He Was My Stepbrother, So Why Can't I Stop? novel · Chapter 2 of 3

Chapter 2: The Map in His Hand

At breakfast, Dario produces a hand-drawn map and Lina lies to Nicolás about its origin, but Nicolás spots a private service trail on it and Dario answers before Lina can speak.

The torn notebook page landed on the wooden table in front of my coffee, and I knew before I looked up that Dario had put it there.

His fingers were still on the corner of the paper, and he was watching me, and Nicolás was already leaning over to see what it was.

'Whoa, you made a map?' Nicolás laughed, pulling the page toward him. 'Dario, man, that's actually kind of cool.'

I did not reach for it. I did not look at Dario for more than a second, but that second was enough to see the small smile at the corner of his mouth.

He knew exactly what he was doing.

'Found it at the information board,' I said, and my voice came out a little too bright, a little too fast. 'Dario probably grabbed it while we were still setting up the tents.'

Nicolás nodded without looking up from the paper. 'Smart. I didn't even see the board.'

Dario's eyes stayed on me. 'Lina's right,' he said, and the pause before he said it was just long enough to make my stomach tighten. 'That's where I got it.'

He was covering for me. Or I was covering for him. I couldn't tell anymore which one of us was protecting the other, and that was the part that scared me.

Around us, the campsite was waking up. Valeria was pouring coffee from a steel pot, laughing at something Marco said. Two of Nicolás's friends from work were arguing about whether the eggs were done. The morning was bright and ordinary, and I was sitting at a picnic table with my stepbrother's map between us like a secret neither of us would name.

'There's a trail here that cuts up to a lookout,' Dario said, leaning forward and tapping the page. 'About an hour's hike. Good view of the whole valley.'

Marco came over with a mug and looked at the map upside down. 'You know the trails out here?'

'I've been here before,' Dario said.

'When?' I asked, before I could stop myself.

Dario looked at me then, and something flickered behind his glasses. 'A while ago.'

I had spent three years of distance learning the shape of his silences, and this one was new. It was careful. It was the kind of silence that had a lie inside it.

'We should do it,' Nicolás said, already on his feet. 'Babe, you're gonna love the view. I'll get the water bottles.'

He squeezed my shoulder as he passed, and his hand was warm and familiar and safe, and I let myself lean into it for half a second before he was gone.

Dario was still watching me.

'You're good at that,' he said quietly.

'At what?'

'Making things sound true.'

The words landed low in my stomach. I picked up my coffee and held it with both hands so he wouldn't see them shake.

'I don't know what you're talking about,' I said.

'Sure you don't.'

Valeria dropped onto the bench across from us and pulled the map toward her. 'This is actually really detailed. Did you draw all the elevation lines yourself?'

Dario nodded. 'Took a while.'

'Okay, that's impressive,' she said, and she said it loud enough that Marco came back over, and then the other two, and within a minute the whole group was standing around the table looking at Dario's map like he had just handed them the key to the mountain.

I watched it happen. I watched Nicolás come back with the water bottles and join them, laughing at something Marco said, his hand finding my lower back without looking.

I watched Dario become the person in charge of the trip, and I did not say a word.

Because the map was not from the information board. I knew that the second I saw the paper.

The information board maps were printed on glossy stock, folded into neat rectangles. This page was torn from a notebook, the edges rough, the paper soft from being handled. And the lines were too careful, too precise, drawn with a steadiness that had taken hours.

Dario had made it himself. He had drawn the trails from memory, or from something else, and he had done it before this trip ever started.

And I had just told everyone he found it at the information board.

I had made myself responsible for his lie. I had done it on purpose, to see if he would protect me in return.

And he had.

'So we're doing the lookout today?' Marco asked, and the group turned to Dario like he was the one who decided.

Dario glanced at me, just for a second. 'Yeah. We'll head up after breakfast.'

There was a small cheer. Nicolás kissed the side of my head. 'This is gonna be great, babe. You'll see.'

I smiled at him, and the smile felt like a mask I had put on with cold fingers.

Because Dario had not looked away from me. Not really. He was answering the group's questions, pointing at the map, explaining the best route, but his attention was a weight I could feel from across the table.

He was telling me something without saying it. He had drawn this map before he knew I would be here. He had planned this trip, or planned for it, and the thought of that made my chest tight.

'Wait,' Nicolás said suddenly.

Everyone looked at him.

He was frowning at the map, his finger tracing a thin dotted line near the bottom of the page. 'What's this trail here? This little one that goes off to the east?'

Dario went still.

'It's not on the park map,' Nicolás went on, still frowning. 'I looked at the one online last week when we were planning. There's no trail there.'

The silence that fell over the table was different from the easy morning chatter. It was sharp.

I opened my mouth. I had a lie ready, something about Dario probably making a mistake, probably drawing it wrong, probably nothing, but Dario spoke before I could.

'It's a private service trail,' he said.

His voice was calm. Too calm.

'For the rangers,' he went on. 'Not on the public maps. I marked it so we'd know to stay away from it.'

Nicolás looked at him for a long moment, and I watched my boyfriend's easy smile flicker and almost fade.

Then he laughed, and the tension broke. 'Man, you really did your homework. I didn't even know they had those.'

'Most people don't,' Dario said.

Valeria was already standing up, brushing crumbs off her jeans. 'Okay, I'm in. Let's clean up and go before it gets too hot.'

The group scattered, and I stayed at the table with my cold coffee and my racing heart.

Nicolás squeezed my hand. 'You okay? You've been quiet.'

'I'm fine,' I said. 'We're fine. Everything's fine.'

He laughed and pulled me to my feet. 'That's my girl. Always overthinking.'

I let him lead me toward the tents, and I did not look back at Dario.

But I felt him watching.

I felt him watching the whole way.

And I knew, with a certainty that settled cold in my stomach, that the service trail on that map was not for rangers.

It was for something else. Something Dario had drawn from memory, and marked private, and now stood between us like a door neither of us had opened yet.

And I had just lied to everyone I cared about to keep it closed.

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