Persuaded (7 page)

“Yep. My lucky Swiss army hat. I’ve gotta wear it today.”

I noticed Ethan was wearing a pink wristband that looked just like Carson’s.

“Hey, guys! I’m Ethan, if you don’t know me—and well, uh, Ethan if you do.” His arm was still over Carson’s shoulders when he turned to him and asked, “So you’re driving right?”

“Heck yeah, I am! Do you honestly think I would let my lil’ bro get behind the wheel of my Beast?” He grinned and shrugged out of Ethan’s hold. “Let me introduce you to the whole gang.” With a nod Carson pointed to Gregory. “This is Gregory. Kylie you know. Sydney, Collin, Madison—she’s taken, so hands off.” He winked right at her. “Lilly is Gregory’s cousin, and then A–Alana, right?

“Amanda,” Gregory corrected. Eight pairs of eyes flew to him, and his gaze connected with mine. After an embarrassed second I turned away and looked right into Lilly’s contemplative stare.

“So are we going to hit the road or what?” teased Ethan.

“I’m ready!” Madison laughed. “What do we need?”

“You guys brought your picnic stuff, right?” Carson asked.

“Ours is in the car.” Kylie looked over at me.

“Ours too,” hollered Madison.

“Well, let’s get the food and head out of here. Follow the signs and meet me around back.” Carson clapped his hands once and we took off.

Within a few minutes, we all found ourselves snuggled nicely into The Beast. Carson and Ethan were in the front seat, while Collin, Madison, and I made up the second bench seat. The back was set up military cargo style, with two bench seats lined up under the Land Rover’s side windows—seatbelts and everything. Gregory, Kylie, Sydney, and Lilly were in the back facing each other. It was a really cool setup. I was surprised at how fun the very back seemed. For such a large vehicle, there wasn’t a lot of extra room inside like a typical SUV. We were literally huddled up next to each other. My knees hit the front bench seat, and Gregory sat right behind me. It was a bit disconcerting to feel him so close, and a couple of times the truck bounced and jolted my head into his arm where it rested on the back of the bench.

I let out a slight involuntary shriek when Carson pulled off the main road and crossed onto the rough ground in front of us. After the first ten minutes or so, I found I really loved the rocking rhythm of the Land Rover. Everyone around me was chattering happily above the din of the engine. The atmosphere in the vehicle hummed with energy as the golden rock and sandstone of the Animas Valley crunched and yielded beneath The Beast’s tires.

We jounced and bounded across the desert for about forty-five minutes, narrowly missing cactuses and evergreen shrubbery along the way. At one point, when the ride became extra bumpy—bringing a few whoops and excited giggles from the group—Carson hollered back to us that we were actually on a dry riverbed trail. The miles of jagged, golden landscape were beautiful, and definitely something I never thought in a million years I would ever see up close.

All too soon we made it to our designated picnic spot. Carson pulled out his CB radio and communicated his whereabouts to the sporting-goods store. Then he climbed the ladder on the back of The Beast, unlatched the large ice chest from the roof rack, and handed the chest down to Ethan and Gregory. We followed the guys to a picnic table made of crudely cut logs. It was really rugged, but cool in its own way.

“Carson, did you make the table?” I asked around a mouthful of turkey-and-cheddar sandwich after we had all settled down. “It’s really cool.” Everyone turned to stare at him.

He grinned timidly. “Yeah. I thought it’d be fun to have something like this out here. It’s not much to look at, but with the tools I had at the time, I guess it didn’t turn out too bad.”

Madison’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding! You made this? Out here?”

Ethan nudged Carson in the ribs and laughed out loud when he blushed. “Yeah, my big brother’s got a whole lot of talents. Haven’t I ever told you about them before?” His wink was directed right at Madison.

Clearly flustered, she looked down at her sandwich. I’m sure it was obvious to everyone at the table that the brothers had spent a lot of time talking about her. Everyone except Madison’s boyfriend, that is. He didn’t seem to notice at all.

Curious, I glanced at Collin, who hadn’t even touched his sandwich. It looked like he had lost his cell signal—he kept raising and lowering his iPhone around Madison’s head.
It’s like he’s in his own little world,
I thought. Looking back at Carson and Ethan, I could see they hadn’t missed Collin’s odd behavior. They both shook their heads, seeming completely baffled and probably wondering how Madison ever ended up with a guy like that.

With the sun in Collin’s eyes, his expression was kind of strange. I smiled a little and turned my gaze to connect directly with Gregory’s glittering eyes over the table. He must’ve been watching me. My heart sped up a bit as his mouth slowly formed a slight grin in acknowledgment of mine. The humor of the situation wasn’t lost on him, either. My smile grew.

Sitting to Gregory’s left, Kylie made a comment and broke the fragile contact he and I had made. I quickly finished my lunch and left the table before my heart had stopped racing. Everyone else was still eating—or playing with a cell phone—so I used the time alone to explore the place a bit.

After five or ten minutes of following a trail, I entered an area filled with cedar and piñon trees. The limbs of the short piñon trees were covered with small, green cones. I stopped to examine a couple.
Look how many pine nuts these will have,
I thought excitedly
.
I had never seen so many cones on the piñon trees near the city. I definitely wanted to come back out in the fall and bring a tarp to harvest some pine nuts. I wondered if Carson would bring us back. Collecting the tiny nuts was so fun, and they were one of my favorite things to eat. Just then, I heard a faint noise and realized I wasn’t alone.

