Then, when they reached the spot, the chainsaws were fired up, and she and Hannah were given the job of dragging branches away and into the woods, well off the trail.
They’d been at it awhile when she told Hannah she was going to go off and find a private spot to pee. By the time she got back, everybody was taking a break, and she tried not to notice that, for the entire time it took her to walk back up the trail, Danny never took his eyes off of her.
“I need a hand,” she said to the group at large. “Believe it or not, somebody dumped a TV in the woods.”
Jim laughed. “I believe it. Frank, you remember that year we found a washing machine out there?”
“I do,” her dad replied. “Looked like it was a hell of a lot more work getting it out into the middle of the woods to dump it for free than it would have been to pay the ten bucks at the dump.”
“Unless there was a body in it,” Danny said, and everybody turned to stare at him. “Sorry. Occupational hazard.”
“I thought that was your uncle,” Kenzie pointed out.
“Usually, but it happens sometimes.” He picked his gloves up off the front of the side-by-side. “I’ll give you a hand with that. I’d rather haul garbage than run a chainsaw.”
They walked down the trail in silence until she found the spot she’d left the narrow dirt road for a much smaller game trail. Then she led him through the woods until she heard him chuckle.
“What?” she asked, turning back.
“How far did you go?”
She rolled her eyes and then continued on, careful not to let any branches snap back and hit him. “I have a shy bladder, thank you very much. And also, your body in the washing machine theory was deeply flawed.”
“Why is that?”
“Because going out in the woods with a washing machine would attract a lot more attention than just going out there with the dead body. Hell, you could dress it up and put a helmet on it, then strap it into the passenger seat of a side-by-side and nobody would even look twice.”
“Okay, nobody appreciates the way your mind works more than I do, but you’re scaring me a little.”
Kenzie laughed and then came to a stop, pointing at the television off to their left. “There it is.”
He frowned, looking back in the direction they’d come from. “I can’t believe you walked this far out.”
She shrugged. “I actually went a bit farther. I was just lost in thought and glad to be away from the chainsaws for a few minutes.”
“What were you thinking about?”
“Not how to dispose of dead bodies,” she said, making him laugh. She didn’t want to tell him she’d actually been thinking about all the fun things they could get up to if he’d joined her and they were alone in these woods. The irony was too much.
Danny nudged the television with his boot. “How old do you think this thing is? It certainly predates the whole flat-screen craze.”
“I don’t think it’s older than me, but it’s close. It’s not very big, so I was going to carry it as far as the trail, and then I’d just drive the machine back and grab it. It’s just a little too heavy for me to carry that far, though.”
“No pressure to prove my manliness or anything,” he muttered, making her chuckle.
“It’s a good thing you’ve been swinging that splitting maul to warm up these muscles,” she teased, but when she moved forward to squeeze his biceps, she stumbled over an exposed root.
Danny caught her, keeping her from falling by stepping forward and putting his arms around her when she crashed into him. Instinctively, she clutched him and then—her body pressed to his—she tilted her head back, laughing.
When Kenzie looked into his eyes, though, and the heat she saw there flooded through her veins, the amusement faded quickly. As he lowered his mouth to hers, she melted against him and closed her eyes.
The kiss was everything she dreamed it would be—tentative and gentle, deepening until he was devouring her. He cupped the back of her neck with one hand, the other pressed against the small of her back, holding her close to him.
She never wanted it to end, but eventually Danny’s grip on her neck loosened, and, with one final sweep of his tongue, he broke off the kiss and rested his forehead against hers.
Trying to get her breath back and waiting for the world to feel steady under her feet again, Kenzie couldn’t hold back the giggle that bubbled up from her throat.
He stepped back, bending slightly and peering sideways to see her face. “What’s so funny?”
