“Are you coming?” Jeremy called over his shoulder. “I had no idea you were this slow.”

I clutched the straps on the backpack, securing them under my arm. “Yes,” I squeaked.

He was at least thirty feet ahead of me, stomping through tropical brush and whistling. The whistling had to be the most annoying part of this adventure. No, it was the fact that we were hiking through a tropical trail without a tour guide on our honeymoon.

I had pictured today lounging by one of the many resort pools, gazing at aquamarine waters with a fruity drink in my hand. I was going to read trashy magazines and watch my sexy husband swim laps. I had a vision of picture-perfect honeymoon day. Not this. Not the heat. Not the sweat. Not the army of mosquitos that had decided to attack us.

“Evie, you have to see this.” Jeremy finally stopped to make a full turn in my direction.

“What?” I groaned, letting too much frustration seep through my voice.

“Aren’t you having fun?” He offered a hand to help me step over a log.

I nodded. “So much.”

He frowned. This was one time I was glad I couldn’t see his eyes. They were covered by mirrored aviators.

“This waterfall is going to be worth it. You’ll see. It’s a bucket list item.”

I reached for my water bottle. “Can you tell me again why we’re doing this on our own instead of with a group or a guide?” I asked. I took big gulps of water.

Everyone at the visitor center tried to persuade us not to do the hike alone, but I had learned Jeremy didn’t like the word no. It seemed to fuel him even more. The more protests, the more convinced he was we could find the falls by ourselves. I did want to see a waterfall that plummeted almost a thousand feet into a crystal pool. I did, but the hike was killer. My calves already hurt, and we still had a long way to go. Was this what life would always be like with a professional athlete? Had I signed up for years of physical torture?

“Because, we don’t need a guide. We can do this hike.”

“You. You can do this hike.” I shoved the water bottle back into the pack.

“Oh come on, it’s fun. It’s different. We’re outside. There’s no city smog. It’s beautiful out here. It’s our honeymoon.”

I gritted my teeth and looked ahead at where I thought the trail was supposed to be. It was so thick with heavy leaves and flowers I wasn’t sure if we were going in the right direction. Jeremy didn’t seem worried. He was alive with adrenaline. This hike gave him a rush. I hadn’t seen this side of him yet.

I exhaled. “Let’s go. We have to find the waterfall.”

He grinned. “There you go.” He pinched my ass playfully as I took the lead.

“Have you done this before?” I asked. “Extreme hiking?”

I knew he didn’t use his money to take expensive vacations, but I wondered if there was a time in his life when he had gone on outdoor adventures. I could picture him white-water rafting, or rock climbing. He definitely had the physique for it.

He chuckled, jogging in front to help me climb to the next plateau.

“I always thought I’d have the time. I never did.” I appreciated his strong arms when the next step was half my body’s length. “I was either at practice, conditioning, or playing ball. And now I’m running my own companies. I can’t take off and do this kind of thing.”

“But is this what you’d do, if you could?”

He shrugged. “I don’t think about it. I don’t think about down time. You know that.”

“Right. Too much to conquer in the baseball world,” I teased. He was nothing if not ambitious.

“I kind of figured this wasn’t your thing, but maybe it could be. Maybe it could be our thing.”

“Hiking exotic waterfall locations?”

“Why not?”

I slapped a mosquito that had landed on my shoulder. “Because I hate bugs and pain,” I whined.

“Aww, it’s not that bad. You’ve got to leave that Newton Hills girl behind.”

“What? And be the other half of your power couple?”

“Something like that.”

I almost tripped. I wasn’t focused on the slips and cracks in the trail. I was caught in Jeremy’s words. Was that what he truly wanted? A stronger woman than me? A woman who would see a two-mile hike up a volcano as an adventure that needed to be tackled, that she would never pass on? I was the woman who wanted to pass it up. I wanted to sit on the beach and bask in the sun’s rays. I wanted to read a book and have a lazy pool day. Was Jeremy pushing me to try new experiences, or was I conforming to be the woman he wanted? Shit. My head was spinning.

“Jer—” I stopped before I said something I might regret. This wasn’t the right time to confess, or to press him for answers.

“What?” He had one foot on a craggy rock point. I didn’t want him to lose his balance. I was already unfocused enough for both of us.

“How much longer?” I asked, lying.

“I’m not sure. But there is a flat spot up ahead. We can stop and eat some lunch. Ten more minutes. Tops. Can you do that?”

“Sounds good.” I smiled weakly. I didn’t know how to silence the doubts in my head. I grew quiet, thinking and analyzing. Wondering if I was always going to doubt what Jeremy wanted, or if I was going to end up twisting myself into the girl that fit into that role.

I tried to focus on the birds of paradise and the hibiscus blooming wildly on the trail after lunch. I even paused a few times and took pictures. But the clawing doubt was in my heart. I kept hiking, keeping it to myself.

