Page 31 of It's Just You

“Done!” Sam said, tossing the used paper towels near the trash bag. He eyed me. “You look like you’re lost in thought. What are you thinking so hard about?”

I blinked, getting my eyes to focus. Wanting to fuck your brother? Yeah, that would go over well. “Uh. School?”

“Seriously? What the fuck is wrong with you?” Sam kicked one of the paper towels toward the trash bag. It didn’t make it very far, so he picked it up and put it inside. At least that gave me time to think about an answer.

“Just the blog I’ve been working on. I need to get back into it, vacation or not.” There, that sounded like a reasonable explanation.

“If you say so.” Sam had finally finished clearing out the trash, and he turned to me. “Ready to head to the lake? I’ll get something for us to drink, and we can take my car.”

“Keeping it clean? Or is it going to look like a hazard zone again by the time we get back?” I couldn’t help myself. I had to mess with him a bit.

“Oh, fuck off. I’ll keep it clean this time. That was a mess.”

I smirked at him. Yeah, right. The way it had looked a few minutes ago, keeping it clean wasn’t on the priority list at all.

Since I didn’t reply to his comment, he went inside, coming back with a few bottles of water a moment later. We went in my car, though. I still didn’t trust his.

Sam and I fell into a comfortable silence, which left me to my own thoughts. I wanted to discuss Kane, but Sam wasn’t the best one to broach that topic with. Maybe I’d text Micah later.

“I’ll pick you up at 7.”

I stared at the message Kane had just sent me. 7. A.M. 7 in the morning. On a Friday. What the fuck? “Are you crazy?”

“We really should start earlier, but I didn’t think you wanted to get up at 5.”

“You need to look at your life choices.” And I needed to do the same because I wasn’t telling him no.

“I do. Quite a lot. And I’m missing out on at least 2 hours of hiking time so you can get your beauty sleep.”

I glared at the screen, but he obviously couldn’t see that. “I’ll be missing out on 4 hours of beauty sleep, so you might be scarred for life. I can’t guarantee I’ll be my fabulous, sparkling self when it’s that early.”

“You know, it might be nice seeing the real you, beneath all that make up, as nice as it is.”

My breath hitched. Letting him see me without makeup? That wasn’t going to happen. Ever. “Sorry, but no can do. I’m not letting anyone see me without it.”

“I somehow can’t imagine you’re always wearing that all the time. Has to be exhausting to keep up with.”

I looked at myself in the mirror of my bedroom. My makeup was still perfect, as I expected it to be. By now, it wasn’t as much work, but more like getting dressed every morning. I had to face myself before I was ready to head out, but I wouldn’t let anyone see me. “You get used to it. This is just who I am.”

“You’re seriously going to wear makeup when we’re hiking??? You’ll just sweat it all into a mess.”

I laughed at his use of the three question marks. He just didn’t seem like the type. “It’s waterproof.”

“Are you ever lost for an answer? Just out of curiosity?”

I snorted. “Many have tried, but none have succeeded. At least not in the past few years.”

“Is that a challenge?”

Was it? Not really. I liked him, and the banter was a lot of fun, so shutting up wasn’t high on my list. “No, challenges need to be fair. ;-P”

“Oh, you’re mouthy. Is there any way to shut you up? :-)”

“None you want to hear about, I think. But I can give you a few suggestions…”

“Behave, you. Or I’ll wake you up at 5.”

“Damn, now you’re bringing out the big guns. All right, I’ll behave. Mostly.” Texting with Kane was way too much fun, actually, so I didn’t plan on behaving at all, but I could play nice for now. I didn’t entirely trust him not to try to persuade me into going earlier, and while usually, it would be easy to dismiss someone who wanted me up at the crack of dawn, Kane was different.

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