“What’s all of this?” I asked, rounding the back of the truck.
“Since you seem to have an aversion to going out in public—”
“Boden—”
“It’s all good.” He waved with both hands. “I’m not here to question your why or push you. I knew that if I had any solid hope of getting you out of the house, it needed to be somewhere you felt safe.”
“And you figured out in the middle of nowhere, in the dark no less, would accomplish that goal?” I couldn’t help but laugh.
“You know you’re in the presence of a cop, right?”
“I do.” As if I could forget, I’d seen him more in uniform than out.
“Good, so trust me when I say no one will bother us here. Now hop on up here while I finish setting up.” He patted his truck.
“I’m confused.” Inside the flatbed of his truck were a bunch of pillows, blankets, and a cooler.
“I thought we’d have an impromptu movie night under the stars. What did you think I brought you out here for?”
Our eyes met, and Lord have mercy, my mind was not lacking ideas of what we could do to pass the time in the back of his truck. Boden affected me in a way I wasn’t used to. He wasn’t like anyone I’d ever met before. He was patient, thoughtful, and not to mention hot as fucking sin. With just one electric glance my way, butterflies fluttered in my stomach, my heart rate increased, and let’s not discuss what the man did to my panties because I wasn’t fully ready to act upon the effect he had on that part of my body.
“How often do you come here?” I sidestepped his question because I was certain he knew exactly where my thoughts had taken me.
“Quite often, actually, but this is my first time setting up for a movie, so I’m crossing my fingers the setup I envisioned works.”
I watched as he unfolded a white tarp and walked closer to the water’s edge, where an opening was between the trees. He reached up and tied the rope around one tree before copying the process on another. He then set up a projector on the roof of the truck’s cab and aimed the light at the makeshift movie screen.
“All comfy?” he asked as he sat beside me and fluffed the pillows behind his back.
I nodded while pushing away the nagging feeling of jealousy that had taken root. I didn’t understand why it had sprouted to begin with. I had no claim over the man, nor did I have any right to pass judgment on who he brought here or what he did in his past. As the silence separated us, I peeled back the layers of my emotions. Despite the walls I’d put up to protect my fragile self, Boden had found his way inside my head, and in doing so, I knew this feeling stemmed from allowing myself to feel like I was special, that I mattered enough for someone to put the effort in. What threatened my mood was that I’d been foolish to think, even if only for a blissful few minutes, that he’d brought me somewhere for an experience he hadn’t shared with anyone else, and yet, it was what he wasn’t saying that all but confirmed that not to be accurate.
“I can practically hear you thinking, Lakelyn. What’s got you all twisted up inside that pretty head of yours?”
I leaned back, looked up at the star-lit oasis above, and swallowed down my irrational thoughts spinning a baseless narrative. Boden didn’t strike me as the type of man that did things without purpose, and if he brought me here, to a place he’d admitted to coming many times, it had to hold meaning to him, and I wanted to learn what it was. I wanted to peel back his layers and know more about the Adonis before me.
“Tell me about this place. Why did you bring me all the way out here?”
“I thought you’d appreciate the seclusion.”
“Oh, I do, but I think there’s another reason.”
“What makes you think that?
“A feeling I’ve got.”
“A feeling,” he parroted while working himself into a comfortable position amongst the pile of pillows. “You’re a perceptive woman, Lakelyn.”
From the long-sleeved open flannel he was wearing layered over a basic white T-shirt down to the worn ripped jeans and Timberlands covering his feet, Boden was devastatingly handsome.
“Truth is, this land holds special meaning for me. It’s the only physical place I have that grounds me to both my past and my future.”
“I’m not sure I understand.”
“There’s no way you could, without explanation.” With one arm casually tucked behind his head, his jawline sharpened.
While it wouldn’t have been off-base or unnatural for a person to have felt the stab of rejection currently residing in my chest that he didn’t seem keen on elaborating, it was the grief that sidelined him and had me sympathizing on a level that seemed to bond us.
With a dim light overhead from the projector, I witnessed his brow crease while the corners of his lips fought against a downward pull. Heartache seemingly channeled through his veins as he tried to reconcile not just how much he wanted to share but rather what he could bring himself to say out loud.
