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“So, you really don’t like the mountains?” she asked. “That thing you said at dinner that night at the seminar is true?”
“As true as the sunrise.”
“How can you not like hiking when you grew up in the most outdoorsy state? Colorado is literally synonymous with mountains.”
“Call it a genetic defect then,” I said, getting more comfortable on the couch. “My mom took me camping a lot when I was a kid. I might’ve enjoyed it back then, but somewhere along the way, the whole routine—setting up the tent, making a fire, digging a cat hole—just lost its charm.” I left out the part about how my mother’s death right after high school had dulled a lot of things for me, camping included.
“We should go camping,” she declared.
“Have you been listening to anything I’ve been saying?” I feigned a gasp and couldn’t stop smiling when she broke out in laughter.
When she stopped, taking a settling breath in, she unfolded her legs and stretched them out. Her ankle brushed against my knee. And then she quickly pulled it back, but not before the contact left a warm spot on my skin.
Sophie noticed it too.
Her smile faded almost instantly, and all the casualness of the conversation disappeared.
She shot up off the couch and basically ran to the kitchen, as if that brief touch had affected her as much as it had affected me. “Can I get you something to drink? Wine? Tea?” she asked.
“Tea,” I replied, standing up and heading to the kitchen. I rounded the island and leaned against the marble countertop.
Despite the obvious tension, like thick mist clinging to the air and seeping into every corner of the room, I wanted to be closer to Sophie.
Her movements were brisk and tense as she reached for a cup and brought the kettle to a boil. Only after she had fetched a tea bag and dropped it into the cup did she turn to face me.
“We should probably talk about how we’re going to tell Vicki.”
“How well do you know her?” I asked, folding my arms over my chest, enjoying the pressure of the countertop against my lower back, which thankfully was about ninety percent healed.
“Don’t you think if I knew her, I would’ve known aboutyou, recognized your face at the seminar? Known that you two were engaged?”
“Right,” I muttered.
“She doesn’t share easily,” said Sophie, looking almost resentful. “I don’t think we’ve had one personal conversation in the three years I’ve been working there. And if we did, it was always about me.”
“Vicki keeps herself tightly locked up. You kind of have to pry her heart open with a crowbar,” I said, hoping humor would help the situation.
But it did the opposite.
Sophie looked worried. “Well, what do you think she’ll say when she finds out?”
I closed my eyes and pondered it for a minute, picturing Vicki with her big eyes narrowed into slits, her fists clenched, her chest heaving as she struggled to catch her breath. It was the same look she’d had after our last fight.
When I opened my eyes again, Sophie was standing next to me, back pressed against the marble, looking up at me with those lovely gray eyes. The four brown specks were unnoticeable in the dim light.
“I think she’ll break in half,” I said truthfully.
As strong as Vicki was, she still had a fragile center she kept from everyone, including me. It would kill her to know that I’dslept with someone else so soon after our breakup and gotten the one thing I always wanted—children.
“Do you think you and Vicki would’ve had kids if the time came? I mean, in a few years, after you were married or whatever.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. That was the one thing I was entirely certain about— Vicki had made it crystal clear. “She doesn’t want kids. Never did. She just didn’t bother to tell me until it was too late.”
“Oh.” Sophie looked surprised. As if it went against everything she had ever known or believed. Her jaw was slack, her gray eyes wide, and her pupils dilated. “I’m sorry.”
She did look sorry. But there was something else there. An attraction. A deep want burning in her irises. She kept stealing glances at my lips, then gazing down to my chest and flicking her eyes back up. Everything about the way she was standing, arms hanging at her sides, shoulders straight and back, body tilting toward mine, told me that she wanted the same as me.
Closeness.
