He shook his head. “Nah, just stiff. Some hot taskmaster forced me on a death march.”
“Such a little baby.”
“I kept trying to be naughty enough for a spanking, but it never worked.”
The worn dirt pathway was only wide enough for two in certain spots. A quarter of a mile later, towering green pine trees ahead of us formed a U-shaped cocoon encasing a large pool of crystal-blue water that steamed toward the sky. The side of the pool without trees opened up to the sprawling valley of mountains and hills beneath us. Cascading shades of greens and yellows and blues worked together below to orchestrate a view that could take someone’s breath away. I glanced up at Logan, who had stopped his walk and simply studied the scene before him.
“Anything you want to say to me now?” I asked, breathing in the earthy scent of pines and dirt.
He looked over at me and smiled. And my heart stopped. Dropped. Then it rolled into my stomach and back again. I couldn’t look away. This was Logan. The real Logan. The relaxed, sweet, and teasing Logan. His eyes held no guile or pretension. Only excitement, appreciation, and a softness I could lose sleep over.
A splash in the water broke both of us out of our trance. We moved forward once again, zeroing in on the large pool of smooth natural rock. A large, bearded man sat alone on the far side, his bundled-up towel lying nearby. He waved a friendly hello as we approached from the opposite end.
“How y’all doin’? I’m Pete.”
We both smiled his way, though I was a smidge disappointed he appeared to be a talker.
“I’m Logan. This is Tessa,” Logan said, holding my hand steady while I stepped into the steaming water behind him.
“What brings you two here?” the man called. He looked like a younger version of Santa Claus, with a brown, scraggly beard that hid any idea of how old he was. He could have been anywhere in the mid-thirties to mid-fifties range, I guessed. He had a light Southern accent. The olive-green stocking cap on his head looked like it had seen a few years. His cheeks were rosy, and he had a hairy potbelly and a jolly countenance about him.“Anniversary?”
We settled down next to each other, finding a smooth place to sit with a decent backrest in the water, facing the man, though he was a good six yards away.
“Nah, just a date,” Logan said, his shoulder brushing against mine. “What about you?”
“I’m here to see it all.” He stretched his arms out wide, motioning all around him. “My wife and I are camped at the lower spring. She’s down with a cold, so I ran up here to see it all real quick. We travel full time in our RV, and this is the best hot spring I’ve ever seen.” He motioned at the view. “Harmony’s gonna be so ticked she missed this.”
My ears perked up. “Full-time travelers? That sounds fun. How do you do that?”
“By selling our house in suburbia and moving into an RV. We camp outside whenever we can and live off the land.”
“What did you do before traveling?” Logan asked, putting his arm around my shoulder and pulling me close in a move so swift and smooth I risked a glance at him. Other than a small twitch of his lips, he kept his focus on Pete.
“I worked for a company in Louisville.” Ahh, that explained the accent.
“Do you have kids?” I asked, wondering how a whole family would live squished into an RV long term.
“Nope. We want ‘em, but so far, they haven’t come au naturel, which is important to us.” He took a scoop of the water and held it in front of his face, watching it fall in a tiny stream into the water.
“What do you do for work now?” Logan asked.
“Well, when you live off the land, your expenses are already cut in half. But the wife’s been working hard burning through the money we got from selling our house.” He burst into a rollicking fit of mirth, his belly bouncing as he did so.
We both laughed politely.
“Nah. I’m kidding. Well, mostly kidding. We have a YouTube channel teaching others how to live off the land. What berries to eat. Hunting tips. Au naturel, you know? Pretty soon, we’re gonna be so far off the grid the government won’t be able to find us. That’s the goal, anyway.”
Cue awkward silence.
We chatted with Pete for a while before he said, “Well, it’s been nice talking with you both, but I better get back to my better half.”
And then, he stood up.
The ‘Nice to meet you’ forming on my lips died instantly. It was no longer nice to meet him. He stood before us, naked as the day he was born, before turning around, a tanned ham speckled with black hair on full display as he bent forward to climb the rocks out of the hot spring.
Logan tensed beside me, but we both watched, captivated and horrified but unable to look away even as the man bent over once again to grab his towel.
The hand from the arm around my shoulders fell in front of my eyes, blocking the view. I leaned into his body that was shaking from holding in a silent laugh.
