I pulled back, my breaths coming out a little unsteady. “If we don’t get moving, I’m likely to fuck you right here against my truck.”
“Sounds good to me.” Rory fluttered his lashes, a constant flirt.
A wave of self-doubt rushed over me. What the hell was I doing with him? This was a guy who went to the club on the regular, who could have any guy he wanted. And I hadn’t planned anything exciting like…sky diving or some shit. No, I’d dragged him out to a trail because I’d wanted to share a piece of myself with him. The urge to run back to my car reared in a big way.
My brothers had called most of my ideas dull over the years, so I’d gotten used to doing things on my own. And after I married Susie and had Harper, my siblings had been eager to add to the reasons I was boring, ignoring the fact that having a kid was all-consuming, especially at the young age I did.
“This is probably the lamest date you’ve ever been on,” I muttered, clutching the back of my neck. “I won’t blame you if you skip out. Notlike you can pull the restaurant trick of disappearing into a bathroom, but if you get a sudden call from a family member, I get it.”
“Whoa, where is this coming from?” Rory asked, placing a palm on my chest. “I like hiking, which we’ve discussed. Pretty sure the whole point of a date is to spend time together, yeah? You’ll need to clarify, though, because I haven’t been on…well, any that weren’t just a precursor to a hookup.” He glanced away, and that melted any hold my worries had over me.
I leaned in and stole a quick kiss from him again. “Mine haven’t been for a long, long while, so maybe we can fumble through together.” So easily, he’d just dispelled those ghosts from the past. So easily, he’d made me feel light, joyous, interesting.
“Sounds perfect.” Rory flashed me a brilliant grin, and my heart thundered.
I slipped my hand into his, and together we took the first steps down the winding trail at Stateline Woods.
“What’s in that pack of yours?” Rory asked, nudging my backpack.
“A few snacks and a handle of rum,” I said.
“That sounds anything but boring, Wyatt Anderson,” Rory said, swinging our hands back and forth as we walked down the path.
The winter had carved the landscape in harsher tones, skeletal branches and barren grounds, but there was a beauty here too. Endings held promise too, which was proof positive in Susie and me getting our divorce.
I thought my life was like the winter, where I was hitting the fallow ending of my cycle after raising a daughter.
Yet Rory had swept in with the promise of spring. With the promise of starting over anew.
And if he was willing to take the chance on me, I wanted to offer him the world.
Chapter seventeen
Rory
“That’s paper birch, commonly referred to as white birch,” Wyatt pointed out. With the slight redness to his cheeks from the breeze and the excited light in his eyes, he was hotter than ever. God, I could watch him for hours, how his lips moved, and the confident, loping way he walked.
Maybe I was a little obsessed, but who could blame me? Wyatt Anderson was a total fox, and I could barely believe we were on a date together. That he could even put that out into the universe with everything against us.
“You didn’t tell me I’d be getting a free informational tree tour with the hike,” I teased as we walked along the trail. It was an easy one with beautiful views, from the barren fields to the thick wooded areas with scraggly trees—which Wyatt seemed enamored with. “You’d figure with how much you love wood that you’d have realized you were bi way earlier.”
A laugh burst out of him, the sound so raw and gorgeous I wanted to bottle it and keep it for myself. “I’ve been working with wood for so long that I’ve got long-winded opinions on most lumber types.”
“Working with wood, eh?” I waggled my brows. “Based on the way you fucked me, I’m not surprised.”
“You’re begging for a spanking,” he said, the grin lighting his dark eyes. Goddamn, he was so stunning it was unfair.
“Do you think that’s a deterrent?” I asked, pointing back. “Look at this ass. It was made to be spanked.”
“Ngh.” Wyatt bit his knuckles. “You’re so goddamn tempting.”
“Too bad we’re out here on a hike instead of your bed,” I teased back. “You could have your filthy way with me right now.”
“Who says I still can’t?” he asked, even though we were walking right in the middle of the trail that sliced through a stretch of fields with zero cover. I might be impulsive, but I wasn’t dumb.
“The fact that we’re both too pretty for jail,” I responded, even though the idea of rolling around with him just about anywhere was high in my fantasy fodder.
“Have you had relationships before?” Wyatt asked. The topic came out of nowhere, slamming into me like whiplash.
