A Beginner's Guide to the American West ✓

chapter forty-two

"You ok?"

"Very. Bit sore. Hard chairs are a pain in the arse."

Light dances in his eyes, the corner of his mouth twitching as though desperate to make a wisecrack. But he holds back a joke and nudges my foot under the table, and acts all innocent as her surveys the menu.

This isn't a regular hotel breakfast buffet, where we take a plate to trays of limp bacon and watery eggs, but actual table service breakfast. I'm not particularly hungry, put on edge by the fact that everyone's leaving, but I know I'll regret not eating.

Once everyone's here, Young-mi sitting too far away for me to quiz her, I order strawberry and maple syrup pancakes and Arjun settles for poached eggs on an English muffin with spinach and hollandaise sauce. What arrives is unlike any kind of muffin I've ever seen, nor is it a proper crumpet, but Arjun passes me a mouthful and whatever it is, it's pretty good.

"Sharing cutlery now, are we?" Klara teases when I take a bite of Arjun's fork.

"Well, considering everything else we've shared..." I trail off and she grins a wicked grin at my insinuation. Carrie snorts; Ade gives me a look that seems to be a mix of amusement and approval.

"He's a very clean boy," Arjun says, stealing a forkful of my pancakes. My cheeks go warm but I offset my blush with a grin. He's not wrong; he made sure of that last night.

"Anyway," Sam says. "This is where our time together comes to an end, and I just want to say a few words before you all start dropping like flies. I may do this all the time, and I may meet hundreds of people every year, but I never grow tired of leading groups like this one. You're all here for different reasons, from different places, but you'll leave with this journey in common – and I think some of you will be leaving in a very different state to the one you came in."

He glances at Carrie and Ade; Arjun and me; Young-mi and Klara, and he laughs. "You know, I've only led one other trek that resulted in romance, but this trip seems to have been a matchmaker."

And I couldn't be more thankful of it.

"I'm not going to bang on too long, but I hope that you've all found this to be a worthy trek and that you've loved it as much as I have, regardless of injuries and unplanned detours."

Agreement roars; glasses clink; food is finished. Emotions swell up and Kristin laughs when a tear wells and rolls down her cheek, much to her sister's amusement. Sam reluctantly moves to the admin side, an envelope of feedback forms hat he passes around, and I know from the pre-trip forums that this is when we're supposed to tip the leader.

I slip a fifty into the envelope. Arjun digs through what's left in his wallet and I can't count the bills that fast but I know it's more than fifty, and everyone ells adds cash as they fill out their form. I'd give more if I could: Sam deserves everything, and I'm glad to see Young-mi slip in what looks like at least a couple of fifty dollar bills.

It's a lot when the trip was already expensive, but it's more than worth it for Sam's knowledge and expertise, his care and his conversation and his company. Brannan may have been the quietest on this trip, so few words uttered to the group, but he drops in two fifties with a shy smile that he keeps to himself. Sam isn't watching as this goes on, busying himself with his phone while we evaluate and tip, and I hope it'll put a smile on his face when he checks later.

And then Brannan has to leave. Just like that, it's over. We're no longer under Sam's care, and Brannan is the first to melt away. In less than three hours, he'll be on a plane to New York to meet his dads and part of me is envious because I'm desperate to see my family, no matter how little I want to leave San Francisco, but I can't bear the thought of a ten-hour flight and a three-hour train to get home.