Page 69 of Barefoot Lake

Alice’s eyes dart to my lips before she licks her own bottom lip. I pick up a piece of the crispy bacon.

“Breakfast is one of them,” I say, my voice returning to its normal tone.

Alice snatches the bacon from my hand.

“You suck, you know that?”

I just smile at her.

Despite thinking Alice had brought too much food, we finish every bite. I guess certain activities really build an appetite. Rested and fed, I set the tray with the empty dishes on the floor beside the bed before rolling toward Alice and pinning her to the mattress. I swallow her squeal and discover that she is, in fact, just wearing my shirt.

It’s late morning when I look up at Alice from where I’m crouched on the floor by the side door and shake my head, frowning.

“Time of death… sometime yesterday.” Alice sighs and places a hand on the open door. “It’s been real, door. You — Well, you fucking sucked.”

There’s no way I’d be comfortable just repairing an external door after the beating it took when we fell on it, so it’ll need to be replaced.

She looks back at me. “I blame the damn moose for this.”

I scoff as I stand, picking up some pieces of splintered wood and chucking them outside.

“I don’t know. Fall on a door once, shame on the door. Fall on a door twice… maybe it’s you.”

“That’s not at all how the saying goes! And what do you even mean, twice?” Alice looks outraged.

“Do I need to remind you what happened to that poor shed out back?” I close the dilapidated door and wedge the chair back under it to keep it in place.

“That was the spiders!!”

“Sounds like somebody’s putting a lot of blame on nature.”

Alice huffs and crosses her arms. I put my arm around her shoulders and pull her against me, kissing the top of her head.

“We can replace both today and then I’ll teach you how to walk.”

Her elbow quickly jabs into my solar plexus. I deserved that.

Fifteen minutes later, we’re in my truck on our way to the nearest Home Depot several towns over. Alice insists on having the heat up so she can crack the windows. The radio is also turned up so she can hear it over the wind. I don’t dare suggest that we close the windows so we can lower both the heat and the radio volume. I’m not a complete moron.

Alice spends the drive in the middle seat, leaning her head on my shoulder and holding my hand between hers.

Our shopping excursion is efficient, and we’re back on the road with two new doors, handles, hardware, and paint in no time. We stop for fast food on the way back, a necessity for road trips, according to Alice. I also don’t tell her that a forty-minute drive each way is hardly a road trip. These fries are a simple joy, and I’ll always accept those.

“Do you have Thanksgiving plans?” I blurt the question before I can talk myself out of asking.

The holiday is still over three weeks away, and it’s a big one for such a new… whatever we have. Relationship, I guess? But I want to spend it with her anyway.

She hasn’t given any indication that she isn’t going back to Boston in January, so I don’t know what I’m doing here except setting myself up for pain. Best case scenario is a relationship across state lines. I must be a glutton for punishment because I can’t stay away.

Instead, I keep getting in deeper.

“Not really. I was thinking of asking Piper if I could invade hers,” Alice answers.

“Would you like to come with me and Eli to his parents’?”

She looks up at me.

“Really?”