Page 16 of The Good Guy on My Porch

“I promise you’re going to love it. You’re going to be begging me to take you again.”

Why did his words send my mind straight to the gutter and images of his bare, wet chest?

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“When does this get fun?” I asked, as I swatted at a swarm of gnats who apparently wanted to be my best friends and had been trying to woo me to their side since the start of the hike.

“Stop,” Oscar said. I glanced back over my shoulder, confused and nervous. Was I about to step on a snake? I stopped and took two steps back before looking at the dirt trail. Nope, clear of all reptile forms. Oscar put his hands on my shoulders. “Just stop. Close your eyes.”

“Why?”

He chuckled. “Trust me, Dilly. Close your eyes.”

“This is ridiculous.” But I closed my eyes.

“Forget about the goal,” he said. “Forget about all the things you hate about being outside. Breathe in and smell the forest around you, the spring growth, the decaying leaves, the soil. Do you smell it?”

I breathed in. The scent was lovely, if more than a little overwhelming. Spring was a crazy mash-up of sensory experiences. “Yes.”

“Good. We aren’t in a hurry today. We don’t have to be anywhere or do anything other than exist on this trail and take in nature. If you want to sit down right here and just watch the forest around us, I won’t complain. You don’t owe me or anyone else anything.”

It was stupid, but his words lifted a burden I hadn’t realized I’d been carrying. I sighed and relaxed.

“Now, listen,” he said. “Do you hear the wind through the leaves? The birds singing?”

“Yes.”

“Do you want to keep going?”

I opened my eyes. “Can I stop whenever I get tired of this?”

“Sure. I’d never ask you to do anything you don’t want to do.”

“Okay, then. Let’s keep going.”

I’m not going to say I loved the hike after that. The gnats still drove me crazy, and sweat makes me itchy, but I had a better appreciation for the nature around us. We hiked in silence, just absorbing the beauty of the forest, and I didn’t think about my mother or my job or Carrie’s ridiculous plan to set me up. I thought about nothing but putting one foot in front of the other, and it was the most relaxing day I’d had in a very, very long time.

I was in the rhythm, lost in the moment, when the sound of rushing water mixed with the wind through the leaves and the birds twittering. “Is there a river nearby?”

“Not exactly,” Oscar said. “There’s something better.”

We kept walking, the sound of water getting louder, until the path opened up to reveal a waterfall rushing down the side of the mountain into a huge pool just a few yards from where we stood. On either side of the waterfall were flowering trees and emerald green undergrowth, making the whole scene like something out of a fairy land. I stared at the beauty before me, feeling like I was witnessing something holy.

Oscar stepped up next to me. “So, was this worth the hike?”

I looked over at him, grinning next to me, slightly sweaty, and I felt happier than I’d been in a very, very long time. “So worth it.”

He dropped his pack onto a boulder near the trail and pulled off his shirt. “Let’s go for a swim.”

“But it’s April. The water’s got to be freezing.”

He shucked off his pants, revealing swim trunks. “You honestly walked all the way up here and you aren’t going to have a swim?”

He made a good point. I dropped my bag to the ground, and pulled off my shirt and shorts, my favorite string bikini underneath. Oscar strode to the edge of the swimming hole and spun and looked back at me. “Hard to swim when you’re all the way over there.”

I took my time making my way over to him, hoping he’d be a gentleman and jump in first. He stuck out a hand when I got close. “We’ll jump in together.”

The sun shone down, warm and toasty, but I wasn’t silly enough to think it had warmed the pond. “Isn’t there a shallow end we could start out with, get used to the cold gradually?”

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