Ash answered her first with a grin. “Because we’re not heading out to the clearing,” he added.
“We’re taking the horses overnight?” she asked as Ash grabbed her small backpack and hiked it onto his shoulders. “Hey… I can carry my own pack,” she added.
He nodded toward Holiday where she stood tacked and ready to go as well. “I talked to Eli, and we both agreed that Holiday is good to go for the trip, but we don’t want her bearing any more weight than her rider for at least another six months, so the pack’s all mine.”
Willow crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. “You talked to Eli, figured this whole trip out, and tacked up both horses while I was throwing together a ‘few overnight essentials’?” She made air quotes around the last three words, and Ash nodded.
“Fine,” he relented. “I talked to him and Boone about it last night before you showed up. And before you think I was getting ahead of myself and assuming you would actually agree to come with me on a trip like this, I put it all out there as a hypothetical. I just…” He blew out a shaky breath. “The thought of having you in my hometown and not being able to show you some of my favorite places?” Ash shrugged. “I wanted to be prepared on the off chance you decided you didn’t hate me anymore.”
He winced when he said the wordhate, and Willow found herself doing the same.
“I never actuallysaidI hated you,” Willow mumbled.
He huffed out a laugh. “Maybe not, but when I asked if you were going to hate me forever, I remember you saying something about checking back at forever o’clock.”
“Yikes.” She grimaced. “So that’s what I sound like after four years of buried—”
“Hate,” Ash interrupted, finishing the sentence for her.
But Willow shook her head. “Hurt,” she corrected. “Four years of buried hurt can sound an awful lot like hate.”
Ash nodded slowly. “And now?” he asked.
She glanced from him to Holiday, and the mare whinnied and snorted at her in response.
“Now,” she started, “I think you should show me one of your favorite places.”
He grinned, and they both mounted their horses and rode with Ash leading the way.
Chapter 13
“Oh my god,” Willow remarked as she climbed onto the wooden platform to explore their accommodations.
“It’s just a tent,” Ash called over his shoulder as he added her backpack to the small pile of gear he’d unloaded when they boarded the horses.
She spun around and greeted him with a smile he swore would illuminate the night.
“I know!” she exclaimed. “But look at this view!”
He abandoned their gear and joined her on the covered platform that looked out over a small lake framed by mountain hemlock and foxtail pines, beyond which they could see the rolling hills that eventually turned into mountains. Directly in front of their platform sat a firepit and two Adirondack chairs. Ash felt like everything he needed in the entire world was right here within his reach.
“You’re right,” he told her. “It’s beautiful.” But Ash didn’t mean the view. “Should we unpack?” he asked. “Get a fire going so I can cook you dinner?”
She turned to him, still beaming, and nodded. “I still can’t believe you did all this. How was this place even available on such short notice?”
At this, Ash had the decency to look a tad bit chagrined. “I maybe, possibly got the reservations clerk to offer the original renter a week’s stay on me if they let me have the tent for tonight.”
Willow raised her brows. “Ah, yes. The man who always gets what he wantsgetswhat he wants.”
“Ouch,” Ash replied, pressing a hand to his wounded heart.
“Sorry!” Willow threw a hand over her mouth. “Hard habit to break…throwing barbs your way.”
He swooped in and kissed her on the cheek, and she gasped. “Hard habit to break,” he parroted. “Wanting to do that every time you’re within range.”
***
Ash crossed his arms and smiled nervously when they’d finished unpacking. The empty tent on a raised platform might have seemed luxurious when they first arrived, but his minimalist floor mats and sleeping bags were anything but.
