"May I take you out on a date tonight?" Finn asked a couple of days later.
"Sure, where are we going?"
"It's a surprise. Wear clothes you can walk in and comfy shoes."
"I only have one pair of shoes," I reminded him and he frowned.
"We'll go shopping for shoes next time. Your sneakers will work for now."
It was his turn to be at work that day, so I didn't see him until five when he arrived to pick me up. I was ready in jeans, a t-shirt and light jacket.
"Have fun, you two." Geo gave me a kiss on the lips and winked at Finn. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do."
"So anything goes?" Finn teased.
I followed him out to his car and we headed out of town. After a while, he turned down a narrow road that I'd never seen before and I glanced over at him.
"Um, Finn, you're not taking me into the woods to kill me, are you?"
"Nope, just to woo you." He grinned at me. "You'll love this, trust me."
A few minutes later, the road, which had turned into a two lane track, abruptly ended in a little overgrown clearing. Finn parked the car there and got out, running around to open my door.
"Come on, you're going to absolutely love this." He was so excited he practically bounced as he went to the trunk and pulled out a backpack that he put on. He tossed me a bottle of Aiden's iced tea and walked toward the forest.
"It's pretty out here." I looked around at the greenery all around us as I followed him down a barely there path.
Finn held back a branch so I could pass before letting it snap back into the path. "Isn't it? I've been hiking more since . . . well, in the past couple years and nature is really fucking cool."
We suddenly emerged onto a small beach along the edge of a beautiful lake. A waterfall poured down into the lake not too far away, but far enough that the sound wasn't overwhelming.
"Whoa." I stopped and stared at the water. Several ducks were floating serenely on the water away from the waterfall and a frog hopped along the edge of the water. "Finn, this is so beautiful!"
He chuckled. "I know. It's my favorite spot. I've never even seen anyone out here, though the trail must mean someone knows about it."
When I turned around, he had a blanket spread out on the grass and an array of food in containers. "Come sit."
"You brought a picnic?"
"I didn't make any of it," he told me. "It's not that impressive. I stopped by Allan's Deli on the way home and picked it up."
"I love the sandwiches there."
"Pastrami on rye, right?" He pointed to the wrapped sandwich on my side of the blanket. "And a giant pickle. Never understood how you liked those things."
"They're delicious." I sat down on the blanket. "You didn't even do things like this the first time you courted me."
"We didn't really court though, did we? It was more of a 'hey, we like you, you like us, let's get together.'" Guilt flickered in his eyes. "I'm sorry we didn't do more back then. We should have realized just how valuable you were. It's fucking ridiculous that it took you being gone for us to see the purpose you held in our lives. Everything has been so dull and broken without you."
"Broken? You guys exploded a business, had it go international, I think you're doing fine."
"That business is yours now, remember." He gave me a cheeky grin. "So, really, we did it all for you."
"I'm sure that's what you were thinking when you worked that hard." I shook my head. Picking up the sandwich, I unwrapped it and bit into the thick bread and through layers of cheese, lettuce, tomato, and the huge pile of pastrami that Allan always added.
A groan escaped my throat. "This is so good. I've missed food."
Finn made a distressed noise and shoved a pickle at me. "I'm sorry, Li. You never should have missed anything in your life, but especially not food."
