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Thealarmwentoffbefore dawn. I slapped it quiet again and turned to the warm woman snuggled against me. Purring, the same as last time. Fucking adorable. “Nora,” I said softly, trying to ease her gently into the land of the waking.
“I’m awake.” She burrowed in closer.
It was tempting to blow off our hiking plans and stay in bed. We had four hours until she had to be at work. I could do a lot with four hours.
But she wanted this. And I wanted to give it to her.
It occurred to me that I was in dangerous territory now, wanting to give a woman something that wasn’t just my dick. I had been here before, and I had failed. Spectacularly. But in this one thing, at least, I was sure I could deliver.
I hadn’t forgotten that this was just a first step to getting what shereallywanted. Nora wanted a baby. And that…well, that was my marriage all over again, wasn’t it?Tell her, that damn internal voice nagged at me.
But I didn’t have to tell her. That was the beauty of it. Our relationship already had an expiration date. She knew that. She wasn’t looking to me to fulfill her dream of being a mother. Thank god.
“I’ll make coffee.” I slid out of the covers into the chilly air. The loss of her warm, soft body was physically painful. I glanced at her over my shoulder as I got the coffee going. She didn’t seem to miss me much so long as she had the blanket. That annoyed me more than it should have.
“Oats okay?” I asked, dumping them in the pot without waiting for a reply. It was that or Lucky Charms. I didn’t have all that much in the way of groceries since I spent so much time either at my parents’ house or Suzie’s.
“Yes, please.” She sat up and ran a hand over her rumpled hair. “So this is really happening? We’re really going to go for a walk in the dark, dangerous woods?”
I laughed. “This is happening. Get dressed, Nora.”
She took her clothes with her into the bathroom. Damn. I would have enjoyed a show. Disappointed, I turned my attention back to the oatmeal. A few minutes later she reappeared wearing running gear. That was fine. The trail we were taking was easy; I wasn’t bothering with hiking boots, either. But I made a mental note to take her to REI to get some real boots before we tackled Hart Mountain.
“Coffee,” she pleaded.
“Yes, ma’am.”
I poured her a mug and passed it to her, along with the cream and sugar. She added a hefty amount of cream but didn’t touch the sugar. I filed that little factoid with the rest of the random shit I was learning about her.
“First lesson,” I said as she cradled the mug in two hands and inhaled the aroma. I waved my pack to get her attention. She blinked, then nodded at me to continue. “The ten essentials. Map, compass, sunscreen, jacket, headlamp, first aid, fire starter, food, water.” I held up each item to show her before shoving it in my pack.
She looked a little scared at that. “For an easy three-mile hike?”
“For every hike, in theory. The reality is a little different. It’s good advice to always have these things with you, but I’ve been known to ignore that advice for short hikes when I don’t want the extra weight. Most people take water and snacks and don’t worry about much else. For right now, let’s get you familiar with how to use everything here so you can make that decision on your own.”
“Okay.” She hesitated. “That was only nine things.”
“The tenth is either shelter or a knife, depending on whose list. I always have a knife, and since we won’t be more than two miles from my truck at any given moment, we’ll call that shelter.”
“Unless we get lost.”
Arrow to the heart. “You did not just say that. My trail-finding skills are legendary, thank you very much.”
She smirked behind her coffee mug. That playful tilt of her lips did something to me. I leaned across the table and kissed her hard. She made a funny little squeak and when I pulled away she was laughing. Why did that make me so damn happy?
I turned my attention to the oatmeal cooking on the stove because if I didn’t it would burn and also Nora would be naked again, both of which were counterproductive to a morning hike.
“Was that supposed to be punishment or incentive?” she asked.
“Who says it wasn’t both? Here, eat up. I’ll take Brandon out to do his business.”
Pale pink and deep orange were beginning to streak across the sky when we arrived at the trailhead. I pulled out the compass and map and handed them to her, taking Brandon’s leash so she could study the map.
“The trail we’re on today is marked. Every hundred feet or so you should find a blue rectangle, either painted on a tree trunk or a rock,” I explained.
“Then what do we need the map for?”
“Hart Mountain isnotmarked. It doesn’t even have a trail that goes all the way to the top, so you have to bushwhack to get there. Going up is the easy part, because as long as you keep going up, you’ll get there eventually. Going down is the problem. That’s where people get lost. There are three hundred and sixty different ways down the mountain when you bushwhack, and almost all of them are in the wrong direction.”
