Chapter 16

Gideon watched Megs' panic rise as Matt relayed the news to the rest of their group. There was an issue with the train and they hadn’t diagnosed it yet. Typically a problem like this was resolved within a few hours.

Megs clenched her fists and spun toward the trees. He knew exactly what she must be thinking. Tonight was the last night of her certification course. That class started at five-thirty. If it took a few hours to resolve the issue with the train, then forty-five minutes to return to Sugar Creek and another half hour up to Champlain, she’d barely make it on time. If the issue got resolved, and if it didn’t . . .

“I have a class tonight.” Megs spun around and spoke to Matt while the others chatted amongst themselves.

“What kind of class?” Matt asked.

“A certification course. It’s my last night. I can’t miss it.”

The image of Megs slumped against the bricks next to the doors of the school flashed through Gideon’s head. If she missed her last class, he doubted they’d be willing to make another exception.

Matt unzipped his jacket. “What time does it start?”

“Five,” she answered.

Gideon frowned. Was it starting early because it was the last night?

Matt nodded. “That should be plenty of time. I doubt it’ll take as long as they say.”

Gideon turned to Alli. “I’ll be back in a second.” He walked to the information desk and waited behind a couple venting to the woman in the booth about how they hadn’t planned to stay long at this altitude, then he stepped forward when they finally walked toward the gift shop.

“Can I help you?” the woman asked.

“Just wondered if there were any trails that go down to the main road. The one we crossed on the train.”

She perked up when she realized he wasn’t there to complain about the broken down Rambler and grabbed a map. “There are a couple, actually.” She spread the paper between them and circled two trailheads that picked up just below where they were standing. “Both of these cross the road, but there isn’t a town there if that’s what you were hoping for. Closest one is another two miles down the road.”

Gideon thanked her and took the map, then walked back to their group near the trees. He frowned when he didn’t see Megs standing next to Matt anymore. Alli looked at him questioningly, and Gideon held up a finger, then approached his friend.

“Is Megs all right?”

Matt nodded. “She’ll be fine. Just took a minute to herself in the trees.” Gideon turned, and Matt put a hand on his shoulder. “She said she wanted to be alone.”

Gideon bristled. “I think she’ll want to see this. Might help.” He stalked off before Matt could offer to come along. Ever since Alli mentioned Matt being interested in Megs, Gideon noticed everything. The way Matt always looked to Megs first after making a joke or complimented her on everything. Matt was nice, but not that nice.

Meanwhile, Alli was doing the same to him. He didn’t want to give her the wrong impression, and he’d have been lying to himself if he said he didn’t enjoy the attention. If it was every girl's dream to have their favorite teacher fall for them, it was every guy's dream to meet up with an ex and have them still be obviously interested.

"Hey,” Gideon called out when he saw Megs leaning against an aspen trunk.

Megs whirled, and he couldn’t make out the expression on her face when she realized it was him tromping through the trees. “Hey.” She looked behind him, but when nobody else came down the path, her eyes settled back on his.

“I’m sorry about the train.”

Megs bit her bottom lip. “I can’t miss that class. I just signed a rental contract Thursday.”

“You got your own place?” Gideon stopped next to her, and Megs nodded. “That’s something to celebrate.”

“I was going to get a shake at Sammy’s.”

Gideon grinned. “On your way up to class?” Why did it make him so happy that she loved that place?

“Are you going to lecture me about having dessert before dinner?”

Gideon couldn’t hide his amusement. She was adorable when she was indignant. “No, I was going to ask why you weren’t eating dinner, too.”

Megs’ hackles lowered, and she breathed a laugh. “Class is from five to seven tonight. Our instructor has a wedding reception to go to. I figured I’d probably eat a late lunch after this and wouldn’t be hungry.” She groaned and dropped her head back against the trunk. “Now I’ll be surviving on trail mix while I pray to the locomotive gods for a fix to this antiquated train. This is why romance doesn’t work in real life! Because trains break down, and there’s traffic, and—”

“There’s another way down.” Gideon wanted to show compassionate, but he also didn’t know how long it would take them to hike to the next town or find a ride back to the parking lot in Sugar Creek.

Megs blinked. “What are you talking about?”

Gideon held out the map and pointed to the circles. “We can hike down to the road, then it’s another two miles into the town there. Calling it a town is generous, I think there’s a gas station and corner store, but maybe we can find someone who’s heading into Sugar Creek.”

