Page 20 of Screwed

“Deacon has you beat on that one. The little swim session you interrupted started out with unpaid manual labor and a philosophy lesson,” I explained, and folded my arms. “If that’s the plan, I’d rather turn around now and go back to bed.”

“And burn daylight,” Nate added gruffly, but there was a glimmer of amusement in his eyes. He shook his head. “No, no practical lesson today or forced labor. I just wanted to assess the place one last time before work picks up tomorrow. I thought you’d like a better understanding of what you’re dealing with.”

Now that gave my brain a bit of a jolt. We were already technically starting the renovation work, or at least the repairs. We’d already gone through all the technicalities weeks ago, and there weren’t many, if any, additional assessments that needed to be made. That much I knew.

For a ridiculous second there, I wondered if this wasn’t his way of trying to just spend time with me. After our car ride to town, we hadn’t spent that time together. Even though Julia was my best friend, Nate and I still shared history. We’d been a fixture in each other’s lives at some point in time, and there was maybe a tiny, stupid part of me that hoped it meant something to him.

But when I looked at his eyes, big and brown and perceptive but very much closed off, I knew I was probably just breathing in too much lake air. I continued moving toward him, sticking my hands in my pockets.

“Sure. I could do with a walk,” I said.

*

The ground beneath my feet was spongy and unstable. I could see the ruts left behind by logging equipment, and noted the carpet of decaying cedar needles and slick green moss with a growing appreciation for the almost whimsical environment. It was so far removed from what I was used to in the city that it might as well have been a different world altogether.

“Look down here,” Nate said, pointing at the ground a few feet from the narrow, unpaved perimeter path we were walking. “See how the topsoil is shearing away from the clay underneath? That’s called sheet erosion. The roots of those ferns are the only thing holding this slope together right now.”

I looked around in a panic, the first cold blast of water I was met with after falling straight through the dock still stinging my skin. Nate chuckled a little, the sound a low rumble in his chest that only deepened when I glared at him.

“My fear is funny to you?” I huffed.

“A little.”

“Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind when I leave my Google review, just so you know.”

“So melodramatic,” he muttered. “You’ll be absolutely fine, Ava. You have my word on that. Sure, the grounds aren’t as stable as I would’ve preferred, but we aren’t in danger of losing the cabin just yet. All we need is to clear the deadfalls and ditch the perimeter by next week, and you won’t have to worry about mudslides by autumn.”

He adjusted his stylus and began entering something into his iPad. His dark, intelligent eyes darted between the real-world slope we were walking on and a topographical 3D map on the screen. He had this detached, practiced way of dealing with data, and I hated how that made me want to trust him.

We continued walking for a little longer, with Nate setting the pace with controlled, heavy power. He still spoke to me, but I was only half-registering anything he had to say. Something about the looming fall rains, something else about angles and boundary lines… I couldn’t catch a solid thread of his words.

What I did know was that I had to drag my eyes away from him to stop myself staring. When he reached up to gauge a tree slope, the fabric of his shirt stretched tight across his back, highlighting the deliberate flex of those shoulders and the distinct muscles of his arms. A faint sheen of sweat dampened the nape of his neck, and I drew my tongue across my lower lip before making the very conscious decision to step into the nearest brush and start collecting firewood for the night.

My pulse was out of control as I tried to steady my breathing. It wasn’t just that he was physically hot, it was the way he embodied this tactile, dominant energy without even trying. And then, there was of course the face and body, but I chose not to focus on the obvious. What I needed to figure out was why I was so attracted to my best friend’s brother. It felt wrong. He was, after all, forbidden merchandise.

I stooped to pick up snap-dry branches of dead cedar and fallen fir limbs, making a mumbling noise after Nate’s last statement to pretend that I was paying attention to what he was saying. Honestly, if it had been any other day and Nate had been any other guy, I probably would’ve been a lot more interested in the geographical wizardry he was explaining. I had a genuine interest in overlapping fields, as it were.

But all I could focus on was the way his sweat-damp shirt clung to his body in all the worst places. The hard ridges of his back, the muscular curve of his shoulders, the outline of his abs when he planted his boot or raised an arm to point out yet another slide risk. I shouldn’t have been thinking of him or even looking at him this way at all, and yet here I was. I felt like a Victorian man being tempted by the glimpse of an ankle peeking out from under a woman’s dress.

Sorry, Jules.

“So, basically what it boils down to is that, even though the slope’s unstable, the cabin’s foundation is anchored to bedrock. You have to be careful when walking around here, which is what I wanted to show you. But don’t worry, we’ve got everything sorted to ensure your access road doesn’t wash out. So you can breathe,” he said, evidently having finished his lesson plan.

“Thanks,” I said uselessly, already having forgotten half of everything he had just told me. I was sure I could look it up online later.

But in the surprisingly comfortable silence that followed, my traitorous thoughts came back full circle. I held onto the firewood I had collected, thinking about whether I could ask him the question that had been burning in the back of my mind since he brought me out here.

I’d thought it was maybe just an opportunity to spend time with me, but now that I could think about things logically, it just made sense for someone with Nate’s personality to want to prioritize my safety. That was probably his reason for bringing me out here in the first place.

He’d always been so protective of his sister, and by proxy, some of that had bled into protectiveness over me whenever I hung around Julia. Not out of being a control freak, contrary to what his sister might’ve reported, but out of care. Even as a kid, I could tell that much. And I saw a sliver of that now, too. Between all the muscles and the perfect teeth that he refused to show most times, and those eyes that were still warm even though they were guarded.

All of that together had boiled up a single, very important question.

“Nate?” I asked, throwing caution to the wind and deciding to risk it all.

“Hmm?” he grunted in response, turning his attention to me.

My throat went dry, but I forced the words out anyway. “What happened to make you swear off dating for good? By all metrics, you should have plenty of options.”