Page 76 of Finding Elodie
Elodie turned to look at the rest of the guys, and saw that Scott was laughing just as hard as the others. She tried to keep a straight face, to feign upset, but she couldn’t do it. She started giggling, and soon she couldn’t stop. The seven of them probably looked like lunatics, standing in the middle of the trail, laughing their heads off, but she didn’t care.
She’d needed this.
These men were so down-to-earth. She should’ve known they’d be amazing people with the way Scott talked about them.
“Come on,” Aleck said, holding out his hand. “Truce?”
She immediately took it. She liked Scott’s friends. They treated her as if she were their little sister, even though she knew she was older than most of them.
Aleck held her hand and helped her through the thick mud he’d fallen into, releasing it when they were on the other side, then they continued with the hike. She laughed and joked with Midas, Aleck, and Pid as they continued toward the waterfall. She was having a great time getting to know the three men. Jag, Slate, and Scott brought up the rear, talking quietly amongst themselves.
It didn’t take as long as she’d thought it might to get to the end of the trail and to Maunawili Falls. There had been some beautiful views of the surrounding mountains as they’d walked, and Aleck had pointed out Kailua in the distance, but Elodie hadn’t seen anything as beautiful as this waterfall in a long time.
She felt an arm go around her waist as she stood at the edge of the swimming hole at the base of the falls, simply staring.
“Pretty, huh,” Scott asked.
“It’s beautiful,” she breathed.
“Come on, around that way is a good place to set our stuff down so we can go for a swim.”
She followed the rest of his friends, who’d obviously done this many times before. They set their packs down and Aleck was the first one to climb the path leading up to the top of the waterfall.
“Is he really going to jump?” she asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Scott said. “We all are.”
Elodie shook her head. “You all are, maybe.”
“It’s fun,” Scott insisted.
“It’s initiation,” Pid told her. “You have to do it.”
“We aren’t in high school, and peer pressure doesn’t work on me,” she told Pid.
“Come on, you’re missing out,” Midas cajoled.
“Nope, not happening. It might not be the ocean, but there are still critters in there. Probably,” Elodie told them.
To his credit, Scott stayed with her as they watched the other guys climb to the top of the water—the very top—and leap off with loud banshee yells.
Elodie smiled as she watched their antics. They were like little kids, having the time of their lives.
“Having fun?” Scott asked. He was standing behind her now, with his arms around her waist and his chin resting on her shoulder.
Elodie nodded.
“The guys aren’t being annoying, are they?”
“Not at all.”
“Good, I warned them to all be on their best behavior.”
Elodie shook her head. “You didn’t have to do that,” she said.
“Uh, yeah I did. Otherwise they’d have been telling you embarrassing stories about me.”
Elodie turned in his arms. “Yeah?” she asked, raising one eyebrow. “Maybe I want to hear these stories.”
