drove beneath an umbrella of trees. Water appeared briefly between houses and trees, like snapshots in the wind. Chloe rested against Justin’s back, welcoming the serenity of the view and soaking in the safety of him.
They came to a roundabout and drove toward Great Island, a hiker’s heaven with miles of trails and water views. The hiking boots suddenly made sense.
Justin parked and helped Chloe off the bike. As he locked the helmets in place, he said, “Have you hiked the Island before?”
“No. I’ve actually never been hiking.”
There was no hiding the shock on his face. “But you have hiking boots.”
She wrinkled her nose and said, “Fashion statement.”
Justin laughed. “Don’t tell Zeke that. He can’t imagine a life without trails and hiking in it. He’d give you a lecture about the benefits of losing yourself in nature.” He draped his arm over her shoulder and kissed her temple. “Get ready to have your mind blown, baby. If you think the open road is awesome, just wait until you experience this.”
They headed down a trail holding hands, surrounded by pitch pine trees and leafy bushes and serenaded by the sounds of birds singing and leaves brushing in the warm breeze. The trail led them out of the woods, down an incline, and along a hard-packed sand surface at the base of the dunes, where it ran along a river. Chloe appreciated that Justin wasn’t peppering her with questions about the phone call with her mother or pushing her to talk about her feelings. She just wanted to forget them and explore the new door he’d opened for her.
The sun beat down on them, but Chloe didn’t mind the heat. Sweating actually felt like purification, getting rid of all the bad feelings her conversation with her mother had left behind. The sand became deeper, and the trail forked.
“Preacher and Con used to take us here,” Justin said as they followed the trail away toward the woods. “I remember thinking hiking was stupid. The other kids had been coming here since they were little. They knew all the trails. Ashley and Madigan would skip ahead of the group. Zander and Dwayne usually ran off, and of course Zeke was always watching over Zander, so he’d take off after them. Preacher or Con would send Tank and Blaine to ‘take care of the troops.’” He laughed softly. “I remember wondering why they listened to them. I’d never been exposed to anything having to do with the great outdoors, much less a family in which kids watched after each other as much as the parents did.” He looked thoughtfully at Chloe and said, “But it wasn’t like your mom, babe. They weren’t avoiding parenting. They were teaching us how to be watchful and responsible. Dwayne and Zander never ran too far ahead, and I didn’t get that, either. I mean, for me, running had always meant running away. But I quickly learned that Preacher and Con had also taught them boundaries.”
“They care so much about all of you. I can’t imagine growing up in a family like that,” Chloe said as they followed another fork in the trail up a dune to another woodsy area. The shade cooled her off. “I know you said it took you a long time to trust them, but what did it feel like as things changed and you became part of their family?”
Justin hugged her against his side and said, “I think about that a lot, actually. It felt so good and made me so happy that it scared me. I had never felt that way before, and I didn’t trust it, so every time I made progress, I’d inch back out of fear by doing something bad.”
“You were testing them,” she said.
“I know that now. It was not a smooth transition, babe. Sometimes I felt like a bystander watching someone else’s life. It didn’t seem possible that the life I’d led had brought me there. What seemed even more unbelievable was that they wanted me there. But eventually it all came together.”
As they made their way up a hill, she thought about what it must have felt like to be that wanted. Justin took her hand, and she realized he made her feel that way, and he had done so even when she’d been denying her feelings for him.
They came to a dead end in the trail, and he led her into a thickly wooded area.