‘Let’s beat these two to the top.’ Laura grabbed his hand. In her challenging stare he picked up an apology, a tinge of worry and more than a hint of a dare.
‘You’re on.’ They raced away and for the next few minutes their speed made breathing a challenge let alone a conversation. Hunter glanced at the people milling around and kicked himself for not realising that on a glorious October day when the leaves were at their peak this place would be overrun. The best he could hope for was to drag her off to one side and pray they wouldn’t be interrupted by someone wanting their picture taken.
‘My nose is running. Do you have any tissues?’
‘Sure.’ He fumbled in his pocket for a travel size packet he’d stashed there but something clattered down on the ground. Before he could sweep up the small black box Laura beat him to it.
‘Give me that.’
‘Say please.’ She waved it in the air and made a dramatic play of threatening to open it.
‘Please, Laura.’ His growling rasp made her lower her arm and thrust the box at him. ‘You’re makin’ this bloody difficult, you know?’
‘What you heard earlier, I didn’t mean quite the way it came out.’
‘Didn’t think so.’ He backtracked. ‘Well, I wondered for a minute but—’
‘—I only wanted to put Polly off the scent. You know me. Here.’ Laura rested her hand over her heart.
‘Yeah, I do.’ Hunter dropped to one knee. ‘Marry me.’
‘Is that it?’
‘I’ll throw in more flowery stuff if you want, but I hoped this might do the talkin’ for me.’ He flipped open the box and the sun set fire to the diamond ring.
‘Wow, it certainly does. Yes.’
‘Is that it?’ Hunter mimicked her and stumbled to his feet. Stuffing the box back in his pocket he grabbed her for a kiss.
Polly and Johnny arrived to join them, and Laura’s sister didn’t look very happy with her husband. ‘He knew.’
‘Yeah, he did,’ Hunter agreed, ‘but—’
‘—I warned him it was too soon.’
Polly frowned. ‘Laura said a few minutes ago she didn’t want to be rushed.’
‘—That’s only because I didn’t want you pestering him! I knew he planned to propose soon.’ She looked at him apologetically. ‘Sorry, Hunter but you stashed the ring box under your T-shirts and I found it when I was putting away our clean clothes yesterday.’
‘So, you peeked and spoiled the surprise!’
‘Define spoiled.’
‘You don’t deny the peeking part?’
‘I could.’ She shrugged. ‘But we don’t lie to each other these days so, yes, I did take a quick look.’ She wriggled up against him and batted her eyelashes in such an un-Laura like way he couldn’t stop laughing.
‘I guess it met with your approval, or you wouldn’t have said yes.’ The words sunk in and Hunter’s struggle for breath had nothing to do with the exertion of the hike. ‘You said yes,’ he whispered.
‘I did.’ Laura reached into his pocket and pulled the box back out again. ‘Is there any chance I get to actually wear this gorgeous ring before I’m old and grey?’
Running his fingers through her ponytail he pretended to scrutinise her hair. ‘I suppose you could’ve coloured them.’
‘What?’
‘The grey hairs.’
‘Cheeky monkey.’ Laura waggled around her ring finger.
