The breeze rustles her hair as she faces the open passenger window. Her tropical scent drifts my way while her fingers tap a nervous beat to the song issuing from Hudson’s crappy speakers.
I turn up the volume, the only thing that seems capable of cutting through the thick nothing between us, and try not to let my mind wander back to the jewelry shop. But I can’t seem to help it. The moment she squeezed my fingers. When she turned my way, gaze dipping to my lips. Her resigned expression. Her soft lips teasing mine.
And then another expression when we pulled apart. Surprise?
And was it a good surprise or a bad surprise?
I breathe in the coconut and flowers. I should put the whole thing out of my mind. It was all an act. Right?
Okay, I can admit it. I’m starting to like her, but we’re going in opposite directions after this wedding. What am I doing, letting these thoughts run through my head?
So, when my mind starts to replay the scene yet again, I paddle it out of dangerous waters. We’re nearing the crest of the hill. “Did you get to go out on the lookout when you came into town?”
“No.” Morgan leans forward in her seat, twisting a lock of dark hair around her finger. “I haven’t been out there yet.”
“Want to?”
She wobbles a smile onto those pliable heart-shaped lips. “Yeah. Let’s do it.”
I veer onto a gravel parking area and cut the engine. Morgan steps out and wanders past the four white Adirondack chairs and toward the edge. I follow, hands shoved in my pockets. The awkwardness hasn’t died. But maybe it’s easing.
The lake shimmers below, surrounded edge to edge by trees. A few houses peek above the forest farther down the shoreline, white, yellow, gray, and even shocking blue.
Morgan fills her lungs and then slowly lets it out. “Wow, it’s beautiful up here.”
“I’ve always loved it.” I grin, and she smiles back.
We step onto one of the boulders lining the grassy area and take in the Oklahoma landscape.
The sun highlights her profile, sending pink cheeks aglow. What’s she thinking?
She hops onto the next rock, and it teeters, rocking forward under her weight. She stumbles, her arms flailing with her attempt to regain her balance. My reflexes kick in, and I catch her hand and yank her back to me, wrapping my other arm around her waist. She crashes into my chest where her hand splays. We’re back on sturdy ground, and she’s blinking up at me, her brown eyes wide. Freckles play peekaboo behind the strands of hair caressing her face.
“You okay?” My breath moves the hair from her forehead. Hers warms my neck, the sensation oh-so-sweet.
“Y–yeah,” she stammers. “Thanks.”
She jitters back a bit and pushes the hair from her face. We stare at each other, and something shifts in the atmosphere. It feels like the exact opposite of putting her out of my mind.
Before either of us finds anything to say, a ridiculously upbeat love song blares from her pocket and grounds the sudden electricity. I step back as she wiggles her phone free. The wordLeoflashes on her screen before she silences the sound and shoves it back into her pocket.
Then gravel crunches nearby.
“Will? Morgan?” Ava calls out from a golf cart, and Hudson parks next to my—well,his—truck. “What are you doing up here?”
I jam my hands back in my pockets and toe a pebble off the boulder. It clatters down, down, down the cliff. “Morgan hadn’t been out here yet, so we decided to take a look on our way back into town.”
They join us, and Hudson crosses his arms, bunching his green groom shirt. “My favorite spot in Carlton Landing.” He elbows Morgan. “So what do you think?”
Shading her eyes, one hand pinning down her glossy hair, she exhales a deep satisfied sound. “Same. New favorite spot. I’m surprised you’re not getting married up here.”
“We did think about that.” Ava saunters closer. “I think people do pretty often. But in the end, we wanted a church wedding. Plus, the Oklahoma wind is hard to predict.”
Hudson steps onto Morgan’s unsteady rock, and we both yell, “No!”
“What?” He pretends to ride a surfboard, rocking it back and forth with his body weight.
“Hudson! What are you doing? No broken legs the day before our wedding.” Ava holds out a hand, and he grabs it, jumps down, snugs her close, and plants a kiss on her forehead.
