Page 83 of Wandering Wild
She leaps into my arms again, pulling Maddox in for a three-way jumping hug.
“I knew it!” she cries. “Charlie totally saved your ass in more ways than one! Ilovethat girl!”
But just as quickly, her excitement fades and she steps back, only to punch me in the arm.
“Ow!” I yelp, rubbing my newest bruise. “What was that for?”
“You were freakingroofiedat my birthday and you didn’t tell me.” Her glare could slice metal. “I’m not some fainting damsel who you need to protect, Zander. I love that you want to, but please,stop.” She shoots her narrowed gaze between Maddox and me. “And for the love of everything, both of you need to stop hiding your struggles from each other. There’s no shame in having feelings—ever. The good, the bad, and the ugly. That’s what friendship is for: warts and all. If either of you forget that again and make me play go-between for so much as aminute, let alone three months, I’ll kick your asses and make it my life’s mission to post embarrassing photos of you across social media.” She pauses, wrinkling her nose. “Okay, maybe that last part is going too far, but I’ll think of something equally terrible without the public visibility element. Consider yourselves warned.”
My lips are twitching by the time she finishes. “Are you done?”
“For now.” She tosses her golden locks over her shoulder. “As long as you two are good again?”
I look to Maddox, wanting him to answer.Needinghim to answer. He doesn’t make me wait, only says, his eyes shining with reassurance, “We’re good.”
“It’s about time,” Summer mutters. But then she links her arm through mine and starts leading me across the room, saying, “FYI, we wanted to meet you in the foyer with the others, but I was drawing too much attention from the crowd outside, and Maddox is a big baby who was scared to see you without me holding his hand.”
Maddox rolls his eyes, but there’s a smile tugging at his lips that makes me feel like I’m floating on air. We still have a long way to go to catch up on everything we missed in the last three months—and all the secrets from before that—but seeing him here, hearing he dropped everything to come meet me, I know we’re going to be all right.
“So all that’s to say,” Summer goes on, “before Gabe banished us to your room, he told us about dinner. And I mean this in the kindest possible way, but you’re filthy, Zan. So let’s pause this little reunion-slash-bonding sesh while you take fifteen showers between now and when we’re due down at the restaurant.”
“Hawke’s medic is coming to check you over as well,” Maddox reminds me. “Maybe make it fourteen showers so you don’t keep the doc waiting.”
As eager as I am to rid myself of my grimy hiking clothes and scrub my skin raw, I hesitate when Summer releases me at the bathroom door.
Maddox reads me like a book, his voice low and steady as he promises, “We’re not going anywhere, Zan. We’ll be right out here, probably arguing over who gets the chocolate mint sitting on your pillow.”
I arch an eyebrow. “It’s my pillow. Shouldn’t I?—”
“Dibs!” Summer declares, shoving me into the bathroom and slamming the door behind me.
I can’t keep the smile off my face as I listen to their muffled bickering over the minuscule chocolate, my heart lighter than it’s been in months now that I have my best friend back. But my elation fades when my thoughts turn to Charlie, wondering what she’s doing and whether she just had her own difficult conversations with her stepdad and Ember. I wish I knew how she’s processing everything that’s happened since we returned, my insides knotting as I remember how she didn’t look at me once after we arrived in the foyer. Dread claws at me, but I tell myself there’s no point worrying before I have a chance to speak with her. Instead, I clear my mind as I undress and step under the blissfully hot spray, sighing in contentment as I relax for the first time in days.
That contentment doesn’t last, however, because after the medic clears me with a warning to be careful until my bruising heals, Gabe knocks on my door to escort us down to the restaurant, where Charlie, Ember, Jerry, Hawke, Bentley, and Scarlett are waiting in a cordoned-off private area—and in an instant, my dread returns, stronger than ever.
Because Charlie still isn’t looking at me.
In fact, she seems determined to avoid my gaze entirely.
Like me, she’s cleaned up since I last saw her, now wearing a white dress paired with a purple cardigan, while I’ve donned dark wash jeans and a blue sweater. But when I try to tell her how nice she looks, or say how good it feels to be clean and ask whether she’s as relieved as I am, all I get is a tight smile as she looks past my shoulder and nods in agreement.
Unease gnaws at me, making it difficult to concentrate through dinner. I’m vaguely aware that the conversation is strained and the mood is heavy, at least until the charismatic trio of Ember, Summer, and Maddox work their magic to bring about quick smiles and quicker laughter. They clearly bonded while awaiting news of our potential demise, and it warms my heart to see them getting along so well, even if I’m still worried about why Charlie has closed herself off to me.
I barely notice when dinner ends and Hawke, Bentley, and Scarlett all say their goodbyes, claiming they have an early-morning flight to their next filming location and this is the last we’ll see of them. But I do manage to snap back to myself when Hawke pulls Charlie and me aside to tell us again how proud he is of the way we handled ourselves, before saying we’re welcome to join him on another adventure any time we want.
“Or you can visit one of my survival camps,” he offers. “The one in Ecuador is my favorite. Cougars, jaguars, anacondas, piranhas—the Amazon really delivers. Consider this a standing invitation.”
At the identical looks of horror on our faces, he bursts out laughing, then draws us in for quick hugs before leaving with Bentley and Scarlett. Soon after, Gabe and Jerry retreat to their rooms as well.
It’s Maddox who drags the rest of us back to my suite, his arm slung around Charlie’s shoulders to make sure she doesn’t escape—likely because he can see, just as I can, that she wants to. I’m desperate to talk to her alone, but I exercise patience as Summer, Maddox, and Ember share about the last few days from their perspectives, and then our conversation morphs into a casual, easy-going hangout, as if we’re old friends. It’s surreal, purely because itisn’t. Ignoring the tension surrounding Charlie and me, the dynamic between the five of us is almost unnaturally cohesive, like we’ve known each other for years rather than days—or in some cases, hours.
Despite how enjoyable it is, and how much I’m beginning to relax again even with Charlie’s walls raised sky high, all of that shatters when I step into the bathroom to relieve myself and then return to the suite. Because while Maddox, Summer, and Ember are still chatting merrily among themselves?—
Charlie is gone.
Zander finds me sitting on the wooden bench in the hotel’s fairy garden, staring out at the view of the moonlit mountains.
I knew he would come—I’ve been waiting for him.
