Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 112892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112892 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 452(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
"Where are they?" Tori said, sounding a little desperate.
"I'm just rounding the corner by the amphitheater,” I said hastily to Diego. “Just tell me which way to go from there.”
“When the sidewalk splits, go right.”
“What sidewalk?” I spun in a circle but didn’t see him anywhere. He was right, it was like a labyrinth back here.
Diego swore, and then the line went dead. Puzzled, I stared at the phone, about to hit the button to call him back.
But then I heard it—a loud whistle, the kind that referees use. I took off in the direction of the sound, running as fast as I could. It was far easier to home in on that sound than to follow hurried instructions, as Tori was still trying to do.
And then I saw him up ahead, the silver whistle in his mouth. He dropped it and crouched down by the sign, his phone already out.
"Hurry, Mia!" Maybe he hadn’t been at the start, but now he was in it to win it.
"Over here!" I heard Jayden calling and could tell he had spotted Tori.
"I'm coming!" she cried.
"Hurry!" Diego said again.
And then I reached him, dropping to my knees and skidding the last few feet. I almost passed up the sign, but he caught me with one arm around my waist.
Just as he had when I fell out of the tree, he effortlessly lifted me, setting me down on his knee. We both leaned our heads toward the sign with our names on it, and he snapped the picture.
I grabbed his phone and uploaded it. And we waited, with me still balanced on his thigh.
We stared at his phone expectantly. Then his phone vibrated from an incoming text.
"Did we do it?" he asked, as I breathlessly swiped open the text.
And there it was, both our names, saying the scavenger hunt had been won.
"We did!" I shouted and threw my arms around his neck.
I caught him by surprise, and he tumbled backward. I landed on top of him, one hand on his chest, the other on the grass beside his bicep.
He laughed as he looked up at me, and I did too, grateful that I hadn't accidentally kneed him in the balls or something.
His whistle lay across his chest, and I grasped it, tugging lightly on the cord. “Good thinking.”
We stayed like that for a long moment, my hair hanging down, nearly touching his face. It reminded me when Aaron had hovered over me on my bed, after we’d flipped the mattress.
I needed to get up off of him, but for some reason, I didn’t move. “I keep falling on you.”
“Can’t really say that I mind catching you.” He stopped, his dark eyes and gleaming. “And I can’t help it if women fall hard for me.”
He smirked up at me, and I couldn’t stop staring at his lips. “That’s not the same thing,” I protested. Though not very strongly.
“I know, but—” That’s all he got out, because the next moment, we heard people run up, and Tori said, “Congratulations.”
But it wasn’t her hand that touched my shoulder. Nor Jayden’s. Aaron stood there, extending his hand out to me. I took it, and he pulled me to my feet.
Diego hopped up nimbly, and Jayden shook his hand, looking a bit disgruntled. “Who knew a whistle would make the difference.”
Something very close to a smirk crossed Diego’s face. “A bit more useful than a bow, yes.”
Tori beamed at us, and I knew it wasn’t just because we’d won. She’d seen me lying on top of Diego.
As had Aaron.
He had sunglasses on, so I couldn’t see his expression as I introduced him to Tori and Jayden.
“Way to go,” he said to me, then glanced at Diego to include him, too.
“And to the second-place team, too.” He nodded at Tori and Jayden, and Diego’s smirk returned.
“Let’s go get your prize, and then I’ll buy you a pretzel. All of you,” he said. “You must be tired.”
“Yes, but it was fun,” I said, and the others nodded. Plus, a cinnamon sugar pretzel sounded amazing right now. The race had been tiring.
Aaron’s expression softened as he looked at me. “That’s why I wanted you to do it. You definitely needed some fun.”
I gave him a smile as we headed for the union, but his words stuck with me. Yes, I had needed a break to have some fun, but in hindsight, something told me that Diego had, too. I’d spent the last few weeks on pins and needles around him, afraid that he was going to remember the night of the party, in which case I’d need to move to the other side of the world. But perhaps my subconscious had been paying more attention to him than I thought, because it seemed to me that he’d been down lately, too.
For the first time, I wondered what had made him get so drunk at the party that night. And whether he’d been trying desperately to distract himself, like I had.