“I don’t think I’d want to rent out anything I owned,” Elodie said. “I mean, I’ve seen and read too many horror stories about renters to want to risk it.”
“Right? I feel the same way, much to my parents’ chagrin. I know they were hoping I’d follow in their footsteps, but when I joined the Navy, I think they realized I was a lost cause. But I have to say, I’m thankful every time I fall asleep with my patio door open at night, listening to the sound of the ocean waves, that they’re as successful as they are.”
“You aren’t afraid to sleep with your door open? I mean, aren’t you worried someone will come in?”
Aleck chuckled. “If someone manages to climb up to the fortieth floor of the complex to rob or kill me while I’m asleep, more power to them.”
“Wow, the fortieth floor?”
“He lives on the penthouse floor,” Pid said from behind her.
Elodie’s eyes got wide. “Seriously?”
“Yup. When he says his parents have been successful, he’s not kidding,” Midas said from in front of them.
“Successful?” Aleck said with a snort. “They’re fucking loaded. Oh, sorry for swearing.”
Elodie waved off his apology. “I never would’ve guessed. I mean, you’re…” Her voice trailed off before she said something to offend Scott’s teammate.
Aleck chuckled. “I don’t seem spoiled? I’m not. My parents made sure I knew how lucky I was when I was growing up. We volunteered a lot at our church, helping others less fortunate than us. My parents worked their asses off to get where they are. I’m glad they don’t have to worry about retirement or anything like that. They’ve earned everything they have.”
“And he’s working on paying them for his condo,” Pid threw in. “Just in case you were thinking he’s a rich kid living off his parents’ money.”
“They’re being stubborn about it,” Aleck added. “Every time I transfer money to them, they put the exact amount in the retirement account they started for me when I was a kid. It’s annoying.”
“Oh, yeah, poor baby. So annoying,” Elodie teased.
“Hey, watch it,” Aleck retorted.
Elodie thought he was teasing her right back, so she rolled her eyes. But a second later, she tripped over a tree root growing across the trail and went flying forward. She careened into Aleck’s back, knocking him over. Just before she fell in a heap on top of him, Pid grabbed her waist from behind.
For a second, Elodie had no idea what happened—then she struggled hard not to laugh at poor Aleck. He’d landed face first in a thick patch of mud in the trail, and when he stood, he was literally covered from head to toe in the thick dark brown muck.
“I-I’m sorry,” she stuttered. “I thought you were responding to my snarky comment. I didn’t know you were actually trying to warn me about the trail! But…oh my God…you look hilarious.”
Everyone was laughing now, so Elodie didn’t feel too bad about laughing with them.
Then, before she could even react, Aleck lunged forward and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into a bear hug.
“Ack! Gross! No!” she screeched as she squirmed and tried to get out of his hold. When he finally let her go, Elodie looked down and saw that he’d managed to transfer quite a bit of the mud to her.
“There. Now we’re even,” Aleck said with a grin. His teeth looked very white in his mud-smeared face and he seemed awful proud of himself.
Elodie turned to look at the rest of the guys, and saw that Scott was laughing just as hard as the others. She tried to keep a straight face, to feign upset, but she couldn’t do it. She started giggling, and soon she couldn’t stop. The seven of them probably looked like lunatics, standing in the middle of the trail, laughing their heads off, but she didn’t care.
She’d needed this.
These men were so down-to-earth. She should’ve known they’d be amazing people with the way Scott talked about them.
“Come on,” Aleck said, holding out his hand. “Truce?”
She immediately took it. She liked Scott’s friends. They treated her as if she were their little sister, even though she knew she was older than most of them.
Aleck held her hand and helped her through the thick mud he’d fallen into, releasing it when they were on the other side, then they continued with the hike. She laughed and joked with Midas, Aleck, and Pid as they continued toward the waterfall. She was having a great time getting to know the three men. Jag, Slate, and Scott brought up the rear, talking quietly amongst themselves.
It didn’t take as long as she’d thought it might to get to the end of the trail and to Maunawili Falls. There had been some beautiful views of the surrounding mountains as they’d walked, and Aleck had pointed out Kailua in the distance, but Elodie hadn’t seen anything as beautiful as this waterfall in a long time.
She felt an arm go around her waist as she stood at the edge of the swimming hole at the base of the falls, simply staring.
“Pretty, huh,” Scott asked.
“It’s beautiful,” she breathed.
“Come on, around that way is a good place to set our stuff down so we can go for a swim.”
She followed the rest of his friends, who’d obviously done this many times before. They set their packs down and Aleck was the first one to climb the path leading up to the top of the waterfall.
“Is he really going to jump?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Scott said. “We all are.”
Elodie shook her head. “You all are, maybe.”
“It’s fun,” Scott insisted.
“It’s initiation,” Pid told her. “You have to do it.”
“We aren’t in high school, and peer pressure doesn’t work on me,” she told Pid.
“Come on, you’re missing out,” Midas cajoled.
“Nope, not happening. It might not be the ocean, but there are still critters in there. Probably,” Elodie told them.
To his credit, Scott stayed with her as they watched the other guys climb to the top of the water—the very top—and leap off with loud banshee yells.
Elodie smiled as she watched their antics. They were like little kids, having the time of their lives.
“Having fun?” Scott asked. He was standing behind her now, with his arms around her waist and his chin resting on her shoulder.
Elodie nodded.
“The guys aren’t being annoying, are they?”
“Not at all.”
“Good, I warned them to all be on their best behavior.”
Elodie shook her head. “You didn’t have to do that,” she said.
“Uh, yeah I did. Otherwise they’d have been telling you embarrassing stories about me.”
Elodie turned in his arms. “Yeah?” she asked, raising one eyebrow. “Maybe I want to hear these stories.”
“No, you don’t,” Scott told her. “Are you sure you don’t want to jump?”
“Very sure. But you go on. I know you want to.”
She realized exactly how much he’d been dying to do just that when he absently kissed her, then raced up the trail toward the top of the waterfall.