Page 48 of Lakesides and Longing

The sky was just starting to lighten, but he could still see stars for miles.

“It’s cold,” Paige muttered, shimmying closer to him. He didn’t think that was possible.

“I know. Should we go inside? We can probably catch a few more hours of sleep.”

She propped up on his chest and wiggled her eyebrows. “I’m awake now, and yes, we should definitely head inside and crawl into bed, but I have no intention of going back to sleep.”

He grinned at her. “What exactly do you plan on doing?”

“Many, many nefarious things.”

“Then let’s go.”

She stood and wrapped the blanket around her, and he took the one they’d been laying on. Paige was far more aggressive than he’d thought she be, and it drove him mad. He wondered what other surprises she had up her sleeve.

* * *

Paige saton the counter watching him cook again. He liked having her there.

Her phone buzzed, and she picked it up and frowned.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

“What? Oh, nothing. It’s just one of my best friends texted me about a weekend retreat.”

“When is it?”

“This coming weekend. I used to go every year with my artist friends, but I haven’t been since Emery died. They always invite me though and they’ve been bugging me for a few weeks.”

“You should go.”

She shook her head. “I don’t think I’m ready for that.”

“I think you are. Look at how far you’ve come this past weekend. Where is it?”

“Vegas.”

“Excellent. I’ll come with you, and we’ll spend a couple of extra nights and make this thing official.”

She laughed. “You’ve gotta work on your proposals.”

“Damn. I guess that was another lame one. Will you say yes if the proposal is better?”

She winked at him. “I’m not answering that. You’ll just have to wait and see, but I won’t answer at all unless there is a ring involved and a huge to-do.”

“You have high expectations.”

She plucked a piece of bacon off the plate next to her. “I do.”

“Yep. Those are the words I want to hear. But Vegas, seriously. You should go. It will be good for you.” He wanted her to go because it would be good for her, but he would miss her.

“Are you trying to get rid of me? I thought you liked sleeping with me.”

“I do, but I also think it’s important for you to create some normalcy in your life. That includes doing retreats with your artist friends. But what kind of retreat happens in Vegas? It seems like the Arizona desert would be better.”

She giggled. “It used to be in the Utah mountains, but as the years went on, we stopped painting and spent the whole weekend talking. So we moved the location to Vegas, and none of us bring any art supplies anymore.”

“What do you do then?”

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