She poked a finger into the center of his chest. “Don’t make me go hiking by myself. What if I got lost or encountered a bear or two? I don’t want something like that weighing on your conscience.”
It would just be one of many, he thought cynically. “All right. I wouldn’t want to find out you became bear food.”
Thirty minutes later, Alec found himself outside of Missoula walking along a dirt trail, listening to the rustling of the wind through the trees and branches snapping under the weight of his feet. Part of him missed the sound of the cars buzzing by as he ran through the streets of his neighborhood outside of LA. It drowned out all the thoughts taunting him, but he had to admit it definitely smelled better here.
“Do you come here a lot?” he asked, glancing briefly at Violet.
“In the summer. My mom used to take my brother and me hiking here every Saturday morning in the summer when we were kids. It’s become a habit for my brother and me. He’s not in town very often, so I end up going by myself a lot. My best friend, Annette, hates hiking.”
Alec nodded, looking away. His gut twisted. As a kid, he would have done anything for a moment of normalcy. Even before the car crash, his parents didn’t have the most functional relationship. It was a rollercoaster of highs and lows marked by a lot of drama, crying, and yelling, but all of that paled in comparison to the shit that happened afterwards.
“So where do you find the huckleberries?”
Violet stopped walking. “Tell me you aren’t serious.”
“What?” he said, holding his hands, palm up, in front of his body.
“You haven’t picked huckleberries before. Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”
“Honestly, I haven’t.” He chuckled. “My family didn’t do the outdoor thing.”
“What did your family do?”
He sucked his lip ring into his mouth. “Nothing functional, and by functional, I mean family outings, hiking, trips, or family dinners.” He started walking again, hoping that she’d stop questioning him about his family. After a minute, he heard her footsteps crunching against the gravel on the trail behind him and he exhaled, knowing her questioning had ended.
“There’s a steep incline along the side of the trail just around the next turn. The huckleberry bushes will be there.”
He looked at her over his shoulder. “Do you have something to put them in?”
“No. Most of the time, I just pick what I can eat.” She laughed. “My brother and I ate so many one time when we were kids, we got sick and could hardly make it back to the car. My parents were so mad. While they ate lunch near a waterfall, we wandered down the trail and ate as many as we could in an hour. When they found us, our hands and faces were stained purple and sticky. Twenty minutes into the hike back to the car, we could hardly walk because our stomachs were cramping.”
“Is that your way of warning me not to overindulge?”
“Hey, do what you want. It’s your stomach.”
“Did you pack anything else for us to eat?” he asked, patting her backpack lightly.
“Nope. Not a single thing. It’s only a three hour hike.”
“Well, I’ll have to take my chances because I skipped breakfast.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“I hereby absolve you of all blame from any stomach problems I may or may not encounter as a result of overindulging. I haven’t had huckleberries since I was a kid so I can’t promise anything.”
Violet pointed up the hill on the side of the trail. “Here they are.”
Alec scanned the tangled bushes dotted with petite, almost black berries.
“Eat away,” she said as she stepped around him and climbed up the hill.
His eyes skated over her body as he followed her up the hill. Her long, toned legs sucked him in and he had a hard time concentrating on anything except what it’d feel like to slide his hands along their silky length. He groaned inwardly. He couldn’t spend any more time pining over her. They could never be together.
When they reached the top, they stopped at the same bush and he started popping the berries into his mouth one by one. They tasted similar to a blueberry, but a little sweeter. “I forgot how good these are.”
“These ones are perfect, not too red, not too bitter,” she said as she dropped a few into her mouth.
She closed her eyes, a faint smile on her lips as she savored each berry, rolling it around in her mouth before she swallowed. Watching her was more entertaining than eating, so he leaned back against a tall pine tree and folded his arms across his chest, his eyes devouring her. “It’s so quiet out here. I’m used to all the traffic and people in LA. It’s strange how the absence of noise almost has its own sound,” he said when she finally looked at him.