“I checked it.”
“But the whole point of our being here—”
“Stop! Please.” He sighed. “We’ll see the falls, explore the park, and after we’ve found a private place, I’ll retrieve the guitar.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I’m surprised we can’t hear the falls from here,” Nick said, clearly in an effort to change the subject. “We have to take a tram to the trailhead.”
They shuffled through the line with all the other passengers waiting to board the tram. Sweat beaded on the back of Adrienne’s neck and rolled between her shoulder blades. Nick’s damp shirt clung to his chest. She had to look away as memories of them playing at the beach, and guilt, swamped her. She chided herself for being attracted to her husband’s cousin. What would Seb—or any other members of his family—say if they could read her thoughts?
“What are you thinking about?” Nick asked.
Adrienne started. “You don’t want to know.”
He touched a spot between her eyebrows. “You get a wrinkle right here when you’re concentrating on something.”
Had Seb ever looked at her the way Nick was looking at her right now? For the last few years, he’d hardly noticed her at all. It was as if she were invisible.
“It’s back,” Nick said. “It disappeared for a second, but—oh, it’s gone again.”
Adrienne laughed. “You’re making me self-conscious.” She wanted to ask him to stop looking at her, but she didn’t know how. Instead, she tucked her hand around his arm and whispered, “So, which of our fellow passengers will be the first to try and feed the coati-creatures?”
Nick scanned the people in the crowd as they filed onto the tram. “The man wearing the cravat?”
Adrienne settled onto the seat. “Hmm, that’s a good guess.”
Nick sat beside her. His thigh briefly touched hers before he scooched away. “Why? Because he looks ridiculous?”
“Yes. It’s a hundred degrees out here.” Adrienne lifted her hair off the back of her neck and longed for a hair-tie.
The tram’s engine rumbled and barked before lurching into gear, then gathered speed as it pulled away from the park’s entrance.
“Maybe he has a good reason for covering up his neck.”
“Like what?”
“A rash? Scars?”
“Hickies,” Adrienne put in. She rolled her hair into a long cord and attempted to tie it up as she watched the jungle flash by.
“I cannot believe you just said that,” Nick said in a mock self-righteous tone. “Besides, this man is probably the sort who would want to flaunt his hickies. Who is your choice?”
Adrienne glanced around at the few children. They were the obvious choices, but because she really hoped it wouldn’t be one of them, she nodded at a woman with a mane of chestnut-colored hair wearing a pair of silver stilettos.
“She’s pretty,” Nick said.
“Yes, but she didn’t make a wise footwear choice.”
Nick fell quiet. After a moment, he said, “I can feel the falls.”
Adrienne listened and a quiet thunder vibrated in her chest. “So can I.”
The sound grew heavier and more distinct once they disembarked from the tram.
“Amazing,” Nick said as they followed the crowd. “Should we take the upper or lower falls trail?”
“Both?”
