I close my eyes to fight back the sting of tears that simple gesture brings on, then move my hand to rest over his heart, which is beating steadily—unlike my own, which is going wild.

  “Harder, Oli!” Lauren’s cry breaks into the moment; then my eyes widen in surprise as she moans, “Just like that.”

  “Fuck me,” Tanner grumbles.

  “We can all hear you!” Parker shouts, and I cover my face, embarrassed for them.

  “Christ,” Tanner groans, and I burrow into his side as laughter I can’t control crawls up the back of my throat. “I can’t fucking wait until this trip is over,” he says against my ear.

  I snort my agreement while Lauren moans louder.

  Huffing and puffing as we walk up a steep incline, I try to remind myself with every step I take that we’re getting closer to this day being over. I knew today would be the hardest of the trip. Tanner, Maverick, and Blake kept warning us it would not be easy, but I assumed that since we’ve been hiking every day, it would be the usual torture.

  I was wrong.

  We started off the day hiking, followed by kayaking, then lunch, and now more hiking, only now we’ve been moving mostly uphill over rocky terrain for about four hours. My legs and arms feel like they’re on fire, and my feet are killing me. If it weren’t for the hot shower and bed awaiting me at the end of this, I would have given up a few miles back. But honestly, even with all the pain I’m in, I’m sad this trip is almost over. It’s been fun experiencing new things, eating under the stars in front of a campfire, and sharing time with people who’ve become my friends. The good thing is I know that this doesn’t have to be my last adventure. I now trust myself to take risks and experience life outside my comfort zone.

  “I don’t want to sound like a six-year-old stuck in the back seat of a car, but are we almost there yet?” Avery whines, breaking into my thoughts, and I smile at my feet.

  “Not much longer,” Tanner says, reaching out to catch me when I stumble over a root sticking out of the ground along the path.

  “Thanks,” I mumble, not risking lifting my eyes off my feet to look at him.

  “We have about a mile before we reach the road where Maverick will pick us up.”

  “Thank you, baby Jesus,” Parker says with a sigh. “My legs are about to give out on me.”

  “Well, I think today’s been great,” Lauren chirps. “Don’t you think today’s been great, Oli?”

  I barely hold back a giggle. Maybe not surprisingly, Lauren has been in a great mood all day. She hasn’t complained once, and she and Oliver have gotten along better than they have this entire trip. Honestly, I wish they’d slept together earlier in the week.

  “It’s been a great day,” I hear him agree.

  “Stop rubbing it in our faces that you two got laid,” Parker says, and the entire group laughs.

  “You’re just jealous,” Lauren says, making me wish we had Freshly Laid Lauren with us this entire trip instead of Angry Sex-Starved Lauren, who found every reason to be unhappy. Then again, maybe this trip has brought Lauren and Oliver closer together too; maybe being out here has made them realize why they’re together. Whatever it is, I’m glad they’re getting along today.

  “Truth,” Jacob agrees.

  “I see the road!” Avery shouts in a few minutes, and like an idiot, I lift my head and trip. Unlike all the times before, Tanner doesn’t have a chance to catch me, and I go down hard. As I land, pain shoots through my left hand, so much pain that I’m barely able to hold myself before I face-plant.

  “Oh no.” I drop my forehead to the ground, and tears I can’t control fill my eyes while I tuck my hand against my stomach.

  “Let me see, sunshine.” Tanner sits me up and takes hold of my wrist, and I open my hand, feeling suddenly dizzy when I see the large gash across my palm and blood—lots of blood. “Shit.” He whips his backpack off while Lauren and Oliver both start ordering me to hold my hand above my head.

  “I think I’m going to be sick.” I swallow the saliva filling my mouth, watching blood drip on the ground in front of me.

  “Close your eyes and breathe.” Lauren pats my back.

  “It will be okay. Tanner’s going to clean you up, then we’ll get you to the hospital for stitches,” Oliver tells me, holding on to my wrist tightly.

