Grabbing it, I return to Aerin’s side on the woodchip path, brushing dust and cobwebs from my clothes and hair.
She laughs and suddenly reaches for my face, catching some missed cobwebs clinging to my stubble with the end of her fingertips.
In that single touch, a brush of warmth that lasts barely half a second, I’m reminded of her question in the car.
“Does it ever go away?”
It does. Every time she touches me and sometimes even when she’s just looking at me, the constant burning tightness at the back of my neck and the wary tremor in my heart vanish, allowing me to feel like a normal man.
The edge I balance on every day of my life disappears.
“You can fish?”
“You can’t?” I ask, mimicking the same surprised tone she gives me.
Aerin’s eyes narrow as she brushes the cobweb off her fingers then wrinkles her nose. “I can’t. But I do like fish. Are you going to teach me?”
“Do you want me to?”
She eyes the rod, her mouth twisting slightly, then she shakes her head. “No. But you’re not going to leave me here alone, are you?”
“Not on your life.”
After some quiet debate with herself, Aerin vanishes back inside the cabin—that really is more of a small cottage than a cabin—and reappears dressed in jeans and a checkered shirt with a sketchpad tucked under one arm and pencils clutched in her hand.
“You draw?” I ask, surprised.
“You don’t?” she mocks with a teasing smile. “I need to keep myself entertained while you fish. Although…” Her brows pinch together as she looks at the rod in my hand. “Whereare you going to fish?”
“I saw a stream on the drive up here. From what I remember of the map, it should be close by. Enough that I can fish something for us to eat. But if you want to stay the whole weekend here, we will need to get more food.”
“Tomorrow,” Aerin decides. “We can shop tomorrow. I don’t want to go back to the city yet.”
“Works for me.” Her desire to get away sounded so desperate when she blurted this plan out to her mother, and I kick myself for not having the foresight to pick up supplies regardless of how well stocked this place is supposed to be.
The rod under my arm, Aerin falls into step beside me and we begin hiking away from the cabin and deeper into the forest.
Gigantic pine trees mingle with other breeds I can’t decipher, lining the makeshift path we take.
Twigs and leaves crunch underfoot, brittle from a lack of rain in the past weeks, and roots rise from the ground at each turn with the lingering threat that an unseen one will twist an unsuspecting ankle.
The air is brisk in my lungs and fresh in my nose, filled with scents I haven’t breathed in since I was at war.
While I never camped as a child, some of my work abroad in the military took me deep into forests like this one. Threats lingered behind every trunk and under every pile of leaves. Those threats don’t exist here, but it’s strange how similar the scents are.
We walk for twenty minutes until the sound of rushing water fills the air. Another ten and the stream comes into view. It’s wide enough that we can’t cross without getting our feet wet, but deep in certain areas that fishing won’t be a problem.
“Is here good enough?” Aerin asks as she approaches the pebbled edge of the stream. “I don’t know what to look for.”
“It’s good enough,” I assure her gently.
“What will you use for bait?”
Glancing around, I study the damp ground near the edge of the stream, then the air where various bugs and flies dart between flowers and plants while teasing the fish below. “I’ll make do.”
“A man of many talents, huh?” Aerin chuckles. She retreats from the river and walks a few feet away. Just as my heart gives an unexpected uptick at the distance between us, she chooses a mound of greenery formed around a fallen branch from a nearby tree and sets herself up to draw. In the peace of nature, with the late sun reflecting off her hair and turning it to pure amber, my gut tightens.
She’s so beautiful and she truly doesn’t see it.
