Nate opens his mouth, no doubt with a witty reply, but someone—one of his team members, I presume—calls him from the other end of the lobby. Nate takes off with a wink and I look wistfully after him, wishing he could spend the entire day with us.
Fastening the grip on my suitcase’s handle, I admire the rustic design, heading toward the elevators.
“Alice,” Summer exclaims,
stepping out of one of the elevators. My smile turns into a megawatt grin as I hurry toward my sister. With light brown hair and at one head taller than me, she looks nothing like me and more like a younger version of Pippa, but with darker hair. She’s already wearing her climbing gear. I throw my arms around her waist when I reach her, pulling her into a hug.
“I missed you so much,” I tell her unnecessarily.
“Back at you.” Her arms are around my shoulders, and I’m pretty sure we look a little—or a lot—silly, but I don’t care in the least. When we finally pull away, she says, “You should change into climbing gear soon.”
“Where are the boys?”
“Blake’s in his room, and Daniel is meeting us inside the park.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, he went to do some scouting by himself hours ago. Said he’d be back in time.”
“I’ll go change quickly. Wanna join me? I have coconut cookies for you.”
That’s all it takes to convince Summer to go up with me. While I change, she happily munches on the cookies while talking my ear off about Rome.
After I’m done, I look like a pro, which I am definitely not. I love running and working out, but rock climbing is a different beast.
“I almost don’t recognize us,” Summer says, looking at me with fake horror. When she and I get together, our favorite pastime is watching movies and doing each other’s nails. If we’re in the mood to go outdoors, we hit the shops. “The things we do for our brother.”
“Remember the time we bailed him out of that masquerade party?” I elbow her playfully.
“God, don’t remind me. I’m trying to block out the memory.”
“Hey, look at the bright side. This all means we have leverage against him.” Whenever our brothers ask some ungodly favor from us, we hang it over their heads forever because Summer and I are sweet little devils.
We find Blake pacing outside the hotel. He stops, shaking his head as he inspects us.
“You’re gonna make Daniel pay for this, won’t you?” he asks with fake concern.
“We’ve taught you well.” Wiggling my eyebrows, I hook one of my hands around his arm. Summer does the same with his other arm, and together we head in the direction of the park. It’s a glorious day out here, hot and sunny, quite different from the chilly morning in San Francisco. The sky is devoid of any clouds, just blue as far as I can see.
Blake dishes out useful information we can use against Daniel the entire way to the park, which makes the journey seem considerably shorter. It’s remarkable how easily Summer lures out information from my brother. Pippa and I usually have to do some serious legwork to get them to loosen their tongues, but Summer has them wrapped around her little finger. I listen intently to Blake’s stories, filing the information carefully for later use.
When we finally arrive at the visitor center where we’re meeting Daniel, he’s nowhere to be seen. There are several exhibits inside, as well as a shop. It’s buzzing with people, so we wait outside at the picnic tables.
“If he dragged us out to the middle of nowhere just to make us wait,” Blake comments, “I’ll dish even more dirt.”
“I’m sure he’ll be here soon,” Summer says brightly. “But we won’t say no to more blackmail material.”
Ten minutes pass, then fifteen, and there’s no sign of Daniel. Groups of tourists pass by, popping in and out of the center.
I call Daniel a few times, but his phone has no coverage.
“Maybe he’s waiting for us at another visitor center?” Summer suggests.
“Nah, I specifically asked him,” Blake explains.
“He would’ve sent a message anyway,” I add. “Unless his battery is dead.” I hadn’t thought of that before. “I’ll head inside to the information desk. Maybe he left a message for us with them.”
Inside, the man behind the information desk looks like a kind grandpa, down to the round belly and white hair.