I bite my tongue from making up a million reasons for why I don’t want to talk about my mom, since the real reason isn’t ready to come out. By the time we reach Santa Rosa, Avery seems to be fine. I think. She’s hard to read when she’s so quiet.

“Are we good?” I reach over and squeeze her leg after I shut off the truck.

“Yeah. Everything is fine.” She returns a tight smile.

I scratch the start of a beard growing along my jaw. Her fine sounds like anything but fine.

Avery unfastens her seat belt and tosses me a smile. It borders on a cringe, clearly a forced smile. “So, what are we doing here? What is Blue Hole?”

“It was once known as Blue Lake. It’s just a blue gem in the middle of the desert. Great place for scuba diving, but we’re just going to cool off for a bit since it’s insanely hot.”

She nods slowly. “I don’t have a swimsuit.”

“I’ll grab your sports bra and shorts from this morning. They’ll work. You let Swarley out.”

Avery nods slowly again, face tense with apprehension. Bringing her out of her comfort zone is my new high.

After Swarley does his thing, we do a quick change into swimming attire, grab towels, and put him in the truck with all the windows down and his travel bowl of water on the floor.

“It’s blue. Really blue.” Avery’s eyes widen as we approach the rock cliffs around the swimming hole.

“Together?” I give her hand a squeeze.

“What? Wait …” She tries to pull away. “I’m an ease-it-in sort of girl.”

“Yeah, I know.” I smirk.

She rolls her eyes.

“But this is not an ease-it-in kind of lake. It’s a heart-stopping-take-the-plunge kind of lake.”

Her head shakes. “Nope. I like my heart beating.”

“Ave …” I don’t release her hand, no matter how hard she tries to wriggle out of my grasp.

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Nooooo!” she shrieks when I toss her into the lake and quickly follow her.

“Oh my god! Oh my god! COLD! COLD! COLD!” She slaps at the water, making her way to the edge.

Not gonna lie. It’s cold as fuck. A crisp sixty-five degrees. I grab her waist and pull her back out.

“Jake!”

“Shh …” I laugh. “Lie back and float.”

“C-c-cold.” Her teeth chatter.

“Thirty seconds.” I relax my body and float on my back.

She does the same thing.

I close my eyes and just breathe. This … this is the good stuff in life. My hand brushes hers, and I latch a finger to hers so we drift as one. Thirty seconds pass … then several minutes pass. She’ll never admit it, but she knows it too … this is the good stuff.