  “Slow and steady—everyone get up to the road and let Maverick know what’s going on,” Tanner orders the others, who wish me luck before complying.

  “Do I really need stitches?” I peek one eye open to look at him as he dumps water over my open palm to clean away the dirt and pine needles.

  “Yeah, sunshine.”

  “Figures this would happen right when I get to the finish line,” I grumble, closing my eyes.

  “You still did great today.”

  Shaking my head, in too much pain to laugh, I peek one eye open once more and glare at him. “You say that every time I mess up.”

  “You didn’t mess up. You tripped, and you did do great today, babe,” he says as he wraps white fabric around my wrist before he starts to circle my hand with it over and over. “Okay, that should keep the bleeding to a minimum until we get to the hospital.” He stands, then looks at Oliver. “I’m gonna give you my bag, so I can carry Cybil. Are you good with that?”

  “Of course.” Oliver takes his pack as my eyes widen in horror.

  “That’s not necessary.” I take a step back from him, waving my stump-looking hand out in front of me. “I’m okay,” I lie. My hand might be the worst of my injuries, but my ankle feels like it might buckle each time I attempt to put weight on it.

  “Cybil—”

  “Tanner, it’s not far. I’ll be okay.” I take one step, then another, and my jaw clenches so tight that I’m surprised I don’t crack some teeth.

  “You’re not okay.” He takes my elbow when I try to pass him. “You’re in pain and you’re limping. I’d rather not have you tumble down the fucking mountain because you’re being stubborn.”

  “I’m not being stubborn.” I try to cross my arms over my chest, but with the bandage, it feels awkward, so I give up. “I’m too heavy, and if you try to carry me, we’re both likely to end up rolling down the mountain.”

  “This isn’t up for debate.” He turns his back to me. “Hop on.”

  “No.”

  As he turns to look at me, his eyes meet mine. “Hop on, or I’m tossing you over my fucking shoulder.”

  Between the cursing and the look he gives me, I know he’s not going to give up, so I let out a deep breath. “I can’t believe I’m doing this,” I mumble as I hop onto his back and wrap my arms around his neck, careful not to choke him. When his hands wrap around my thighs and he starts to move, I say a silent prayer and squeeze my eyes closed.

  “You good, or do you want me to take over?” I hear Maverick ask, and I open my eyes and find him at our side as we climb the side of the mountain.

  “I got her,” Tanner tells him, not even seeming to breathe heavy, which I have to admit is pretty impressive.

  “If you’ve got your phone on you, call Blake and tell him to meet us on the way with my truck. I’ll trade him and take Cybil to the hospital so the group can get back to the lodge.”

  “Got it,” Maverick says; then I listen to him relay the message to Blake as we walk up to the road. When we reach the bus, I expect Tanner to put me down, but of course he takes the steps up, and everyone starts to ask if I’m okay. As he lets me down in the front, I assure them I’m fine. The bus starts to move, forcing everyone to take their seats.

  “You doing okay, sunshine?” Tanner asks, sitting next to me and wrapping his arm around my shoulders.

  “Just wonderful.” I rest the side of my head against his chest as he takes my injured hand in his and holds it carefully in his lap.

  “How much pain are you in on a scale from one to ten?”

  “One million,” I only slightly exaggerate. With every beat of my heart, the throbbing pain in my hand only seems to grow more intense.

  “You’ll feel better soon.” He turns his head to kiss the top of my hair. “As soon as we get to the hospital, I’ll make sure they give you something for the pain.”

  “Thank you.” I close my eyes, then sigh. “At least it wasn’t my right hand, right?”

  “Right,” he agrees, not sounding like he agrees at all. “Do you have your ID and stuff in your pack?”

  I frown, then lift my head to look at him. “I don’t know what I did with it. I don’t even remember taking it off.”

  “Lauren took it from you.” He looks over his shoulder and calls out for her to pass the pack forward. When he has it, he sets it at his feet, and then the bus starts to slow. Not long after that, he’s lifting me into the passenger seat of his jacked-up truck and driving me to the hospital.

  Totally awesome.

