“Victoria wanted authentic content? Wait until she sees this,” I said. “She’s going to lose her mind.”
I couldn’t even believe what I was seeing through my camera lens. I began calculating the number of likes and shares in my head.
“You’re missing it, you know,” said Noah.
I looked at him through my viewfinder. “Missing what?”
“The actual view.” Noah walked over and gently nudged my phone down out of my face. He put both hands on my shoulders and turned me around. “See?”
I did see. Looking at everything in front of me, unfiltered, took things to a whole other level.
“What do you think?”
“This is …” All I could manage was a nod, rendered speechless by mountains and sky bigger than any post could capture, more beautiful than any caption could describe.
“Beautiful.” Noah finished, his voice soft beside me.
“Yeah,” I said simply. “This might be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Worth getting up at four AM?” Noah asked, finally pulling his hands away from my shoulders.
“Totally.” Even though they’d only been there a few seconds, the absence of his touch was like missing a limb.
We just stood there for a moment, side by side.
Not talking. Barely breathing.
Just soaking up the scene.
Placing my hand over my eyes to shield them from the sun, I saw something in the distance. “What’s that?” It looked like a small wooden structure on the side of a mountain, nestled amongst the trees. “People live out here?”
“That’s an old fishing cabin. There’s a bunch of them scatteredall over the mountain.”
“I bet the view with your morning coffee doesn’t suck. People rent them out?”
“Used to. They were part of the original lodge before LuxeLife shut ‘em all down.”
“Why would they shut them down?”
“No gourmet kitchen,” he quipped. “Also, no running water. Victoria didn’t think her LuxeLife clientele would appreciate roughing it.”
The parallel between the old cabins and the Adventure Center hung in the brisk mountain air between us. Noah didn’t say anything. But he didn’t have to. It was a good reminder of why we were even out there to begin with.
The sun fully crested the mountain ridge, bathing everything in golden light. I couldn’t stop staring at the way it caught the edges of the clouds, turning them into floating rivers of fire.
“I better get some more pictures.”
“Good idea.”
When Noah stepped away, I was suddenly very much aware of the altitude. It felt like all the oxygen got sucked right off the top of the mountain. It took all my mental fortitude to pull my eyes away when he knelt down on the ground beside his backpack. You know, so I wouldn’t accidentallyon purposestare at his perfectly shaped butt.
While I grabbed more content, Noah rustled through his backpack, pulling out a collapsible bowl and filling it with water for Yeti. The wolf-dog lapped it up enthusiastically, spraying water in every direction. When she was finished, she bounded back into the trees, presumably patrolling our perimeter for squirrels. Or chipmunks. Or disco chickens.
“What about you, you thirsty? Hungry?” Noah pulled a black and red plaid blanket from his pack.
“Starving, actually.” My stomach growled at the thought, a rumble fierce enough to give Yeti a run for her money.
Noah spread the blanket on a relatively flat patch of ground, then pulled several foil-wrapped bundles from the depths of his backpack. I caught the scent of fresh herbs and warm butter.
