Free Into the Tomorrows (Bleeding Hearts Book 1) by Whitney Barbetti Page B

was until I’d spent a few days on this mountain.
    The one person I believed knew me was dead, I reminded myself. Oh how I wished I’d asked her who she saw when she looked at me.
    Colin came back and wrapped an arm around me as he introduced me to the handful of guys who’d be joining us for the three-day hike. I smiled politely, awkwardly, and then watched as everyone pulled on their packs and applied sunscreen.
    They were all fit and tanned and I was neither. I wondered what they thought of me, my bright, bleached hair and pale skin. I looked down at my brand-new hiking boots, my socks scrunched at the tops. I wore leggings that Colin had said would help wick the moisture from my body. I wore shorts over them, a tank made of the same material as the leggings, and a lightweight jacket. All of my limbs were covered and still, I was naked in my inexperience.
    Colin helped strap me into my pack and then placed his hands on either side of my face. “You good?”
    I nodded. “Definitely,” not , I added.
    I looked towards the trail and gulped. There was one path cutting through rock and brush as it wrapped around a large rock formation. Colin took the lead with a guy I knew to be Teddy and the rest fell in line, two-by-two.
    “It’s not that bad,” Jude said, as if he sensed my apprehension, lifting his pack up higher on his back. “Just one or two dozen miles.”
    Just a couple dozen miles. My stomach dropped so fast that I was sure it had dislodged a ball of vomit because I clamped a hand over my mouth before I spewed it all over the person in front of me. That would certainly make an impression … just not the one I was going for.
    “You okay?”
    I nodded and clamped my lips tighter as I removed my hand. “Yeah. Just not used to the altitude.” A lie.
    “Where are you from again?” Jude flanked my right as we moved up the trail, stayed just a foot or two behind me. He was bringing up the rear, and I knew he was making sure my slow pace wouldn’t leave me behind everyone else.
    “Wyoming.”
    “And you came all this way for Colin?”
    The way he said it made my skin prickle. Did he know we weren’t okay? Could he see my lies more clearly than Colin could?
    “Why don’t you ask me why I left?”
    He stopped short behind me so I turned to face him. He blinked once, twice, and then asked, “Okay, why’d you leave?”
    The answer came quickly and slipped through my lips with the honesty I had, “There was nothing to leave.”
    He was silent a long while after that.

Chapter Nine
    W e managed seven miles the first day, setting up camp in a small clearing in the middle of the woods. I struggled with my tent, cursing myself as I tried to set the poles together. Probably should have practiced setting this bad boy up, Trista , I thought with mild annoyance.
    Colin had taken off to fetch sticks for a fire. When I’d looked between him and the tent bag with significance, he’d smiled. “I know you can do it.”
    But you don’t, Colin , I’d thought. You don’t know anything about the girl you say you’re in love with . And I knew this to be true ten minutes and four F words into setting up the tent.
    As I struggled with the tent, I regretted coming on the trip to begin with. My feet were aching so badly that I wasn’t completely sure they would remain attached to my legs. The sweat around my head had cooled in the evening temperatures, making me wish for a warm hat. And Colin hadn’t spoken to me the entire hike except to ask how I was doing once, before quickly engaging in conversation with someone else.
    “Need some help with that?” Jude asked, his boots crunching the pine needles as he approached. I looked up at him in between strands of sweat-soaked hair hanging in front of my face, loose from my ponytail.
    “Well?” Jude lifted an eyebrow, holding out his hands for help. I was reminded in that moment of his sheer size—at least ten inches taller than me. In addition to his height, I couldn’t