Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 76006 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 76006 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 380(@200wpm)___ 304(@250wpm)___ 253(@300wpm)
If he were Rhys, he supposed he’d want to do the same. He’d want to do what he could to jog his memory. And thus far, he hadn’t asked for much. At all.
“Please…don’t treat me with kid gloves.” His gaze was pleading. “Just trust me.”
“Okay.” Emerson patted his shoulder. “I will.”
Rhys got himself buckled into the front seat, and Sam and Audrey loaded up into the back with snacks and devices. It would be nearly an hour drive to Acadia National Park. Sam talked their ears off about the bee species being the most important to the environment, and Rhys told him how much hiking would allow him to enjoy nature.
“You should do it with me sometime,” Rhys said, then snickered when Sam scrunched up his nose. They all knew that Sam wasn’t one to exert himself much, so his love of nature only extended to the garden in their backyard—which he tended faithfully every summer just like their mother—reading, and his dream of working in a biology lab someday.
“You realize you might actually have to do field work, right?” Emerson had asked Sam after they’d watched a cool documentary about how the earth was formed and which featured an impressive array of biologists.
“As long as it’s not too hot and I don’t have to walk far,” he’d replied, and they’d all cracked up.
“He just wants to hide himself behind books and a microscope,” Audrey noted.
“Do not,” Sam replied, then shoved his sister’s shoulder, and she shoved back way harder. Audrey was always able to push Sam’s buttons, and he always took the bait. No amount of book smarts would help him, only maturity and a thicker skin.
“Hey, knock it off,” Emerson warned. He gave Audrey a stern look in the rearview mirror, and she averted her gaze, knowing she should’ve taken the higher road. But they were siblings, and siblings definitely got on each other’s nerves from time to time. Or in their case, all the time.
But she’d also been there for her brother in meaningful ways since their parents died, and now the image of finding them in the same bed, holding on to each other for dear life the morning of the funeral flashed through his mind. He ruthlessly thrust it from his brain. No way did he want to go there. Not when he had another tragedy of a situation sitting beside him in the passenger seat. Rhys desperately wanted his memories back—and so did Emerson, but his reasons were selfish, and that made him feel like an asshole. So he’d do all he could to help, not for himself, but for his best friend.
They pulled into the park through the entrance in Bar Harbor off Route 3. The drive had been pretty, and with the leaves beginning to change—still weeks away from their peak—it was a breathtaking view. Traveling to one of the national parks in their state wasn’t something they did often, but now Emerson thought they absolutely should. It felt good to get away from the grind of their daily routines. Leave it to Rhys to push them out of their comfort zones.
“Does any of this look familiar?” Audrey asked tentatively.
“Yeah,” Rhys said, and Emerson’s heart leaped momentarily before plunging into the depths as Rhys added, “But only because I’ve hiked and climbed here before, so I don’t want to get my hopes up just yet.”
Emerson and Sam kept quiet as they wound around the scenic roads to get to Hawkeye Hill, where Rhys had begun scaling a cliff that fateful day. The hiking trails appeared jam-packed. Emerson hadn’t really considered the time of day for their visit, but he supposed it didn’t matter unless they were unable to approach the area because of the crowds.
“There!” Sam pointed to a sign indicating they were close, and a soft hush fell in the car as Emerson headed in that direction. There was a certain heaviness in the air as the picturesque cliff came into view; it boasted about 1200 feet, which wasn’t as high as Cadillac Mountain, though he knew Rhys had already tackled that climb and usually enjoyed the lesser-known places.
Rhys’s gaze was peeled out the window, his silence almost reverent as he took it all in. Emerson wanted to ask if anything was jogging his memory, but he didn’t want to ruin the moment for him. Audrey must’ve had the same idea because he heard her quietly shush Sam as he was about to spout off some fact or statistic.
As they drove along the park loop, Emerson could almost visualize the ambulance trying to get around all the vehicles to race toward Rhys, who by that time would’ve been lying unconscious on the ground. In one of their later discussions at the hospital, Martin told him how his line had supported his weight as he was carefully lowered to the ground by his climbing crew as well as some others who’d stepped in to help.