A couple hours later we emerged in a clearing. I was still. The beauty of what we witnessed wrapped us and held us breathless for what seemed like immeasurable minutes.

I looked down as Jer slipped his fingers between mine. The only sound was the constant gushing and roaring of the waterfall. Our faces were misted. Our bodies were hot from the hike. But the bug bites didn’t bother me anymore, or the pain in my hamstrings. I forgot how irritated I was that Jeremy had talked me into this. His palm was flat against mine, warm and strong. I’d never felt so grounded. So in awe of everything in my life in a single second.

“Worth it?” he asked.

I nodded quietly. “Yes,” I answered. “You were right. It’s amazing.”

“Want to try to get down to one of the pools?” There was a rocky path nearby that led to the landings. Below them were levels of pools that all fed into each other. It was like they were stacked the perfect height, one on top of the next, creating a never ending cascade.

“I do.” I smiled, wiping the water from my cheeks. “We have to get to that bottom one.” I pointed to my target, a crystal blue pool at the lowest level of the waterfall.

Jeremy laughed. “Should I carry you?”

“No way. I’m doing this on my own.” I dropped his hand and started down the trail ahead of him.

“Hey, Evie, be careful.” Jeremy chased after me.

Something hit me when I saw that waterfall. Something powerful and overwhelming. It didn’t matter why I was here, or how I got to this spot. What mattered was that I took every single damn step on my own. If it hadn’t been for Jeremy, I would have missed this. I didn’t know I needed it. He pushed me to get here, but I had a goal now. I was going to make it to that pool.

I held branches and grabbed leaves as I lowered myself along the steep path. I wiped the water from my eyes. They burned, but I never lost sight of where I was going.

“You could slow down,” Jeremy called from behind.

“You’re the one who said I was slow.” I kept moving. It was a lot easier going in this direction than trying to hike up the volcano.

“That was motivation. I guess it worked.”

I huffed. I had this.

The trail was so over-grown, the vines were in our hair and hitting our legs. I prayed I wasn’t allergic to anything in the jungle. I didn’t want to spend the rest of my honeymoon treating a weird tropical rash.

The brush let up, and I stepped onto a sandy spot. I grinned. This was it. The last of the pools. The one I wanted.

“Ok, now we can take a picture together,” I announced. “For the honeymoon album.”

“There’s a honeymoon album?” His eyebrows raised over the aviators.

“Documentation,” I explained.

“Right.” He stood next to me, smiling as I snapped the picture.

I checked the shot, realizing it was the first picture we had taken together. I looked at Jeremy. Everything about us was so muddled. So messy. We were close. We were distant. We had chemistry and banter. But there were secrets and agendas. We were friends and we weren’t.

He pressed a kiss to my temple. “Are you glad we did this?”

I tucked the phone into my pack. “Yes,” I admitted. “I am.”

We took the flat trail back to the main road. Our rental car was parked in a nearby lot. Jeremy opened the door for me and tossed our packs in the backseat.

He started the ignition and glanced at me. “I had no idea how fucking hard that was going to be.”

I stared at him in disbelief. “What?”

He pulled onto the highway and steered us toward the resort. “We seriously could have broken our legs, Evie.”

“What!” I hit him on the arm. “That entire time I thought you were judging me for wimping out.”

“Yeah, I kind of had to make you think that, so we didn’t die.”

“You were scared that entire time? No way.” I shook my head. He had been calm. He had been certain and steady. He had nagged and teased me.

“Not the entire time, but about an hour in I realized we were fucked.” He laughed. “I can’t believe we did the whole thing. Up and back. You’re fucking amazing.”

“Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you say something when we had a chance to turn around?”

“What? Admit to the tour guide at the vacation center we couldn’t do it? No way in hell was I going to do that.”

I rolled my eyes. “We could have died on that trail for your pride. Good to know where your priorities lie.”

He grabbed my hand and squeezed it. “We didn’t die. And it was fucking incredible. Watching you push yourself like that. We pushed each other. That’s not everyday shit.”

He kissed the inside of my palm and I felt my stomach flip with involuntary butterflies. I was supposed to be angry, not feeling flirty. I should smack him, not want to lean over and kiss his mouth. I wanted to climb in his lap and celebrate our survival. I wanted to strip out of these dirty, wet clothes and spend the rest of the night using our bodies to feel good again.

“Tomorrow, we’re doing something I want to do. No matter what it is,” I dared him to protest.

“Deal.” He turned onto one of the side roads. “Tomorrow is your day. I’m in.”

I leaned back into my seat. Every part of my body was exhausted—all the way to the deepest part of my bones. But I had a new sense of accomplishment I didn’t know I was seeking. And Jeremy was right. It felt fucking incredible.