Dear Diary (Prickly Pear Springs Book 1) by Cassie Mint

Author:Cassie Mint [Mint, Cassie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Black Cherry Publishing
Published: 2022-06-01T16:00:00+00:00

Six

Emma

Dear Diary,

What does a person wear on a maybe-date with her ex-English teacher? Because something tells me no amount of internet research will help me here.

I’ve taken a long shower; shaved and moisturized my legs. Painted my toenails a deep berry red and—oh my god, I must be insane—waxed my bikini line. The pain. The suffering. I hope if Conrad ever goes down there, he appreciates the noble sacrifices I’ve made.

What am I thinking? There’s no way he’d want that from me. Right?

Gah! This is nuts.

Now it’s six thirty and I’ve got my swimsuit collection spread over my double bed, and I keep pacing up and down in front of it in my towel like an army general marshaling her troops. I want to look amazing but not try-hard. Mature but not boring. What says put me in sexy detention, please more: a white string bikini with black polka dots, or a red one-piece with a super low back?

I can honestly say when I woke up this morning, this wasn’t a dilemma I thought I’d ever face.

* * *

The furthest hot springs are down a rocky dirt path, one that weaves for twenty minutes across the desert outskirts. We pass cacti and cratered boulders; dark coils of sleepy snakes and silent burrows. It would be creepy out here, except this town’s hot springs come alive in the evening.

Every few minutes, the path branches, with solar torches hammered into the cracked soil leading away, and in the distance, bright laughter echoes across the desert.

The biggest springs are always bustling. People go there in groups with coolers of beer on their shoulders, and they soak in there for hours catching up on town gossip.

There are smaller springs a little further away. The teens favor those, where they can splash and flirt and tease each other away from the adults’ stern eyes.

More and more paths branch off to different springs, and each time we pass one, the noise coming from the pools is a little quieter.

Our springs are at the very end of the track. Conrad leads me over to them, a warm hand resting on my lower back. Solar torches glow here too, casting soft pools of light, and our pools are silent. Deserted, with plumes of steam billowing into the air.

“Spooky,” I murmur, kicking off my hiking boots when we reach the edge of the water. They may not be sexy date wear, but I don’t mess around with those sleepy snakes out there.

Conrad pauses with his hands on his shirt hem. His mouth twists. “We can go back a few springs if you prefer. We don’t need to be alone.”

I strongly disagree.

What are the chances this man wants to spend more than one evening with me? I need to make the most of it.

Because I’m not an idiot; I remember how harshly he turned me down three years ago. And yeah, I get it now, I was too young for him. It was never gonna happen. But Mr Finch didn’t just say no, he was appalled.

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