Just for Now

Chapter Nine

Day Three
Morning

"The hotel wants to what?"

"Have a medal ceremony for you."

"And the medal is... run it by me again?"

"A chocolate mudslide."

"I'm in," Cole decided as he sipped his coffee. Allison rolled her eyes but had a small smile on her face, which Cole took as a win.

The two were early for the hotel breakfast the family agreed to meet for. Well, they were on time, actually. The rest of the family was late, which wasn't exactly unusual. The hotel had a buffet each morning— wasn't anything to write home about, but Cole wasn't complaining. He didn't mind the free coffee.

"Morning!" Scarlett greeted happily as she sat down next to them. "Where you guys off to?"

"Pool," Cole told her with a slight smirk on his face, "apparently they wanna reward me for my heroics."

"Oh, you mean when you lied about being a doctor and almost killed a man?" Scarlett questioned innocently, raising her eyebrows at him.

His jaw dropped in slight offense. "I did not almost kill him!"

"You were gonna trach him!" Scarlett retorted quickly.

Cole leaned forward in his chair, holding his hand up with a wince as if trying to contain her from saying a secret. "That was all the waiter's idea!"

"And besides, we're going on our hike today," Scarlett reminded them with her hands on her hips. "You can go to your mudslide ceremony later."

Allison gave her a blank look. "Scar."

"I know, I know," Scarlett drawled out with her hands up innocently. "But I checked reviews, it's an easy hike."

Allison wasn't exactly someone you would call "outdoorsy". Having grown up in New York City, she didn't see too many mountains. She never had any interest in playing sports, being too occupied with her school papers from middle school onwards. Cole always enjoyed hikes, but usually went alone since they weren't Allison's thing.

"The words 'easy' and 'hike' don't belong next to each other," Allison countered with narrowed eyes, picking at the food on her plate with her fork.

The twins sat down next to the group, neither with any semblance of happiness on their faces. Lila raised a threatening eyebrow. "Did I just hear the word hike?"

After more complaining from both the twins and Allison, Scarlett eventually reminded them that it was her wedding week, and they couldn't refuse or she'd make it a cash bar.

That shut everyone up.

They were trudging along on the trail for some time now. It was one of the most gorgeous views Cole had ever seen. He had been on a lot of hikes, and they all paled in comparison to this. Scarlett stuck true to her word, it genuinely wasn't a difficult hike. But he could still see Allison squirm whenever a bug flew too close to her.

Thankfully, the view seemed to distract her for the most part. Nobody could deny how beautiful it was. The water went on for ever in the distance, it seemed. The ocean was so blue it almost looked fake. The sun hung high in the cloudless sky, casting a warm, golden glow over the landscape. The relentless heat bore down on him, causing beads of sweat to form on his forehead. The trees stood tall around them, branches reaching upwards as if seeking solace from the relentless sun. Flowers were in bloom around them, life everywhere.

The trail was slightly confusing, sometimes. There were various markings on the trees, which made Cole wonder if they were heading down several paths at once. They didn't have a guide with them because Scarlett claimed they could do it with just a map. Cole wasn't sure about that one, but it didn't ever do him good to argue with Scarlett.