  Not.

  Chapter 13

  TANNER

  As I sit in the chair next to Cybil, my teeth grind as I attempt to keep my cool, something that Dr. Smooth—yes, that’s really his name—is making nearly impossible for me to do. Before now, I never understood why men act like Neanderthals around their women, pounding their chests and growling one-syllable words. Now, I fucking get it, and it will be a miracle if I make it through Cybil getting her stitches without acting like a jealous asshole.

  “I travel to Oregon quite frequently. We should meet up the next time I’m there and have coffee,” Dr. Smooth says with his head tipped down, completely missing the daggers I’m shooting at the side of his head.

  Cybil licks her lips, glancing at me quickly. “Maybe,” she says, and the only reason I don’t toss a chair, pound my chest, and war-cry the word mine is because she looks a mix of bewildered and a little horrified by the attention and suggestion.

  “Cool.” He looks up at her, smiling, with his shaggy blond hair falling into his eyes. “And if you’re going to be here a few more days, I could show you around.”

  “She’ll be with me,” I say, unable to help myself, and he turns my way.

  “Oh.” His brows draw together as he focuses back on Cybil. “I thought you said you were just here for one of those adventure trips.”

  “Buddy,” I growl, and his eyes fly to me, “can you just focus on stitching up her hand? She’s tired and not interested.”

  Swallowing, he drops his gaze and gets to work. Thankfully, he’s quiet while he finishes up, then quickly provides instructions on how to take care of the injury and when to return to have the stitches removed. By the time we leave the hospital, the sun has set, and Cybil is half falling asleep. I stop at the drugstore to pick up her prescriptions and then drive to the lodge, when all I really want to do is take her up to my place and hide her away for the next week, maybe even longer.

  “Do you think everyone will be mad if I just wave at them and go to bed?” she asks after I open the passenger-side door to my truck.

  “Even if they are, who the hell cares?” I turn so that she can climb onto my back, ignoring her huff before she wraps her arms around my neck and her legs around my hips. Thankfully her ankle is fine, but she did twist it, so it’s going to be sore for a couple of days. “And you need to take a pain pill.”

  “I know. I also want to shower, but I don’t know that I’ll be able to do that with this stupid thing.” She holds her bandaged hand in front of my face. “It’s going to take me a year to wash my hair.”

  “I’ll help you,” I assure her, feeling the muscles in her thighs tense under my palms. “I’ll also keep my eyes closed.”

  “Yeah, right.” She laughs, and I smile as I head up the steps and walk through the door. Before I even have a chance to put her down, Parker spots us and tells everyone we’re back, so Cybil is engulfed and slammed with question after question. I watch as she’s helped to one of the couches, then lift my chin to Blake and Maverick as they make their way across the room toward me.

  “We need to talk,” Blake says, walking past me and right out the door. I look to Mav, who shrugs, giving me a look that states clearly he doesn’t know what’s going on, before we both follow Blake outside.

  “I talked to our lawyer,” Blake says, spinning to face us, and my spine stiffens as my eyes narrow. “He assured me that the contract Cybil signed is pretty much ironclad, so she can’t sue us. But he said it might be smart to have her sign something to say that the accident was not our fault.”

  “Pardon?” I narrow my eyes, sure I heard him wrong.

  “Look, I get that you’re into this girl, but we need to protect our business and not get caught up with pussy.”

  “What the fuck did you just say?” I take a step toward him but stop when Mav’s hand comes to rest against my chest.

  “Brother.” Mav shakes his head at me.

  “We had a deal when we started this business.” Blake takes a step back. “We agreed that there would be no fraternizing.” He crosses his arms over his chest. “I’m not willing to lose everything because you got the hots for a client and can’t keep your dick in your pants.”

  “First.” I lift my hand and point my finger in Blake’s face as rage runs hot through my veins. “Do not ever”—I accentuate each word—“fucking ever again refer to Cybil as ‘pussy.’ Second, what the fuck I do with my dick has never been and will never be any of your business. And third, we are equal partners, so you should fucking know that I would never do anything to jeopardize what we’ve built.”

