Page 49 of The Outpost (Jamison Valley 4)
“Tomorrow we’ll have to take a walk in the meadow,” he said. “It’ll smell pretty fucking awesome after a good rain.”
“Sounds great.” I went back to the dishes in the sink. While I washed, Beau dried and put them away, our movements so in sync, we were like a couple that had done this together for years.
We had come back from the waterfall and spent some time apart. I’d written while Beau had cut up a fallen tree and chopped it for firewood. Even though it was summer, I’d been lighting a fire at night to ward off the chill. I rarely used the electric baseboard heaters now that I knew how to build a fire. Only once had I made the mistake of smoking up the outpost because I hadn’t set the vent correctly. Luckily, Beau hadn’t been here when that had happened so my embarrassment—and smoky home—had only been shared with Boone.
By the time Beau had come inside from chopping wood, my somber mood from earlier had disappeared. I’d volunteered to cook our steaks and make a salad, then we’d eaten at our makeshift cooler table on the floor, chatting about nothing serious, before we’d gotten up to do the dishes.
“Want to play a game?” Beau asked, putting away the last plate and pulling out two glasses.
“Sure. Cribbage?”
“Or gin.”
“Cribbage. You always beat me at gin.”
He chuckled while filling up our glasses with the whiskey he’d brought earlier. Grabbing a couple cubes from the freezer’s plastic ice trays, he plopped them into the glasses and handed one over.
I took a small sip, wincing as the burn spread down my throat and into my belly.
“Not a fan?” Beau asked.
“Whiskey is Felicity’s thing, not mine. If there isn’t red wine, I default to top-shelf tequila.”
“Good to know. Next time.”
I smiled, hoping there would be a next time and that the rekindled closeness between us wouldn’t vanish when he got back to town. I had missed him being at the outpost these last couple of months. Not just because I was lonely but because I’d often found myself wanting to tell him something or ask him a question.
Without a doubt, I would miss Beau a great deal when I went back home to Seattle.
An hour and two glasses of whiskey later, I was tipsy and had gotten my ass kicked at cribbage.
“I give up.” I threw my cards on the deck. My slightly inebriated state made me happy and curious along with really bad at simple math. “Let’s play a new game. For the rest of the night, we can ask each other anything we want and the other person has to answer.”
“Isn’t that what we always do?” he asked. “You badger me with personal questions until I finally give in.”
I giggled. “Yes, but this time I won’t have to badger you.”
“I’m game but we each get a pass at one question.”
“Agreed.”
Beau stood from the floor and put the cribbage board away, then quickly started a fire before going to the kitchen to refill his drink.
When he tipped the bottle at me, I shook my head. “I think I’ll switch to water.”
I’d had enough to drink, and if I kept going, there was a real chance my already-too-thin verbal filter would disintegrate like wet toilet paper. The last thing I needed was to go blurting how much I wanted Beau to satisfy the three-month-long craving I had for him.
Beau came back into the main room and settled against the wall on the opposite side from my log chair where I was now sitting. His long legs ate up the short distance between us. With his bare feet aimed my way, I got a good look at just how big they were.
“What size shoe do you wear?” He gave me a strange look but before he could comment, I said, “Remember. We agreed no badgering.”
He grinned. “Thirteen.” Big. Oh, boy.
I smiled. “See, that wasn’t so hard, was it? Now it’s your turn.”
“Most embarrassing moment from when you were a kid.”
