He grinned at her.

“Oh, you know it was funny.”

She finally let a smile break through.

“Fine, it was a little funny.”

He leaned down to kiss her, but took a step back before he did. Right, they were in public. He’d almost forgotten.

Olivia pulled her hair back into a low ponytail and put a black baseball cap on.

They hiked along the easy version of the trail for a few miles. He slowed his stride to match her shorter one, and let himself relax, for the first time in weeks. They walked side by side, and didn’t hold hands, but were so close they may as well have been. Their fingers brushed from time to time as they walked along, and it felt so good to be this close to her, after a whole week of being away. Every so often, he would turn to look at her, and just marvel that he’d found someone like her. Sometimes she would catch him and smile at him, and he would smile back. They didn’t talk about anything hard, just the perfect spring weather, her adventures at the community center this week, and the guy who’d gotten incredibly drunk on his flight on the way home and had been escorted off the plane when they’d landed. Once they could see it, they stopped to take pictures of the Hollywood sign. And the whole way, he was so happy to be here, in one of his favorite places, with her.

After a while, he pointed to a big tree up ahead.

“Want to dive into these snacks?”

Olivia grinned.

“I thought you’d never ask.” She looked out at the view and shook her head. “I have to acknowledge that this hasn’t been as bad as I thought it would be. Even kind of … nice.”

That felt like the biggest compliment he’d ever received.

“I like you so much,” he said. He didn’t mean to say it, it had just come out.

She turned to look at him, surprise and … was that pleasure on her face?

“Why, because I grudgingly admitted that nature can be okay sometimes?”

He laughed out loud as he dropped his backpack under the tree.

“That, and for other reasons, too.” He looked down. He really should tie his shoe. “You know. I don’t think I ever thanked you for last week. I needed a quiet night—and to be able to talk to someone—more than I realized.”

Olivia sat down, and he sat down next to her.

“You’re welcome,” she said. “I was glad I could help.” She smirked at him. “Though … you did say thank you, in your own way.”

He blushed. That move of his might have violated some part of his pledge to Wes, but he hadn’t been able to resist.

“I did, didn’t I?” he said.

She unscrewed her water bottle and took a sip.