  “You’ve been distracted since the day she showed up here,” he says in defense while looking at Mav for his agreement.

  “And?” I stand back and cross my arms over my chest. “Did anyone complain about the job I did during this last guide?”

  “No.” He frowns. “But that’s not the point.”

  “So what is the point? I didn’t plan on Cybil showing up. I didn’t know her before this trip. But I gotta tell you, man, I will fucking walk if you try to make me choose between her and this place.” I startle myself with that statement, but even as freaked as it makes me, I know it’s true. No one has ever made me feel what she has in the short time that I’ve known her, and as much as I love the people I consider family here, they are not mine, and if I’m right about Cybil, she’s going to be that to me—my family.

  “You don’t even know her.” His nostrils flare, and his fists clench.

  “The point is, I want to keep getting to know her. Fuck, man, you know me.” I shake my head, disappointed as fuck and pissed the hell off. “You’ve known me for years. You should know this is something else, and the fact that you want to act like I’m thinking with my dick is fucked up and complete bullshit.”

  Blake looks at Mav once more.

  “Sorry, man, but I gotta agree with Tanner on this.” Mav steps back so he’s no longer between us. “I’m not saying I’m happy that Cybil is a client, but I know Tanner would not go there unless he felt like there was something between them.”

  When Blake doesn’t say more, I sigh. “If we’re done here, I need to get Cybil to eat something so she can take her meds. And in the morning, I’m heading to my place with her. If you need me, you know how to get ahold of me.” Then, without a backward glance, I head inside and straight to Cybil.

  “Is everything okay?” she asks as I carry her down the hall to my room. When we built this place, we knew we’d each want to have a space of our own to crash after a trip, or when we had to be here early before a guide. So we built a separate wing at the back of the lodge with three small studio apartments away from the guests, which is nice after coming off a long week.

  “All good.” I set her on her feet when I reach my door, then quickly type my code into the lock and let us in. “I’m going to go get your suitcase from your car and something for you to eat,” I tell her as I help her over to the couch in the corner of the room. “The TV works, and the password for the internet is Livelifeadventures, all one word with a capital L, in case you want to go online.” I grab my laptop, which is still on the bed where I left it the last time I was here, and hand it over to her.

  “I can go get my bag.” She starts to stand but stops when her eyes meet my narrowed ones. “Okay.” She lifts her hands. “I won’t go get my bag, but something seems off with you. Is everything okay?”

  I close the distance between us and take her face between my palms. “Everything is good.” Really, it’s better than good, even with the bullshit. It feels right having her in my space, having her with me. “I just want you to eat something, shower, and take your pill so you can rest. It’s been a long fucking day.” I brush my lips across hers.

  “I really am okay.” She leans back to look me in the eye.

  “Liar,” I say quietly, seeing the pain she’s trying to hide. “I’ll be right back. Relax.” After she nods, I take off, first going to her Bronco to get her bag, then stopping in the kitchen to pick up a tray of food. When I get back to the room, I find her curled up on the couch, watching some history documentary on the television.

  “Did you know that the first chain saw was invented to help make it easier for doctors to remove babies from women?” she asks as soon as I enter the room.

  “No.”

  “Well, it was. How horrifying is that?”

  “Pretty fucking horrifying,” I agree, carrying her food and a bottle of juice to the couch and handing her the plate. “Eat, so you can take your pill and shower.”

  “Please.” She raises a brow.

  “Sorry.” I smile. “Please eat, so you can take your pill and shower.” I sit next to her with my own plate of food.

  “I know you said everything is fine, but I noticed that you, Blake, and Maverick talked, and since then, you seem to be on edge,” she says when a commercial comes on. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “Blake isn’t happy about you and me.”

  “Oh.” She sets down her fork and starts to bite her bottom lip.

  “He’s just worried. Live Life Adventures is his baby, so he’s just concerned about us spending time together and how that could affect business.”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t want you guys to fight because of me,” she says quietly.