Page 57 of Just Past Two

What was there not to like?

“I think,” Abby said at last, “we should keep going just like we are. And see what happens.”

Sam leaned her back onto the couch, kissing her like he had all the time in the world, smiling into her mouth. “I have another fantasy to tell you about.”

“Oh?”

He dropped another kiss on her lips. “It’s the one where we have wild, hot sex forever and our marriage just keeps getting better for it.”

Abby rolled her eyes. “You’re killing me.”

“You love me for it.”

She looked into those warm brown eyes. She’d underestimated their relationship. This was only the beginning.

“Come on, you weirdo.” She nodded toward the bedroom. “I want to get you back into bed.”

Epilogue

“Oh my God, I can’t watch this.” Sam exhaled a deep breath and turned away from the giant rock in front of him, facing out into the desert landscape instead. Beside him, Stephan shielded his eyes against the sun and shook his head slowly, gaze still focused on the woman climbing the sheer surface.

“It makes my knees wobbly from here.” Stephan grinned, though, clearly not as shaken up as Sam. “Look at her go. She’s really come a long way in just a few months, Sam. You should watch.”

Sam turned back slowly. He had never had a real fear of heights, not the way Stephan did, but watching Abby climb this rock face inspired all kinds of tension inside him. He wanted to protect her from every possible danger, but she didn’t need protecting. She needed adventure.

Damn, Abby really was impressive. She’d claimed this wasn’t a difficult route, suited for beginners, but it looked pretty fucking challenging to him, who’d never climbed anything more difficult than a ladder. No matter how athletic he was, this was not exactly his cup of tea. Abby, though, was in her element, moving with deliberation. She reached carefully for another handhold, the red-orange rock covered in white chalk from previous climbers, and shifted her weight along with her feet. He’d watched her in the gym a few times, but this was different. Helmets, gear, a certain gravity—hah—to the way Abby and Jo interacted, all of it indicated that they’d taken a new step together.

Of course, all of this was a new step together, so many new steps these past few months, a friendship that kept deepening and developing the more time they spent together. He smiled to himself, because damn, a lot could change in a short period of time.

“What are you grinning at?” Stephan asked.

“I was just thinking.” Sam thrust his hands in his pockets. “Six months ago, if you had told me I’d be here, I wouldn’t have believed it.”

“Which part?”

“None of it. The road trip, the rented RV, you and Jo, it’s wild.” Everything was crazy, and somehow the most normal part was watching his wife climb a rock face in the middle of the desert. Tomorrow, Jo’s girlfriend Becca would fly out to join them, and the three women could scale more rock faces while he and Stephan talked shop and drank beer. Not a bad vacation.

Stephan smiled, that warm, crooked smile that told Sam everything was going to be okay. “Cross-country road trip with your fuck-buddy friends. It’s a wild world, man.”

A wild world indeed. And it wasn’t just vacation, either. They had a whole new set of adventures waiting for them after they returned. Mitchell had encouraged Sam to compete in his first CrossFit tournament, which was coming up at the end of the month. Angela was taking Abby into New York for a girls’ getaway weekend. What he was secretly looking forward to most of all, though, was Abby’s upcoming date with Zach. Sam sighed happily. “I’ll take wild.”

By the time Abby and Jo came over, chalk-covered and sweaty, Sam and Stephan had set up four canvas chairs in the shade of the RV’s foldout canopy. The guys raised their beers as the women approached. “To our adventurous ladies!” Stephan announced, taking a deep swig.

Jo collapsed into one of the chairs, grinning. “Give me one of those beers, or you will never see me naked again. And a water, because I am a shriveled-up husk of a woman.”

Stephan passed her both drinks, and Jo downed an entire water bottle in one long chug before tipping her head back with a sigh. “Fuck yes.”

“Me too.” Abby gestured. “And please open them, because my hands don’t work anymore.”

Sam laughed. “That’s not fun for any of us, if your hands don’t work.”

“I have other ways.” Grinning impishly, Abby took the bottle of water and guzzled some. “Damn, there is nothing like cold water. My bottle got all hot in the sun.” She wiped sweat from her forehead. “I don’t know how you can handle this desert heat, Jo. I think I’m cooking, right here in the shade.”

“Again. Shriveled-up husk, right here.” Jo pointed to herself. “And I grew up with it. It’ll get cooler when the sun goes down.”

“That reminds me.” Abby looked at Sam. “What do you think about camping outside tonight, rather than in the RV? Jo was saying there’s a spot not far from here, and we can stay out and look at the stars. We have tents.”

Sam tipped his beer to Abby’s. “A night under the desert stars? I’m in.”

Their camping spot was the picture of seclusion, nestled amid rock formations and the desert expanse. The sun set in a wash of color, bathing their tents and campfire first in purple twilight and then, finally, blue-black darkness. Sam lay back on the blanket, staring up at the stars coming into view. Abby lay beside him, her fingers entwined with his. He heard someone shift nearby, and raised his head to watch Stephan spread their blanket along Abby’s other side, and then settle in next to Jo, the four of them side by side, staring up at the stars.

After a few minutes, Abby rolled up onto one elbow, her face temporarily occluding the stars. She smiled down at him, difficult to see in the dim light from their fire, hair tumbling down over her shoulders. She leaned in to kiss him. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” He slid an arm around her to pull her closer, deepening the kiss, welcoming her warm weight in the chilly evening air. She curled against him, pillowing her head on his chest, and they stared up at the night sky together. Overhead, the Milky Way painted a purple-colored streak from horizon to horizon, a breathtaking expanse.

They gasped simultaneously as a shooting star lit the night, a crisp slash of brightness that bloomed and faded almost immediately.

“Make a wish,” Abby murmured into his ear. She pressed warm against his side, and beyond her, two good friends lay beneath the same tapestry of stars. They might go to bed all together tonight, or separately, and tomorrow was a whole new adventure.

Sam had no need of a wish. He closed his eyes and smiled.