Page 87 of Stay this Christmas
“I’m thinking about our overnight tomorrow.”
“So am I.”
Oh, that voice. He fought dirty.
“No expectations, right?”
“No expectations,” he confirmed with a stout little nod. “Just stargazing.”
We finally broke apart, and he walked me the rest of the way to my door. I shouldn’t have worried about keeping the goodnight kiss PG-13, since the sweet brush of his lips against mine stayed firmly G-rated.
And yet, my body buzzed and fizzed as though his simple kiss meant so much more.
“Goodnight, Harps,” he said, pressing his forehead to mine. “See you tomorrow.”
Reluctantly, I let myself inside and shut him out. I stood in the front window as he drove away, my heart still pounding with possibilities I’d just closed the door on. I reminded it we had no expectations for tomorrow.
But I had a whole lot of hope.
TWENTY-SEVEN
sam
“You’re lucky I trust you,”Harper said. “This is looking like a real Cabin in the Woods type situation.”
“You’ve watched that?”
“Heck no, but I know enough to reference it.”
Could have done without the horror movie reference, frankly. We’d turned off the highway over an hour ago, and the last headlights we saw were probably fifteen miles back. When this rental listing billed itself as remote, it hadn’t been kidding. Totally off the grid, they provided drinking water from barrels they filled in town, solar power for lights, and a single-burner propane stove for a kitchen. But its benefits should far outweigh a few inconveniences.
Provided we got there in one piece.
I snaked the car through the darkness more on edge than I’d been since I climbed my last fourteen thousand-footer. Nerves didn’t usually bother me, but tonight, they ate me up whole and spat me out again so they could go back for seconds. Georgia’s reminder about no third-chance romances kept spinning through my mind. I didn’t want to mess any part of this up.
“Are we staying in an abandoned summer camp, by any chance?” Harper asked.
“Please. It’s an abandoned gas station.”
“Whew. That’s a relief.”
I glanced at my phone, but we were still several miles from the turnout to the rental. Hopefully, in less than an hour, we’d be settled in, tucked under blankets, and watching the stars.
“As long as we don’t go near any rivers, I think we’ll be okay.”
That teasing remark uncoiled some of my nerves.
“Got stuck in the mud one time, and I can never live it down.”
“My dad was so mad at you.”
“Yet you can laugh about it.” Didn’t matter. I loved her laugh.
She only laughed harder. “He had to drive out in the middle of nowhere to tow us out. It was kind of funny, even if he didn’t see it that way at the time.”
“Neither did I. I was afraid he was going to string me up.”
We hadn’t been hurt, we’d just gotten stuck after a trip down to the Oxtail River. We’d taken a picnic and waded in between sultry afternoon kisses. It’d been a perfect day. Right up until I realized my back tires had sunk deep in mud and I couldn’t get us out.
