He noticed I was looking his toes, then curled them in, smiling self-consciously. “They’re very strange-looking. Too big.”
“I was looking at your coffee bean,” I said, pointing at his foot.
He laughed and wiggled them again. “You’re not the first one to notice.” He kept looking at me for another moment and surprised me with a question. “Are you sure you’re all right?” he asked, obviously picking up on my gloomy mood.
“It’s weird, but even though I’m missing my dad more since I got here than I have in years, it feels different. Better,” I said, and it sounded like a question. “Like it’s a wound I’ve been keeping covered and clean, but what it needed to heal was air and sun.” I shook my head at my rambling. “That makes no sense.”
His face turned serious. “You make sense to me.”
I frowned at how he phrased that and wondered if something had been lost in translation. But the way his kind, dark brown eyes were set on my face made me dismiss the thought. He moved a little closer, and his curls were almost brushing my cheek. I wished I could tip my face up to him, wanting to feel his touch on my bare skin with an urgency that startled me.
He spoke into the quiet night. “Just because something isn’t festering does not mean it’s healed.”
I nodded, then turned my face away again when he looked at me like he wanted to ask more questions. Before he could I stood, doing my best to shake off the intensity of the last few minutes. “I think I’m going to turn in. See you in the morning.”
He dipped his head and stood in silence, pointing in the opposite direction of my room. “I’m over there.”
We parted ways then, but as I walked up the pathway, I could feel the weight of Elias’s stare all the way to my door.
Chapter 4
The sky was starting to lighten when the call to prayer from a nearby mosque woke me the next morning. My job had taken me to a lot of different places, so I was used to music or prayers rousing villages. This muezzin had a particularly melodic voice, and I lay in bed, drifting in the cadence of his chanting as I thought of the day ahead.
We’d be going deeper into the rural parts of the region today, and I was looking forward to that. Being out in the field and talking to women, men, and children was always enriching and humbling for me.
It’s hard to explain to someone who hasn’t seen it just how little people have in some parts of the world. No electricity, no running water, homes made of hay and clay, at times not much to eat. A few changes of clothes for each person in a family, and if they were lucky, more than one pair of shoes. Still, they proudly opened their scrupulously cared-for homes, and generously offered what they had to eat or drink.
I was excited to do the job I’d been given over the next few weeks. And maybe, if I was honest, I was also looking forward to spending the day stuck in a car with Elias. I wasn’t ready to give my reckless crush free rein yet, but I was totally giving myself a pass on “getting to know him because he seemed interesting.”
I took the end of the call to prayer as my cue get out of bed, and within minutes I was walking out of my room. I warmed up a bit by the pool and left the hotel compound at a leisurely jog. The sun was almost fully up over the misty fields as I ran past. It was such a sight that I had to stop and look. The horizon went on forever here, which made for a stunning sunrise. I watched it in a reverent silence until I felt chilled and had to move.
I set off on the path Elias recommended with Cardi B for a soundtrack, the movement and bite of the morning air kick-starting my jet lagged brain. About two-thirds through the loop I began to sense some runners behind me. When I looked over my shoulder, I saw five or six boys of various ages grinning at me as they tried to catch up. I took my eye off the path too long and lost my footing for a second, then decided to give them a real run for their money. I ripped out my earbuds and took off back to the hotel as fast as I could go. They all shrieked, seemingly delighted at the challenge, and ran after me.
I lost most of my running companions along the way, but two of them kept up with me. I was almost ready to give up and let them pass me when I saw Elias come up on my other side, grinning from ear to ear. He ran alongside me for a second and then panted out, “I forgot to mention that the local boys like to chase the farenjis who go out on runs. It’s a big achievement to outrun them, you see.”
I looked at him, but was too out of breath to say anything, and in a last-ditch effort I sprinted, leaving Elias in the dust too. I made it to the hotel, barely, and collapsed on the lawn. Elias ran in a bit afterward, laughing hard as he dropped down next to me, and it wasn’t long before the last two boys made it back as well. I turned to them, still gasping for breath, held up my finger, and hobbled to my room. I got a few Jolly Ranchers and packs of gum out of my bag to hand out to the kids. They
