“What are we doing?” I shout out, letting out a small sound of excitement as we hit a bump and catch some air. The ATV hits the ground hard, but the shocks are good, so it’s just fun rather than jarring. The wind is whipping my face and hands, but the sun is hot. The landscape is a fascinating mix of Douglas fir, western juniper, native lupine, and red-brown dirt. I’d appreciate it more if I weren’t wrapped up in a romantic rendezvous with my own stepbrother.
Ugh.
Yep, yep, I’ve done it. I’ve become a teen novel trope. There it is. It’s all over for me.
The thing is … sometimes tropes are there for a reason. Because they’re fun. Because I’m getting a stupid ugly thrill out of having a crush on Parrish Vanguard.
“You tell me,” he yells back, slowing the vehicle down at the next turn to give Paul a chance to speed up. Parrish glances over at me, but his face is impossible to read beneath the visor of the helmet. “Do you like me or not?”
I just stare back at him, that hot ember in my belly fanning into a flame. God, he’s annoying sometimes.
“Do I like you?” I query back as he hits the gas again, plastering me to my seat the way he does when he drives his zippy sportscar around. “Do you like me?”
There’s a long pause, long enough that I start to wonder if he even heard me. I figure probably not, since the wind is so loud, and the train of ATVs is raucous.
“Yes.”
Just that.
That one reply, it staggers me. It kills me. It rearranges every single thing I thought about Parrish in an instant. I mean, I still can’t stand the guy. He’s rude and dismissive, hot and cold, bitchy, moody, spoiled. So fucking spoiled.
And yet … he stands up for people he loves. He cares more about Tess than he does himself. He’s there whenever I need a shoulder to cry on, or a place to escape to.
“Yes.” This one’s from me. I don’t have to clarify which question of his I’m responding to. He knows. We both know. “So what do we do?”
Another long pause as we climb into the mountains.
We’re approaching a massive, fossilized lava flow on one side, coming up to the line of stopped ATVs before he finally answers.
“I don’t know, Gamer Girl.” He takes off his helmet and looks out to where Tess is, climbing out of the ATV so that our guide can show off the old rock formation. To be fair, it’s impressive as hell, covering the forest floor in a twisting, pock-marked surge of black rock. Tess waves for us to catch up and Parrish frowns. “I have no fucking idea.”
After checking out the lava flow, Parrish and I switch places and I get to drive the ATV up to the top of the butte. The 360-degree views of the Deschutes National Forest would be a real treat if my palms weren’t sweaty, and I wasn’t constantly replaying my conversation with Parrish.
I don’t know, Gamer Girl.
It’s quite clear at this point that he’s putting off his interest in me because of Tess. To protect Tess. She wants us to be siblings, but that’s just not something we’re ever going to be, unfortunately. The thing is, there are billions of fish in the sea, so why did I have to fall for Parrish? Other than Maxx Wright, he’s probably the most unattainable human being on the planet.
Why not someone like … Chasm McKenna?
I wet my lips, hands clenched around the steering as we head back toward the trailhead. As per our guide’s instructions, there’s a decent amount of space between us and Paul’s ATV. In fact, I don’t see him or anyone else as I follow the winding trail toward the road.
For a moment there, I wonder if my wandering mind hasn’t gotten us lost. There was a fork a while back, and though I’m fairly certain I took the correct side, maybe I was confused? Parrish seems checked out, and he certainly isn’t talking to me anymore.
I decide it doesn’t matter; if I got lost, the guide will come and find us eventually. If we just stick to the trails, we’ll be fine.
The sound of another ATV brings me a surge of relief as we crest the next hill. I expect to see Paul and Tess and the guide on the other side of it. Instead, there’s nobody there. A quick glance over my shoulder shows me another vehicle coming up on us quick.
“Pull over and let this douche pass,” Parrish grumbles, his voice barely audible over the roar of the wind. The trails around here are pretty popular, especially in summer, so I figure he’s right. Pull over, let this person go on their merry way so I can keep our chill pace going.
I slow down and pull completely off the trail, parking in a relatively flat spot with scrubby groundcover. We idle there as the other ATV comes up on us, my fingers tapping out a rhythm on the wheel as my eyes flick in Parrish’s direction. He looks entirely miserable.
“We don’t have to be impossible, you know,” I tell him, but my voice is pitched too low. I’m not even sure he can hear me over the engine.
Slowly, he turns to look at me, his toasted almond gaze hidden behind the helmet’s visor.
Next thing I know, our ATV is lurching forward, sliding through the dirt toward the dip in the trail. I slam my foot down on the brake automatically, wondering if I somehow hit the gas or … but no. The movement is too violent. My body ends up slamming into the steering wheel as we pitch forward, right over the edge.
We’ve been hit so hard that our vehicle tips upside down, the world spinning and swirling around me. I see trees and sky and ground, and it feels impossible to tell which end is up. That is, until the roof of the ATV smashes into the dusty ground, swirling red-brown clouds around us as I choke and sputter. I feel weightless and yet impossibly heavy all at once, hanging upside down and held in place by my seat belt and nothing else.
“Dakota!”
It takes several seconds for me to realize that Parrish is screaming my name. I feel his hand clamp around mine, and then someone’s reaching in through the window and undoing my seat belt. My shoulder hits the roof just before my neck does, and pain shoots through me as I crumple out of my seat. Whoever it is that took off my seat belt, they’re grabbing me, dragging me through the window and onto the hot dirt.
I’m so disoriented that it feels impossible to make sense of the situation. Did they … did they hit us? I wonder, thinking of the other ATV. If so, they might be hurt, too. Or maybe it’s the driver that’s rescuing me right now?
Only, this person doesn’t seem to care if they’re hurting me or not.
I’m being dragged across the ground, my bare legs burning as they scrape and tear over hot rocks and spiky shrubs. A door opens beside me, and I realize that whoever this is, they’re trying to put me into their own ATV. Are they … is this a kidnapping?
“Hey!” It’s Parrish’s voice. I blink a few times, my vision obscured by the dust, trying desperately to get my mind together. “Hands off my gamer girl, bitch.”
My eyes find the damaged front end of the ATV as my ‘rescuer’ tries to lift me up and put me into the vehicle. That’s when it all comes together: yep, he hit us. Accidentally? Purposefully? I have no idea.
I’m also not willing to wait around and find out.
With a scream, I kick out hard and nail my attacker right in the balls. He lets out a wail and drops me to the dirt where I scramble to my feet, stumbling away and tripping over another rock. My knees hit the ground hard, but when I turn around, it’s Parrish that’s behind me. He grabs me by the hand and yanks me to my feet before turning on the driver.