Rachel hated her annual family vacation. Every year she and her family, all four siblings plus two dogs, went to a cabin on top of a mountain in some ritzy tourist trap in Colorado. As a child, it was fun. Fishing her with father, camping in the woods one night with her siblings and telling horrifying ghost stories. As she got older though, Rachel enjoyed it less and less.
Rachel was far too wound up to enjoy a vacation. As the youngest of her siblings, she was the only person who didn't have a job or young children wearing her down. So, while her sisters did sunrise yoga, Rachel ran five miles on a mountain trail. While her brothers went "fishing" in the afternoon Rachel babysat her nieces and nephews, all seven of them.
The truth was Rachel could not relax. Her life was a constant struggle for productivity. She jumped from one energy outlet to the next with seemingly no breaks between. Sitting still made her anxious. Sleeping for more than six hours at a time was something she hadn't done since she got mono when she was fourteen. As such, the leisurely escape, that was the annual Moss family vacation, drove 19 year old Rachel insane. So insane, in fact, that she even applied for service work abroad during the summer, to avoid leisure time. She hadn't been accepted however and was forced to instead spend her summer working in her mother's boutique. That was fine with her, it kept her plenty busy, and made her feel productive, with one exception. The mandatory two week family vacation.
"Please come to the hot springs with us Rachel!" her sister-in-law Anne pleaded as Rachel scrubbed at the dishes from breakfast. "The boys are taking the kids boating, you're going to be all alone!"
"Yeah Rach," her sister Belle agreed. "Do you really hate us so much that you can't spend one day relaxing in natural artesian waters?"
Rachel sighed, "You know I don't hate any of you. I'd just rather not go. I don't think it makes me strange that I don't want to sit in hot sulfur water all day."
"Well, what will you do?" Rachel's mother asked.
"I think I'm going to explore the town a little more. There are some cute little shops down there."
Rachel's family knew pestering her more about it wouldn't change the result. So instead they said their farewells and headed off, leaving Rachel the day to herself.
True to her word Rachel visited the nearby town. She enjoyed flitting from store to store in her strapless blue summer dress and brand new cork wedges. She'd spent the morning getting ready, carefully drawing on winged eye liner and pulling her long black hair into a high ponytail. The effort appeared to be paying off too. Everywhere she went she caught men staring a second too long, or turning a fraction too far to watch her walk away.
No one stared quite as blatantly however as the bearded man sitting on the bench in front of the cafe Rachel was planning on eating lunch in. He was young, but older than Rachel. She estimated him to be 24 or 25. His blonde hair was long enough to be pulled into a messy bun at the nape of his neck, but his beard appeared to only represent a week or so of not bothering to shave. He smiled as he stared at Rachel, a genuine warm smile as if it was perfectly normal for him to be watching her so intently.
"If it isn't the lost Moss girl," he said happily as if addressing an old friend and not a total stranger.
"I'm sorry, do I know you?" Rachel asked guardedly.
"No. I'm Chris. I teach yoga here. I met a whole bunch of Moss women the other day. The kept talking about their youngest sister who refused to come and I knew it must be you."
"How could you be so sure it was me?"
Chris's smile broadened. "They described their younger sister as an incredibly A-type girl that's wound too tight and can't stop moving."
Rachel was dumbfounded. How could this man, whom she had never laid eyes upon before, have discerned her identity from those characteristics? Is that how people saw her?
Chris laughed at the horror on Rachel's face. "They also showed me a picture. It's hard to forget someone as gorgeous as you."
Rachel had no idea how to react to anything about the situation she had stumbled into. Not only was a complete stranger giving her absolute mixed messages, he happened to an incredibly attractive complete stranger.
"Hey, I'm sorry I didn't mean to freak you out. I just figured I'd say hi. What are you up to anyway? Your mom told me this morning you were all going to the hot springs."
"Yeah," Rachel said, slowly returning back to a normal state of responsiveness. "The rest of my family went, but I stayed behind to do some exploring."
