He wanted to take her somewhere.Somewhere private where Ruth Sanger’s intelligence network wouldn’t find them.Not the fire station because it carried too much history for both of them.Somewhere Bonnie could relax and just be herself, not the mayor’s secretary, not the widow or mom.Just ...her.
He’d made a list.
Not a spreadsheet.He wanted to be clear about the distinction in case anyone ever asked.Apparently, spread sheeting romance was so nerdy it bordered on absurd, even if it did make him feel better to do it.
This time he made a list, handwritten on notebook paper, of possible locations for a first date with Bonnie.He’d still organized it by criteria though: (1) private—no chance of observation by the pinochle network or any of its known affiliates; (2) not a place associated with trauma, investigation, or municipal governance; (3) outdoors, because Bonnie spent ten hours a day inside the mayor’s office and deserved open air; and (4) somewhere she would actually enjoy as opposed to somewhere Gray found intellectually stimulating.He’d learned through a lifetime of awkward social experience that a place with reliable cell signal and a flat surface for a laptop was not most people’s idea of romantic.
The list was short because Cobbler Cove was not a large town.Once he eliminated every location where someone might see them and report back to Ruth, the options narrowed to approximately three.He’d driven to all three and crossed out two.
Which left the ridge behind the ranch.
There was a spot on the south side of the Foster Ranch, up a dirt track that wound through the ponderosa pines to a flat clearing above the hay meadows.Sully had mentioned it once.Apparently, generations of Fosters had sat up there with a beer to watch the sun go down.The view was supposed to be exceptional.
Gray drove up Wednesday afternoon to confirm the view and it was, in fact, unreasonably gorgeous.The entire Stillwater valley stretched out below, running left and right to distant mountains in both directions.Beyond the Foster Ranch, past Cobbler Cove, Stillwater Lake glittered in the distance, throwing shards of sunlight out like diamonds floating on its dark surface.The hay meadows at his feet rolled out in golden-brown waves to the pastures dotted with black cows and white calves and just turning the faintest shade of pale green.
He stood there for several minutes, reached for his phone and took notes.Sunset the following evening was at 7:42 p.m.Temperature at this elevation would be approximately twelve degrees colder than the valley floor.Wind direction was forecast to be prevailing west-southwest, which meant the clearing was sheltered by the forest on the windward side.Optimal arrival time for maximum visual impact: 7:20, which would allow twenty-two minutes of pre-sunset light followed by the full color display.
He was aware that this was not how most people planned a date.But it was the only way he knew how to do it.And it did seem to amuse Bonnie.
The question of how to get Bonnie up here without telling her where they were going was probably going to require coconspirators.And the only coconspirators who had both access to Bonnie and deep motivation to help him were currently sitting at Bonnie’s kitchen table doing homework.
He offered to pick them up from school Thursday and look after them until she got home from work.Bonnie seemed surprised by the offer, but she didn’t question it.Cassidy climbed into the back seat of his truck with dignity from the pick-up line at school.Noah exercised no such restraint.He ran to the truck shouting hello and was already peppering Gray with questions about tar pits and dinosaurs before he got his seatbelt buckled.
Bonnie had left grapes and slices of cheese and salami on a plate in the refrigerator for an after-school snack, and he got it out and settled the kids at the table to knock out their homework before their mom got home.
Noah only had a quick math worksheet to do, and then he went to work drawing a picture of what appeared to be a cow emerging from quicksand, which he narrated aloud as he drew to no one in particular.Cassidy did some sort of history worksheet and then pulled out a book.She read with focused intensity and clearly considered the outside world and her little brother to be annoying distractions.
Gray stood by the counter, feeling suddenly and ridiculously nervous.He’d helped perform an amniocentesis on an eleven-hundred-pound cow without breaking a sweat.He’d backed a fire engine into a narrow bay after weeks of failed attempts in front of an avid audience.He’d sat across from a woman and shown her evidence that her husband was murdered by her boss.
Asking Bonnie’s children for help planning a date was, apparently, harder than all of that.
He cleared his throat.“Cassidy?”
She looked up, regarding him with the calm, evaluating attention that was the Watson family’s default setting.
“I want to do something nice for your mom.Surprise her.”
Abruptly, he had Noah’s undivided attention as well.The commentary on cows sinking into quicksand ceased.
Gray continued, “I want to take her somewhere quiet where she can just relax for a few hours.”
Cassidy closed her book.“Like a date.”
“Yes.Like a date.”
Noah exclaimed, “Adate?WithMom?”
“I’d like to.If that’s okay with you two.”
Noah’s face cycled through surprise, delight, and something that looked like triumphant vindication.“ItoldCassidy you liked Mom!I told her before she even started her notebook!”
“You did not,” Cassidy said.“You told me Gray liked Mom’scar.Because he complimented the Subaru.”
“He was being nice about the car to impress Mom.Everybody knows that.”
Gray chose not to clarify that he had, in fact, been genuinely impressed by the Subaru’s all-wheel drive capability in Montana winters.The moment didn’t seem right for it.
“Where do you want to take her?”Cassidy asked.
