“So, you know how you’ve been introducing yourself as my boyfriend?” I tipped my head to the side and looked up to see his face.
His mouth quirked. “I wondered when you would bring that up.”
I huffed a short laugh. “So, is that what we are, then? Also, why do I feel like a high schooler asking my homecoming date that question?”
Luke laughed and hooked an arm around my shoulders, pulling me into his taller frame. I gripped his backpack and let out the slack on Pebbles’s leash, so I could rest my other hand on the front of his shirt.
“New love has a giddiness to it. I think it makes us feel youthful again.” He kissed the top of my head.
I barely felt it. One word reverberated around in my head.
Love.
Is that what this was?
I mulled it over, turning the word and the feeling coursing through me this way and that. But the concept was too new. Too fresh. I couldn’t land on an answer just yet.
Instead of dwelling on it and trying to define it here and now, I shelved it for when I was alone and could properly think about it. I feared if I tried now, I might upset him by not having the answer he wanted to hear straight away.
“You’re feeling youthfulagain?” I asked, smiling. “How is that possible when you’re still a spring chicken?”
“I’m hardly fresh. You’re not that much older than me. We’ve had this conversation.” A smirk hovered on his lips and a bit of mischief danced in his eyes.
It was my only warning before he slipped my hold and had me plastered to his front, his mouth hovering millimeters from mine.
“Want me to prove how young we both still are?”
Delight skated along my nerve endings, pricking the skin on my head and neck. Need pulsed deep within me. It was on the tip of my tongue to say yes when Pebbles barked and tugged at her lead.
Chuckling, I backed away. “Later. Once we’ve worn these two out and they’re down for the count all night.”
Heat shimmered in his eyes. “We still have strawberry syrup left. And chocolate and whipped cream. I’m about to have the best sundae I’ve ever had in my life.”
A need so intense I felt it to the ends of my hair roared through me. I tugged on Pebbles’s leash, picking up the pace.
CHAPTER 33
Luke
Iwas in the Catch-22 from hell.
On a normal day, I was turned on by Mina, ready to close the door to the bedroom and strip her naked. But today? When we defined our relationship and the word that didn’t get bandied around carelessly entered the equation?
I wanted to find the nearest bald pine, pin her against it, and convince her there was no one else for either of us ever again.
Considering the look she gave me before Pebbles barked, I doubted she’d mind.
Which brought me to the catch: the dogs.
Mina was right. The little beasts wouldn’t leave us alone unless we wore their butts out or crated them. After the serenade we got last night when we tried that, I didn’t really want a repeat.
So, I was stuck on this damn hike until they gave up.
But the moment the second dog flopped, I was scooping her up, and we were heading for the truck.
Ahead, the trail forked, and the trees parted to the right, giving us a glimpse of the water in Gastineau Channel, where the trail met Dupont Beach.
“Do you want to go look at the water?” I glanced at Mina, then at Betty, who veered off into the underbrush.
