Page 42 of A Lifetime of Afters
I examined the bench he chose. “Is this the bench we carved our names in?”
The first time the five of us hiked up here without an adult, we left our mark. Nobody got in trouble that time. Carving your name into the benches at the top of the trail was a time-honored tradition.
“Yup.” He sipped his coffee.
“You didn’t even look!” I cried.
Rounding my shoulders with his arm, he cuddled me into his side. “I come up here all the time and I always sit on this bench.” He jerked his chin to the side. “It’s back there.”
I ran round to the back of the bench and traced the letters, worn and faded by time.
Like my ribbon.
Like me.
“Up here, the world is quiet,” I mused, walking back around. “A person can hear themselves think.” I snuggled back in under his arm.
“When was the last time you hiked this trail?” he asked.
“Ten years ago?” I said it like a question, but I knew. A few days before I left, Harley and I climbed it and polished off a bottle of wine at the top. Probably not our best decision, but it was a difficult time for both of us.
“I love being up here,” he confessed. “It’s peaceful. I don’t think about anything when I’m here. At all. I just take it in.”
“Hunter hated it,” I laughed, tears stinging my eyes. Looking around, I noticed the detritus of waste left behind. “I hate when people leave their garbage up here.”
Hawk stood abruptly. “Let’s pick it up and head back.”
Surprised by the sudden change but distracted by the issue of the garbage, I let it go. I’d accepted his changeable moods as his new normal. We’d all changed.
The past couple of weeks with him surpassed my sweetest dreams. Every available moment we found, we spent together. We’d regained the easy camaraderie of our youth but added the excitement of new love.
Well, old love for me, but new for him.
Hopefully.
By the time we made it back home, the sun was high, and the temperature had risen by several degrees.
And we were drenched in sweat.
“You look like you peed yourself,” he laughed.
“So! Look at you, Mr. Wet T-shirt contest!”
“All I want to do is lie down on that bed,” he looked with longing at the sheets we rumpled so sweetly the night before.
“Shower,” I advised. “Shower first.”
He agreed, walking his naked butt ahead of me into the bathroom, smiling cheekily over his shoulder. “No funny business,” he asserted. “I can barely stand.”
I snorted. “No funny business. Are you telling me if I dropped to my knees you’d say ‘no, thanks’?”
“Don’t!” he stopped in the doorway, his voice warm with humor. “I do not want to get a hard on right now.”
I moved in close, twisted sideways, and brushed my naked breasts against his ribs as I passed. “Oops,” I quietly taunted.
I didn’t even see his hand, but I felt it half a second after it cracked my ass. My mouth fell open. “Hawk!” I sputtered. “You can’t justspanksomeone!”
“I just did,” he answered smugly.
