Page 40 of Wild About You
It’s an understatement, but I think he gets that. With so many of my issues with my parents, it’s clear the way they treat me—their resentment, bitterness, whatever—comes from their own unhappiness. It took me a long time to get to that realization, and I’m not sure they ever will. And it seems like a hell of a long shot that they’ll ever acknowledge it to me. I can already feel the way Finn’s apology is healing something in me, patching up holes in my belief in my own worthiness of kindness, care, love.
His throat bobs, his eyes scanning my face for a long moment before he nods. It solidifies this new level of understanding between us, one I didn’t know I was missing, but that changes everything irreversibly.
Before long, we decide to head back to the shelter, each probably five pounds lighter in saltwater weight. It feels roomier than before, like a physical burden between us has been cleared. I return Finn’s sweatshirt ever so reluctantly, but I don’t even need it. I’m more comfortable than I’ve been anywhere, with anyone, in a very long time.
Chapter Fifteen
Finn and I are so close to a challenge win, we can taste it.
It tastes an awful lot like my own salty sweat dripping down my face as we haul ass through the forest toward the next checkpoint.
“Come on, Hart. Run like there are front-row tickets to Hamilton in it for you,” Finn calls from where he jogs a few yards ahead of me. We left with the earliest go time today, but not by much, and it’s impossible to tell how close anyone else has come to catching up in the three miles since then.
Before Burke came around to rank our shelters this morning, I scoped out the competition’s shelters, a confusing combination of feelings swelling inside me as I saw that Daniel and Luis’s was basically a pile of sticks scattered over their sleeping bags, and neither Meena and Cammie’s nor Karim and Max’s had weathered the breezy night much better. Those teams made up Burke’s bottom three, and he took his sweet time “deliberating” before declaring Harper and Evan third place, Enemi and Zeke second, and Finn and me first. We could barely bask in the glory, with only five minutes until our go time and another five minutes until the next team’s. Finn made it clear right away that even though we got the earliest start, he doesn’t want us to get comfortable.
Boy, am I not getting comfortable.
“It’s not 2015, Finn! Without the original cast, and when there’s a filmed version I can watch whenever I want?” I yell back, pressing a hand to the cramp in my side, just over my pack’s waist strap. “You’re gonna have to do better than that.”
“Okay, uhhh…” I’m selfishly glad to hear he’s winded too. “Mamma Mia! onstage with the movie cast performing it?”
The groan I release is obscene, the words that follow slipping out against my better judgment. “It is so hot when you pay attention to me.”
Do Finn’s steps falter, or am I seeing things? “It’s, uh, what now?”
“I said it’s so hot out!” I call back a little cheekily.
He heard me the first time, though, and throws a pink-cheeked, gorgeously stern look over his shoulder. “You should know by now, I’m always paying attention to you.”
For the remaining couple miles, we don’t see Zeke and Enemi nor anyone else in the competition on our path down the main AT, so unless they’ve cracked teleportation, we might actually have a shot at this one. When we finally see Burke Forrester and an orange flag appear between brush and tree trunks ahead of us, it’s nearly as exciting as a Meryl Streep stage performance would be.
“Tell us something good, Burke,” I pant as we stumble to a stop before him, throwing my arms out wide. Even though none of the other teams are here, we never know when a fake-out or surprise twist is coming.
The host flashes his shiny veneers at us. “You’ve gotta give me something good to tell you, Natalie!”
I give him a snarky, raised-brow look. Just hand us our fate already, buddy.
“All right, all right.” Burke waves a hand like we can quit begging him. “Finn and Natalie, after a near miss at victory in the ‘Horsing Around’ challenge, you built the top-ranking shelter. As you have now arrived first to the checkpoint—”
Unexpectedly, a weight comes down on my shoulders. I flinch before Finn pulls me into his side, then can’t hide the smile that comes to my face.
“—Finn and Natalie, you have won this challenge!”
My pterodactyl screech could be heard where the trail begins up in Maine. Burke even jumps back, but I barely register it as strong arms wrap around my waist from behind and lift me into the air.
“We did it, Nature Nat,” Finn says on a wild laugh, his barely stubbled cheek pressed to mine. My stomach swoops and I laugh too, clutching at his forearms in a chaotic attempt at hugging while being manhandled.
“Hell yeah, we did! Eat our trail dust!”
Finn is still chuckling as he sets me down and I turn to put my hands on his shoulders, smiling at him as I bounce up and down on my toes. I can’t imagine being much happier than this if we won the whole thing.
Burke interrupts our celebration with his sound effect machine laugh. “Congratulations, you two. Want to hear your prize?”
I tear my eyes from Finn’s and whirl around, having almost forgotten anyone else was here. Let alone that we get a prize beyond winning the challenge. I clap my hands. “Oh, do tell!”
“Your team has won a night’s stay at the Blue Smoke Lodge, where you’ll get to enjoy a five-course dinner at their Michelin-starred restaurant, accommodations in a deluxe suite, and amenities such as a full-service spa, outdoor hot springs pools, cinema, bowling lanes, mini golf—”
“MINI GOLF?” I bellow, and Finn startles at my back. Much quieter, I glance guiltily between him and an alarmed Burke Forrester and add, “Sorry. Big mini golf fan.”