Chapter 54—Brekka
It’s not hot, but it’s a little muggy, and Rob’s shirt dampens everywhere I’m touching him. Hardly surprising with the way his legs are pumping and his back muscles rippling. Watching him jog reminds me of the perfect movement of a clock.
“How are you holding up?” I ask Rob.
“Am I grossing you out?” he asks. “I’m sorry. I maybe should have warned you that I’m a sweaty guy, but I was worried it would scare you off.”
I laugh. “I love it. You’re perfect.”
“Not even close, but if you’re not shuddering, I’ll take it.”
I watch his legs pounding beneath us, his arms shifting back and forth, the muscles in his neck, and his pulse. I wish I could capture every bit of it. I pull out my phone and take a selfie. Once he realizes what I’m doing, he stops and turns so the foliage is behind us. When he smiles for me, something inside of me melts.
I snap way too many photos, and I keep my phone out after that. I wish I’d thought to photograph the Mahogany forest, but I don’t mention it, or Rob will jog us back. I know he will.
Wonder of wonders, the Stone Dam is open.
“It’s been dry,” Rob crows. “That must be why!”
He doesn’t hesitate to take us down that off-shooting trail, and when the Stone Dam opens up to view, I gasp. “The sign says each stone was broken down by hand and laid individually in place.”
It looks like a long, gorgeous waterfall, with two large triangles jutting out at one-third and two-thirds of the way across. The water spills down over them at a diagonal, pouring out further and then dropping straight off on the sides.
“Amazing.” I sigh.
Rob turns and takes a selfie of the two of us, my arms around his neck, my face smiling, the dam in the background.
“I didn’t really want to come,” I say.
Rob nearly drops my phone. “Why did you? I said the beach was fine, but honestly I’d have been okay sitting at the hotel. I just wanted to be with you.”
“I thought you wanted to hike. You made a special harness.”
He returns my phone with a sigh. “You’ve got to tell me what you want to do. I’d have picked the beach myself. Closer and easier to coordinate.”
I laugh. “Neither of us wanted to come, and here we are. We’re a terrible pair, huh?”
Rob can’t twist his head like Gumby to kiss my lips, but he drops a kiss against my cheek. “I think we’re a great pair, and I’m glad we got confused and came. If nothing else, that photo’s going to look amazing framed on my desk at work.”
That thought warms my heart. My photo, proudly displayed on his desk, for everyone to see. His girlfriend Brekka. Not a secret, not a phantom or just some girl he’s flirting with. His girlfriend on his back, in front of a dam, on a hike.
“You are going to send me all these, right?” he asks.
“What will I get in exchange?”
“What did you have in mind?” He starts to jog again, moving slowly toward the exit. “Name something and the answer is yes.”
I can’t think of anything at first. “Let me have a little time to contemplate a fair price.”
“The travails of having so much money that you literally buy anything you can possibly imagine. You realize, this means you’ll be absolutely impossible to shop for.”
“Oh, my brother might have mentioned that a time or two.”
“I’m creative. Did I mention that?” Rob asks.
“You might have,” I say. “But I’m pretty creative too. Because I think I know what I want. I want you to move to Colorado.”
The second the words fly out, I want to snatch them back. It’s almost exactly what Geo told me to ask for, and what I swore I wouldn’t ever say. After all, I don’t want him to move to Colorado just because I asked.
Rob doesn’t speak.
Now I’m worried it might be worse if he refuses me. I swallow and close my eyes.
“Look at the guava orchards,” he says. “Aren’t they spectacular?”
I respond, but I can’t recall what I say two minutes later. Who cares about guava orchards? I ruined our entire afternoon with my completely inappropriate demand.
A few moments later, we reach the Junction and I see the bush where Gladys is waiting. Rob sets me down, but I stop him from assembling her for me. I scoot over until I’m next to her and assemble her myself. I need to do it alone, with my hands, and not have it done for me. By the time she’s assembled, I lever myself up and onto her seat, and I’m wheeling toward the exit.
How could I have taken something so perfect and smashed it to bits? It’s such a Brekka thing to do. Broken girl who smashes everything. It’s so obvious and predictable.
Rob jumps in front of me on the path, his hands splayed in front of him. “What’s going on right now?”
I pull up short, barely in time to keep from barreling over him. “What?”
“You and I are jogging along, having what I thought was an amazing time. Then you completely close off and won’t meet my eye. And somehow we’ve entered the Indy 500 and you’re sprinting to get back to the mini golf place. Is there some timeline I didn’t hear about? Because by my watch, we’ve got four hours yet until the ceremony, which is plenty of time to drive back to the hotel, shower and get ready, even if I were doing my hair all curly and fancy and putting on make-up I didn’t need.”
I frown. “You think I don’t need make-up?”
He sighs. “I stuck my foot in it on that one. I’m sure whatever you do will be lovely, with make-up or without. But my point is, what did I do or say wrong?”
Does he really have no idea? He’s not that clueless, right?
“I asked you to move to Colorado. You ignored me.”
“Oh, you were serious?” His eyebrows lift. “I thought you were kidding.”
I close my eyes. Why didn’t that possibility occur to me? Of course he’d assume I was kidding. Trading a few selfies for a cross-country move isn’t a reasonable suggestion. I could kick Geo for planting this idea in my head to begin with. Or, you know, I suppose I can’t kick her. But if I could move my legs, I sure would.
Rob folds his arms in front of me and nods. “If you’re really asking me, then yes, I’ll move to Colorado. I’d need to wait until I could transition my job to a manager who I trust. My family will understand since there’s a compelling reason for me to leave. And you are the most compelling reason of all.”
Geo’s a genius, and I hate her for it. Because now that Rob’s willing to do exactly what I asked, I realize I don’t want him to move to Colorado. Not at all.