie, I told you we should have just done this by ourselves.”

Jake turned his head to the left where Lena had directed her statement. Annie, Morgan, and Ian stood off to the side of the path, watching Jake and Lena argue, with various looks on their faces—mostly of the blank, confused, or exasperated variety. Morgan had dropped down to sit on a rock and take a drag of her water bottle.Rolling her eyes, she groaned loudly, “Come on guys.”

Annie opened her mouth to say something, but didn’t have a chance to get any words out before Jake let out an exhausted groan. “By yourself? You’d be dead or lost, wandering around the woods covered in paint.”

“I’d have Annie with me, and we wouldn’t have to deal withyou, would we? Sounds pretty great to me.”

Jake shook his head and rolled his eyes as he turned to keep walking up the path. “Let’s just get this over with. Let me tell you, this has been a real treat, Helena. I’d love to do it again someday, but unfortunately, you’re soon to leave and never return.”

“Actually, I’m moving here. I’m moving to Lake Conrad, so you’d better get used to me.”

He stopped again, turning around slowly to look back at her. She hadn’t moved from where he’d left her, so she didn’t crash into him this time.Her dirt-smudged, exhausted face held a look of stubborn challenge.

“What?” He all but growled the word out.

“Annie invited me to move in with her and Morgan. I’m thinking of moving out here in the spring.” She smiled up at him smugly, crossing her arms. “I love nature after all,” she added dryly.

Jake turned around again and rolled his eyes, “Fan-fucking-tastic,” he muttered under his breath as he stomped off further into the woods.

With her embroidered, crossbody bag swung over her shoulder, Lena pulled her suitcase down the smooth floor of the airport, heels clicking on the hard surface.The airport was small, but packed with people. As she approached the congested baggage claim, she scanned the crowd for Annie's dark, curly head. Every shirt and backpack she saw boasted an Eddie Bauer and LL Bean logo, probably each with Subarus waiting for them in the parking lot.

Lena settled a grim look of acceptance on her face at the sight. She was immensely familiar with this ilk. Personally, she had yet to understand the appeal in sliding down a mountain on a pair of sticks, or climbing a giant rock at a forty-five degree angle…but she wouldn’t arbitrate fun for any of these other weirdos.

However, she wasn’t blind to the very obvious question.The question asked of her by every single person she knew—except for Annie.

“Helena,” her father had stated matter-of-factly when she'd told her parents about her plans to move to Lake Conrad. “You hate skiing. You hate hiking.Are you sure another ski town is the place for you?”

Her sister, Cori, had been less circumspect.“What the hell’s the matter with you, anyway? I don’t think the Conrad Goodwill is going to be a match for the Rose.” Cori referenced The Tea Rose, Lena’s favorite vintage clothing store.

“Don’t worry about me,” Lena had confidently assured them all.“Or my wardrobe,” she'd added for Cori’s benefit.

In truth, Lena couldn’t explain it other than she loved the mountains. She loved nature, even if she didn’t always don the correct footwear one should to experience the great outdoors. More specifically, she loved meandering down a well-paved path through a bustling forest, or viewing a crystal clear lake from a luxurious balcony as she held a cup of coffee, heavily dosed with creamer.Heaven.

When she’d finished her stint working the front desk of a youth hostel in Austria last May, she’d moped around her parents’ home in northern Virginia, only half-heartedly looking for an entry level office job somewhere in the DC metro area. She’d been devastated when the Smithsonian had rejected her for a position for which she was vastly underqualified.

Lena came from the least romantic place that she imagined existed in the world; specifically, Cooper, Virginia. Located in the sprawling Northern Virginia suburbs outside of Washington DC, Cooper was littered with highways, boxy colonial-inspired houses, and over-priced strip malls. It was hot and humid in summer, and freezing and wet in the winter.

Growing up in Cooper, Lena always knew that it wasn’t the life for her. Sure, she loved her parents and her sister. But her parents worked for the federal government. Office drones. Her younger sister, Corrine, was well on her way down the same path as she finished up law school.Shudder.

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