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“Yes, in nature. We’ll stay in a tent! Oh, we could carry the tent and wander off into the woods and just pop up the tent whenever we get tired.”
“That would be like two feet from the car.”
“No! We’d hike first.”
This is sounding more and more like torture by the minute. “Would I have to walk? With my own legs?”
“That would be a requirement, actually.”
“And sleep on the ground?”
“Well, you’d be in a tent.”
“And have no electricity to read my book?”
“They make lanterns,” he says.
“Sounds… delightful,” I force out.
August laughs. “We don’t have to.”
“No! We have to. This was something I wanted to do,” I say as I wave to the boat, “and now we get to do something much more torturous thatyouwant to do. Next thing I know, you’ll ask to go mountain climbing. I really need to learn how to levitate myself. Imagine if I could use my brain to keep from having to evenwalk.”
“I’m… pretty sure it’s a good thing you can’t. That sounds extremely unhealthy.”
I tug his leg. “What’s that? Huh? Mr. I’m So Strong Look at My Muscular Legs Pedal.”
“I get a weird feeling you’re jealous. You want to look at my legs a bit closer?” August asks as he lifts his leg up. I twist some leg hairs in response before tugging his leg so he’s closer to me and lying with his back on the plastic seat and his feet hanging off the edge. I end up flopping over onto him as the boat sways a little until I get myself squeezed in beside him, tucked against him as he nearly falls off.
“Guess what?” I ask.
“Hmm?”
“I’ve realized that if you sit in the middle, you can work both sides of the paddleboat. I will encourage you with my heart and kind words.”
“Or I could let you sit in the middle to do both. I mean… that’d probably be best to help you stay healthy.”
I grab August around the midsection, squeezing him tightly. “Don’t do this to me.”
“What if I have to?” he asks as he runs his fingers over the burn scars on my hand from the fire I’d gotten caught in when the broadcasting station was blown up.
“Nope. You love me, don’t you? Would you really torture the man you love?”
“I don’t know… I kind of enjoy it.”
“Evil.”
“Thank you,” he says, which makes me grin.
We lie tucked against each other for a while, the light wind drifting us a bit closer to the far side which means it’ll be more pedaling back, but it feels far too nice lying against August like this. It’s such a wonderful feeling. I honestly consider staying here all day as Zacia curls up on my chest. When I glance at August, I find his eyes closed, so I pull out the paperback I’d tucked in August’s basket the moment I was aware we were going somewhere.
It’s absolutely delightful as I dive into the world of the book, tucked against the man I love. I let myself get lost in the pages and just savor this perfect moment.
August stretching alerts me he’s awake about half an hour later. “I think it’s supposed to rain around three, so I wonder if we should start back.”
I also stretch as I sit up, realizing that the weird way we’d been lying made my body feel like death. “Yeah. Good idea. Probably not super fun to get caught in a monsoon. I mean… what if my book gets wet?”
“I… don’t think we get monsoons out here.”
