Page 57 of Wrapped in Hope

He picks up on my disappointment. “Don’t worry. If you’re good I may fit in a little dirty fun.”

I perk up. “Deal!”

We head back out to his Jeep and I walk with my head ducked. When we’re both inside, I prop my right arm on the door and use my hand to block my face.

“What are you doing?”

I take a deep breath. “My parents don’t know about us and I don’t want them to see us together until I’ve had a chance to tell them.”

I watch as all amusement leaves his face. “That is something we need to figure out. We were almost caught once already.”

“We were?” I ask, quickly turning to look at him.

“Yeah, yesterday when Jane saw us. She was showing out your parents. She kept them from seeing, even though I don’t know why. I figured she would hate me and want to ruin what we have.”

I hear all the pain and anguish in his voice. I run my hands through my hair. “I’m sorry being with me is causing you so much grief.” I quickly turn to look out the passenger side window.

“Hey.” His finger is under my chin, turning me to face him. “I don’t regret anything. I love you. It’s just going to take time to figure this out. But we will. I promise.”

I nod before staring out the windshield, thinking over our whole situation.

Being with Holden makes me happy. He makes me forget all about the bad times I’ve had. He makes me whole. I refuse to give up on that. But I’m still afraid of losing my parents. I don’t know what I’ll do if they don’t take the news well. I can only hope everything works out for us after all we’ve been through.

* * *

We driveout of town in the opposite direction of the city, way out into the middle of nowhere. I’m caught completely off guard when he turns off the pavement and onto a dirt trail that has rows of corn on either side.

“What are you doing? We’re in the middle of a field.”

He laughs at my shocked expression. “I know. There are some fun trails and hills out here I’ve been wanting to take this thing down.”

I feel my brows raise as I turn and look at him. “This is a thirty thousand dollar vehicle! You’re going to off-road this?”

He shrugs with confidence. “Why not? We won’t do anything too crazy.”

I hold onto the door with my right hand and my left hand clutches the handlebar on the dash as we start hitting potholes in the dirt road. At the end of the path, the tree line opens up. “There it is,” he says around a smile.

He pulls onto the trail and we’re surrounded by trees. He follows the winding path, over small ditches and bigger rocks. The whole way, he’s smiling. I haven’t seen him smile like this since before Dean died. He’s having fun, and I find myself watching him more than our surroundings.

Just seeing his wide smile and happy gleam in his eye has my heart pounding with excitement. It makes me feel like we may be okay after all.

We spend most of the day out in the forest, under a canopy of trees. He even drove us up a couple of hills that made my stomach drop just from looking at them, but he was calm and collected the whole way, fully believing in himself and his Jeep. I’ve never done anything like this before. It’s fun and dangerous. It makes me feel alive.

When the sky is dark, he turns on the headlights and lights up the trail. “I have one more place to go before we head back.”

I look over at his smile. “Where?” I ask, curious if it will be as fun as this trip.

“You’ll see.” He focuses all his attention in front of us, causing me to look around. I’m not the best with trails, but nothing looks familiar. “Are we going in the right direction?”

“For where I’m going, yes.”

I feel the corner of my mouth lift on its own as we come to a stop.

“We’re here.”

I look around us, still surrounded by trees. “We’re where?”

“Come on.” He motions with his head.