Destination Reached

SOPHIA

"Soph, I'm so serious right now," I finally opened my eyes to find my disgruntled sister fronting down at me. Well, as disgruntled as chill, free spirit Abby can be anyways. "Get up," said Abby, yanking the covers away from me. "Poor Jake has been waiting in the car for ten minutes. I know you don't want to go, but if you're late I'll never hear the end of it from Morgan."

Ah yes. Morgan. The whole reason I had this nightmare job in the first place. Morgan worked with Abby at the yoga studio, her husband was Otis. AKA our boss.

I groaned, "Mmph." Reluctantly, I dragged myself out of bed, rushing to throw on a pair of shorts and a shirt. Thankfully, my bag was already packed and ready to go.

As I stumbled out of the room, with only one shoe on, mind you, my stomach growled. Reading my mind, Abby called out, "Breakfast on the counter, get it on your way out." Which is precisely what I did, grabbing whatever was wrapped in the paper towel between my teeth and hopping on one foot out the front door, simultaneously attempting to tie my shoe. I'm sure I looked ridiculous, and I got my confirmation of my assumption when I slid into the passenger seat, slightly out of breath.

Jake grinned, looking as though he was trying very hard not to laugh. "Good morning," he said, eyeing me with amusement. "Nice of you to join us."

I merely glared in response, taking an aggressive, huffy bite of the so-called breakfast, which I promptly spat out approximately two seconds later. I gagged, coughing slightly, "Jesus Christ— what—" I coughed again, sticking out my tongue, the acid taste lingering.

He winced, "Sorry. I was just about to warn you not to eat it."

"What was that?"

"Tofu something?" grimaced Jake, shrugging. "I don't know. I didn't ask questions. I just smiled and fed it to the cat when she wasn't looking."

I snorted in spited of myself, shaking my head as we rumbled along the highway, "She should never be allowed in a kitchen."

Jake raised an eyebrow, "I've seen you mutilate a grapefruit."

"That was one time!" I protested, trying and failing not to smile. I knew what he was doing. He was trying to distract me. And as usual, he was succeeding.

I had to commend him. I knew he was excited for today. He'd been excited all week, and excelling. Annoyingly, Jake was basically made for this job. Seriously, he was good at everything he tried. He'd scaled the steep trails with ease, and ridden the horse like he'd grown up on a ranch. I don't even want to talk about how smoothly he picked up the kayak. I was still a little mad at him for all the splashing. Kind of...It would be irritating if it wasn't also so endearing. And very very oddly attractive. Which I was definitely not dwelling on. Definitely.

But, as the now familiar main building for KVE came into view, I felt my stomach turn over itself. Jake opened his door, but I didn't even undo my seatbelt.

There was a rap on my window, "Sophia."

"I'm coming," I grumbled, shouldering my backpack. I saw the harnesses and helmets being loaded into the vans up ahead, and reached for my necklace.

I felt Jake's eyes on me. "It's gonna be okay," he said, nudging my arm slightly.

"I'm fine," I insisted, deflecting what I knew was a very skeptical expression on his end. I tucked a piece of hair behind my ear, then untucked it, "I'm not nervous." Crap.

Jake pressed his lips together, "Evidently."

After that I decided to put my hair up. The less body language of mine that Jake could read, the better.