I nodded. “Once the season starts, we won’t have that option until the fall.”
“Okay. You make the pancakes, I’ll make the plans.”
Jonathan padded out of my bedroom as I dropped the first bit of batter onto the skillet. “When do we absolutely need to be back? Can we stay overnight?”
“Uh, I thought we’d just get lobster and beer on the Cape?”
“Psh. No. If you give me the weekend, I’m going to take it. Remember, once the season starts, we aren’t stopping.”
“Fine. Get me back for an early bedtime tomorrow night.”
“Do you need a long run tomorrow?”
“I’m supposed to, but I can move it to Monday.” I wasn’t looking forward to my long run for obvious reasons, and I had wanted Kelsey to try to make the next one, but she’d flown down to Florida to spend some time with Sam.
His face brightened like a little kid at Christmas. “Perfect. Go pack a bag. Ski pants, too.”
My eyes widened. “Are we skiing?”
“No. But we’ll be out in the snow for a bit. That’s all I’m telling you, though.”
He sat down at my countertop and watched me make pancakes while he texted someone on his phone. He groaned when the first bite of pancakes hit his mouth.
“Glad you like them. Last time I made them for myfamily, they complained because I slipped protein powder into the batter.”
“You could coat cardboard with maple syrup, and I would eat it.”
Six hours later, Jonathan parked his Range Rover in front of an A-frame on the side of a mountain in Vermont.
“Isn’t the VonTrapp house around here?”
“Yes. But we’re not going there this time.”
“This time?”
“Yeah. This house is mine. We can come up here whenever we want. It’s beautiful in the summer, too, but I don’t make it up here much then. I had the caretaker set us up, so we have groceries already stocked.”
“Show me the place.”
A half hour later, we were standing in the large garage he called the shed, where he asked me to pick the snowmobile I wanted to use.
“Do you trust me to drive that thing?”
“Would you prefer to ride on the back with me? I have a two-seater.”
I stared at the machine and nodded. As nervous as I was to ride with him, Jonathan relaxed as soon as we arrived in the mountains. I hadn’t noticed how exhausted he’d been, probably because we both had a bad habit of burying ourselves in work. Getting away from the city felt great, and I was willing to freeze my ass off on the back of the snowmobile to earn an hour by the fire later tonight.
“Is thata gun safe?”
“It is. For when I come up hunting.”
“Really? You hunt?”
“Since I was a kid. It was something I did with my grandfather.”
“Why is it I feel like there’s so much I don’t know about you?” I swallowed hard after saying that out loud. He wasn’t keeping secrets. I was.
FORTY-TWO
