Not that she was going to let him get away with not telling her what was going on, of course. But she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for a little while longer at least.
Maybe he gets carsick on winding mountain roads,she thought, with a little internal laugh.I can see why he might not want to make that kind of impression on a first date.
“I can trust you,” she said, noticing the way his shoulders visibly sagged in relief. “But I do want answers.”
He nodded. “Is there somewhere we could walk to from here where we could talk privately? Would you still like to go back to your house?”
As much as she would’ve liked to take him back to her home, she found that she was in the mood to do something a little different. She’d been so busy recently that, she suddenly realized, she hadn’t been for a walk in what felt like ages. And she suddenly found that there was nothing that she wanted to do more than go walking in the forest with Calvin.
“How about the forest? It’ll be a lot cooler under the shade of the trees,” she suggested. “And you could have at least a bit of your hiking holiday. As long as you don’t mind me tagging along and slowing you down, of course.”
He looked surprised for a moment, but then his face broke out into a big, gorgeous smile. “You wouldn’t be slowing me down.”
Diana smiled back, her heart fluttering.
Calvin gestured his arm broadly, seemingly indicating the vast expanses of greenery that surrounded the entire town. “Lead the way.”
They walked down the main drag a little, content to spend their time mostly in silence as they simply took in the delights of Girdwood Springs, from the sights of quaint shops and enormous shade trees to the smells of abundant flowers and freshly baked cakes. For such a small town, there really were so many things to be grateful for, and Diana didn’t think she would ever move away again for the rest of her life.
Turning off the main road, they quickly found themselves on a winding dirt path in the forest, enormous oaks and firs and maples towering above them while smaller shrubs and flowers crowded in from the sides. The range of plant and animal life in Girdwood Springs was breathtaking, and Diana never got bored.
“There’s a little clearing down this path,” Diana said, pointing. “I remember it from when I used to come down here all the time. It’ll be a nice place to sit and talk.”
It was uncanny how, even after all these years, the paths through the woods still seemed so familiar to her.
The clearing opened up before them, and Diana took a moment to enjoy the feeling of warm sunbeams touching her face after the shade of the forest, letting her eyes close for a moment.
Opening them again, she looked around.
The clearing was a place she had visited often enough during her mildly misspent youth, but she hadn’t been here since…
Since I left for college,she realized.
It hadn’t changed all that much, except that now instead of covertly bringing teen magazines with hunky guys on the cover with her, she was skipping the middleman and bringing a hunk outright.
She turned to look at Calvin, whose expression was kind of adorably befuddled. He was clearly trying to work out how to say whatever it was that he needed to tell her.
“Should we sit?” she asked, indicating a patch of soft-looking grass that was dappled in shade from a gloriously green sugar maple. If they were going to have an awkward conversation, they could at least be comfortable for it.
He nodded, and the two of them lowered themselves onto the grass, Diana sighing happily as its coolness touched her legs.
Well, Calvin, I’ve done my part. I’ve brought us somewhere nice and private. So – the rest is up to you. Start talking!
“Look!” Calvin said suddenly, almost making Diana jump. She turned her head where Calvin was pointing, to find a raccoon that had been surely just minding its own business ambling through the clearing staring back at her – no, make that one mama raccoon and five tiny baby raccoons, all huddled in close.
“Oh, aren’t they precious,” she breathed, not daring to move. “Their tiny stripey faces!”
She knew that, realistically, they’d probably spent all night feasting on horrifying vegetable scraps they’d raided from the trash, but… they were just so cute when they weren’t doing that! Diana watched them as they scuttled adorably about, making little trilling sounds, until, apparently deciding that she’d had enough of being watched, the mother raccoon ushered her babies off to somewhere more private.
She turned to Calvin to see him smiling as well, and her heart soared to see his happiness.
“Seeing animals out here in nature – there really isn’t anything better in the world, is there?” she said. “Well – I mean, just as long as they’re not knocking over my trash cans at two o’clock in the morning.”
Calvin laughed. “You can say that again.”
As cute as the raccoons are, is he stalling?Diana thought, as she looked at Calvin’s troubled expression.Well. I guess I can give him a little time to think.
Adjusting herself so that she was facing Calvin, Diana waited expectantly.