She looked up and searched his eyes. “We?”

Gideon nodded. “Yeah. You think I would tell you to hike down there alone?”

“But you have—” Megs closed her mouth. “Is Alli okay with this?”

Gideon’s brow furrowed. Why was she asking about Alli? “I’m sure she’ll be fine.” Alli had never been one for the outdoors, so she’d be more than happy to sit at the gift shop and relax while they waited for the train.

“What if we can’t find a ride?”

Gideon motioned for her to walk with him back to the others. “We’ll find a ride.”

“You don’t have to do this,” Megs murmured as they left the trees. “I doubt you planned to hike an extra three miles today.”

He hadn’t planned on extra hiking, but walking with Megs alone in the trees for a reason he could justify was so enticing, it ached. “It’s barely even hiking, we’re going downhill.” Gideon nodded to Matt as his friend noticed them approaching. “Hey, I’m going to walk with Megs down to the road. If this train doesn’t get fixed in time, she’ll miss her class.”

Matt frowned. “Is there a trail?” Gideon held out the map, and Matt inspected it. “Are you sure it’s worth that? The train might be fixed any minute.”

Megs stepped forward. “There’s a much larger chance that it won’t be. I rode this train every day last Christmas, and when there was a mechanical issue, we were always entertaining guests for hours.”

Gideon turned to her. “You worked on this train?”

Megs held out her hands with a flourish. “Can’t you see me as an elf?” She turned back to Matt. “I have to be at this class tonight. If I don’t get my certification, I won’t be able to start work Monday.”

Matt considered this. “Got it. But I can go with her, Gideon.” He picked up his water bottle and shook it.

Gideon’s bottle was still almost full. Their hike hadn’t been arduous, and with the cooler weather, he hadn’t even broken a sweat. “No, you’ve got the other contestants and your team to worry about. We’ll be fine.”

Matt pulled him into a hug and clapped his shoulder, then turned to the others. “Anyone else want to hike to town?”

Alli opened her mouth, then closed it. Before she could change her mind, Gideon said, “I’ll text you later,” then turned and started off across the clearing.

Megs didn’t say another word before they reached the trailhead, which wasn’t difficult to find. The path wasn’t overly steep, and more importantly, there were no other hikers on it. Considering he’d grown up here and had never even known there were hiking trails at the top of the loop, he wasn’t surprised. The only ones he knew about were at the bottom of Rosie Peak.

“An elf, huh?” Gideon moved to the left. The trail was wide enough that they could walk side by side. His blood hummed, and not from exertion, as she fell into step next to him.

“With tights and everything. I’ve done it a few times over the holidays. It’s not great money, but it is an acting job.”

“Are you going to do it this year?” Gideon asked. If so, he would be buying a ticket. They had to have shows after the end of the semester, didn’t they?

Megs shook her head. “I don’t think my new boss would appreciate me asking to get off work early twice a week to play dress-up.”

The idea of Megs in tights and a short skirt still lingered in his mind’s eye. Gideon cleared his throat. “Right. Are you excited about the job, though?”

Megs stepped over a tree root, then looked up with a wry smile. “It pays well.”

Gideon chuckled. “You think you’re selling out.”

“I know I am, but what else am I supposed to do? You know I’ve watched a hundred of those celebrity interviews where they talk about how hard it was to make it in the industry, and how they almost gave up, but then ended up getting their big break because they met some producer in a bar where they were waiting tables or something.”

“Right, someone didn’t show up for open mic night.”

“Exactly. They were singing in the bathroom stall or looked like their high-school crush. Anyway, we celebrate that. We listen to those stories and applaud their resiliency, but you know what nobody ever talks about? The fact that every day before that day, everyone in their life told them how they were huge failures.”

Gideon frowned. “People tell you that?”

Megs scoffed. “Absolutely. Not to my face, but it’s in those looks. You know the pitying ones that say, ‘someday she’ll figure out that she’s never going to make it,’ or in the comments like, ‘that would be so hard not to have a stable income.’”

Gideon nodded. “Yeah, I’ve gotten a few of those.”

“Probably less because you’re a guy.”

“Why would that matter?”

Megs gripped onto the straps of her backpack. “Because guys are seen as more level headed. People trust you to have common sense. Take my sister’s boyfriend for example. His family moved to Colorado and he pursued ski racing. Got really good, then ended up becoming a ski instructor. Nobody ever told him that was an impractical job or that he should do something safer. Nobody doubted he could do it.”