“Over here, Gregory. Look. There’s loads of piñon cones over here.” Kylie’s laughing voice caused me to freeze. It was soon followed by Gregory’s deep voice.

“What are piñon cones, anyway? I’ve only heard of pine cones.”

Oh my gosh. They’re getting closer.
I was indebted to the wide branches of the cedar tree that hopefully concealed me.

“That’s because they’re rare. Usually you can only find them in the West. The pine nuts are so good. Seriously, you have to try one.”

I watched the shrubbery beside me shake and knew they were on the other side of the small tree. I stepped back further into the sticky limbs of the overgrown bush on my left.

“Here. Here’s one. See? One day it’s gonna be full of yummy nuts to eat. You should try gathering them—it’s really fun.” Kylie laughed again.

“Do you pick these a lot?”

“Nah, usually just with Amanda.”

“Amanda?” Gregory paused before he casually asked, “Do you two hang out?”

“Sometimes. We’re friends, if that’s what you mean. It’s just usually she doesn’t do much. This is just about her speed, you know? Coming out into nature collecting seeds. I mean, I can’t tell you how many times she drives me crazy when she refuses to get out and do something, or go out with someone.”

“Refuses to go out with someone? What do you mean?”

Oh my gosh. Please let this tree swallow me whole.

“Oh, you know, guys—when they ask her out on a date or something, she’s always telling them no.”

“Wait. Amanda? Are you talking about Amanda Ellis?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“She’s had guys ask her out and she won’t go out with them?”

“Yeah. Crazy, huh?”

“You’re kidding.” Gregory’s voice sounded strained when he asked, “Why? Do you know?”

“Uh, well, I don’t know.” Kylie seemed a bit taken aback. Apparently she’d heard the edge in his voice, too. “I mean, I definitely wouldn’t go out with some of them. But you never know why Amanda does anything, really. Maybe she thinks she’s better than them or something.” I could almost imagine Kylie as she shrugged her shoulders.

“When did they ask her? Recently?”

“No, not that recently. I mean, honestly I think she’s scared off all the guys around here. They know she’ll just tell them no.”

“Oh.”

There was nothing significant in his answer, but I’ve never known such relief as when, in the next breath, I heard Kylie exclaim, “Well, let’s go show everyone what we’ve found. I bet the Franklin brothers are gonna want to know where these trees are. By September, the pine nuts will be ripe.”

“Cool.”

I waited until I thought the coast was clear before I stepped out of my hiding spot. I spun around at the accusing voice behind me.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Six: Caught!

Lilly was less than two feet from me. “Why didn’t you tell me it was you?”

I stared at her, speechless.

“Why didn’t you say you were the girl who broke Gregory’s heart?”

Say something.
“I–I couldn’t.” I blinked and then looked away from her scornful glare. “How did you know?”

“Like it was hard to put the pieces together, especially after the way he watches you and then with what Kylie just said,” Lilly retorted. Then she asked hesitantly, “You still love him, don’t you?”

My head whipped around to meet her eyes, before I lowered mine and mumbled, “I, uh . . . yes, I do. But please don’t say anything.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it. Talk about awkward.” Her attempt at a joke brought my gaze to hers again. “Besides, by the looks of things it’s not likely you two will ever be together again.”

On the way back to the picnic table I must’ve tripped on a dead branch or something, because I had fallen down before I knew what had happened.

“Amanda, are you all right?”

The look of concern on Lilly’s face made me giggle, even though I was touched that she cared.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I think.”

With her help, I was able to stand up and brush off most of the stubborn grime. I’d forgotten how sticky the clay soil was. I had a slight yellowish terracotta film over most of my jeans and a good part of my light blue T-shirt when we arrived back at the Land Rover. To make matters worse, I’d wrenched my ankle a bit when I fell. It didn’t sting or swell or anything, but it was a little sore. I tried not to limp as I approached the group.

Madison was the first one to notice my appearance. “Amanda, what happened? Are you okay?”

I laughed along with everybody when the rest of the group turned to see me and couldn’t contain their amusement.
I’m so glad there’s not a mirror. I would hate to see what I really look like.

Ethan grinned mischievously when he pointed to the left side of my face and asked, “Didn’t get enough to eat, Amanda? You had to try out some dirt too?”

Everyone burst into laughter again.

I wiped some dust off my cheek. “I’m awfully thirsty from tasting all that dirt. Has anyone seen my water bottle?”

“Here, Amanda, you can use mine.” Kylie chucked her unopened bottle right at me. I wasn’t expecting that, and the bottle would have hit me had Gregory’s arm not flown in front of my face at the last second and caught it.

“Here.” His voice above my head sent a shiver down my spine.

“Thanks.” I half smiled and blinked at his shirt before glancing down at my dirty clothes.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Yeah.” I tried again to look up at him, but it was impossible.

“Did you get hurt when you fell?”

“Hurt?” I was surprised he cared. My eyes finally found his, and my heart began to flutter uncontrollably.

He grinned. “I sound like a broken record, don’t I?”

Record? What in the—?

“It seems like the only thing I can ever ask you is if you’re hurt or not.” He chuckled.

I was dying. I never thought I would see his grin or hear his laughter directed at me again. “I’m fine.”

My smile caused Gregory to pause a moment, and I watched as his eyes settled on my mouth briefly before meeting my own again. “You should do that more often.”

More often?