Not with the hike. No, the hike was cake. Mostly flat. Along a stream. Lots of trees that then opened into sunny clearings. Tykeman Park was gorgeous. But it didn’t compare to her date. Cherry was…stunningwas the only word that seemed to work, and even that didn’t have quite enough shine or sparkle to do her justice.
It wasn’t her clothes. They were nice, of course. Black shorts with several pockets and a purple Henley with a lightweight black down vest. The hikers were definitely cool, their purple accents matching Cherry’s shirt, something she was sure Cherry did on purpose because when it came to fashion, Ellis had realized that Cherry knew what she was doing. The socks that were bunched at the tops of the hikers just left lots of leg to look at. And Cherry wasn’t a typical redhead. She wasn’t pale—she was almost olive skinned. Her legs were shapely—it was clear she either walked or ran a lot, or used to. And her ass—
“Doing okay?” Cherry asked, her voice cutting into Ellis’s thoughts, thank God.
“I am. You?”
“Great.” And she sounded it. Like she really was great. Her glance back to Ellis was heated, and she seemed to take a moment to find some words. At least, that’s what it looked like to Ellis, like she was deciding what to say. She finally asked, “How’s your sister doing?”
Ellis inhaled deeply, something she tended to do before talking about Michaela. “She’s good. I mean, as good as she could be, right?”
“You said it was a car accident?” Cherry’s steps slowed as she navigated her way along a rocky section of the bank of the stream. She glanced back quickly. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. It’s none of my business.”
And something about that, something about the offer tonottalk about it made Ellis feel the opposite. She wanted to talk about it, and that was rare. “I don’t mind,” she said and was surprised to realize she meant it. “Michaela struggled her whole life. Well, not herwholelife. We actually had a pretty great childhood. But from the time she was a teenager on, she had lots of trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?”
“Her looks. Her weight. Body image, though at the time, I don’t think any of us really understood.”
“Ugh. That’s so hard.”
“It is.” Ellis did a hop-jump over a large protruding tree root. “Society is rough on women. It sets unattainable goals for us, then tells us we’re failures if we don’t reach them. Magazines, movies, models, television. And don’t get me started on social media and how that skews our perception of ourselves. Yikes.”
Cherry was quiet in front of her, so she assumed that meant she should continue.
“Anyway. Mikey struggled. Sometimes, she was happy, but mostly, she wasn’t. Her weight went up and down. She got really thin. Then she’d gain weight.” She paused as her brain tossed her a handful of images of her sister throughout their life, her body changing, her smile staying the same, her eyes always a little sad. Her voice went soft. “I always just thought she was beautiful.”
“I’m sure she was,” Cherry said, equally as quiet.
“Anyway, one day, my dad got a call that there’d been a car accident, that Mikey had hit a tree head-on.”
“God.”
“Yeah. Turns out they discovered in their investigation that she’d made no attempt to stop. There were no skid marks, nothing to indicate that she’d tried to steer away or hit the brakes.” She cleared her throat and gave herself a moment for the emotion to settle before she allowed a bitter chuckle. “Clearly, she didn’t count on the airbag.”
“Ellis, I’m so sorry. That had to be so rough on you and your dad.”
“I think it broke him,” she said honestly and matter-of-factly. Cherry grimaced over her shoulder. “No, I do. He died of a heart attack, but I really think his heart was broken because of his daughter.”
“Oh, Ellis,” Cherry whispered.
“After he died, I went through the whole house and Michaela’s apartment, had to get rid of things, decide what I wanted to keep. I found so much crap in Michaela’s room and on her phone about dieting and the accounts she followed on Instagram and Snapchat and Tumblr were just…” She shook her head, still bothered by it all. “All these beautiful women wanting nothing more than to change everything about themselves.” She sighed loudly. “The filters. The fad diets. The makeup. Telling her she should be or act or look a certain way, andmost of the time, it was completely unrealistic. She never, ever looked in the mirror and saw what I did, how beautiful she was as a person. She never saw what she was. She only saw what she wasn’t. It all just made me so sad.”
“I can imagine.”
“So.” Ellis gave herself a mental shake. “You can imagine how much I’m not on social media and hate pretty much everything about it.” She laughed and held up a hand, even though Cherry, walking in front of her, couldn’t see it. “I know, I know, it makes me seem ancient, but I can’t stand the deception online. There’s so much of it.”
She thought she saw Cherry nod but couldn’t be sure.
“Anyway. Enough about that. How about this walk?” She frowned, annoyed at herself now for getting all preachy about things. “This place is beautiful.”
Cherry stopped at a somewhat clear spot along the bank of the stream and seemed to just stare into the water.
“You okay?” Ellis asked as she sidled up next to her. She put a hand on her upper arm tentatively. “Listen, I didn’t mean to get all judgy and weird just then. I think…” A bitter laugh escaped her lips. “I think I maybe have some unresolved issues around what happened.” When Cherry looked at her, she made a face, and Cherry’s surprisingly serious expression softened.
“It would only make sense if you did,” Cherry said.
“Yeah.” They stood quietly for a moment, just listening to the rush of water and the singing of birds overhead. “There’s something about nature, isn’t there?” Her voice was hushed. She didn’t want to disturb the incredible sounds around them. “I feel like it can restore your faith in”—she shrugged—“life. Goodness. Show you that things you might think are huge are really just small drops in a bucket larger than you can possibly imagine.”