Gideon stepped over a protruding rock. “Your parents didn’t think you could?”

Megs sighed. “It’s just my mom, my dad has never been in the picture. And no, she didn’t ever want me to do it. She went that route in college and didn’t like where it led her. To be fair, she didn’t stop me from moving or enrolling in acting classes.”

“It was just the constant disappointment.”

Megs nodded. “I don’t even know if I like acting anymore. Now it feels like another unfinished thing goading me. I wonder if the only reason I keep doing it is to try to prove myself right.”

“It’s not. You like acting,” Gideon stated, and Megs looked up.

“You don’t know that.”

“Yes I do.”

Megs looked affronted. “You’ve talked to me, what, like four times and seen me sitting in class taking notes, and you think you know me?”

Gideon met her eyes. “I watched you record that audition, and I see how you are with people. Always noticing their speech and mannerisms. You do this thing with your fingers where you mimic them sometimes, like you want to know what it feels like to move like another person.”

Megs slowed and stared at him. Gideon walked a few steps before he noticed she wasn’t next to him. He turned. “What?”

“I do that?”

The expression on her face made him wonder if he’d said something wrong. He hadn’t meant it as a criticism. Quite the opposite. Gideon exhaled and pulled out his water bottle. “Yeah.”

She opened and closed her mouth, then pursed her lips in concentration. With her eyes on him, Gideon’s blood started to rush.

Megs took a step toward him and her eyes narrowed. “You’re not wearing your glasses today.”

He busied himself securing his water bottle. “I put in contacts so I could wear my sunglasses, but we’ve been mostly in the shade.”

Megs took another step, and Gideon’s stomach fizzed when he realized she was still staring at him.

He gripped the straps of his bag. “Bad choice? I should never wear contacts again?”

The corner of Megs’ lips twitched. “No, not bad. I think you look good both ways.” Her eyes looked like emerald pools in the golden light, and the trees seemed to have been painted to perfectly compliment the streaks of burnt orange glittering in her hair.

Gideon ran a hand through his hair and pretended to notice something in the trees. “Should we keep going?”

Megs nodded, and they resumed their walk. They reached the road by twelve-thirty and weren’t too much worse for the wear. Once they were out of the trees, Gideon borrowed sunscreen from Megs, put on his sunglasses, and they started down toward town.

“Do you wish Oscar or Matt, I guess, would’ve stayed with the band?” Megs asked. He wondered if she imagined them sitting around in a cramped apartment tuning their instruments and riffing off each other. It was the stuff teenage dreams were made of.

Gideon shook his head. “I was annoyed for a couple of years. I missed it. I think we all did, but it was time for us to go our separate ways.”

“And you’re happy now?”

Gideon swallowed the answer that first popped into his head because it wasn’t fully true. Yes. When his parents called from Arizona and asked if he was doing well, the answer was always yes. When his colleagues asked if he was happy with his classes or his schedule, the answer was yes.

Truly, he didn’t have anything to complain about. He had job security, a roof over his head, he was in great shape and had good friends both at work and in the community. That part of him was content. But what would the other part of him answer? The part he’d tucked away when he’d decided to pursue teaching. The part that lit up whenever he heard something inspiring and worked on tracks late into the night. The part that waited for a girl after work and then kissed her in a parking lot.

“Half,” he answered.

Megs frowned. “Half?”

Gideon nodded, more and more satisfied with his answer by the second. “I’m half happy.”

A wide smile broke out across Megs’ face. “What? I don’t think that’s a thing.”

Gideon grinned. “It definitely is. My life is great and I wouldn’t change much, but there’s still half of me that isn’t quite there yet.” He loved the way she looked at him. Like he’d managed to surprise her for once.

“What does that other half need?” Her eyes sparkled with curiosity. That laser focus from Megs was intoxicating. He loved being a puzzle she was dying to solve.

“Not sure yet. I think I’ll know it when I see it.” Gideon’s heart pounded in his chest. He knew it when he felt it, and right now—

A slow rumble sounded behind them, and Gideon whipped his head around. A red tractor with wheels taller than he was rounded the corner and slowly made its way down the road. Gideon stopped and grabbed onto Megs’ arm.

Her eyes widened. “What are you doing?”

Gideon threw out his thumb. “Getting us a ride.”