Page 52 of All I Want Is Love
“Good enough,” he chuckles. “I can’t believe how adorable you are.”
He ushers me into his truck before helping Barkley into the huge, spacious trunk. In the car, he makes sure to go through all the details with me to check if we have brought everything. I was aware enough to pack my backpack before I went to Robin last night, and Soren is routine enough not to have forgotten anything anyway.
Soon, he maneuvers the car out of the town and towards the mountains. The road gets narrower soon. One glimpse outside shows me that there is fresh snow everywhere. “Funny,” I say. “I didn’t even realize we had snow.”
“Our town didn’t,” Soren says. “Weird how different the weather can be sometimes, only a couple of miles further away.”
“It’s beautiful!” I look in awe at the passing landscape. “And it means we will have a beautiful, untouched wintery landscape all to ourselves!”
Soren looks happy at my words. “I was thinking the same.”
I use the hour and a half that we drive to wake up a little. The coffee helps, talking with Soren helps too and constantly having Barkley either barking, sneezing, or farting is an additional help. He is going to enjoy this hike so much, so will I. Plus, we aregoing to stay the night in a cozy hut, all alone, just the two of us and my pup.
Soren parks his truck at a safe parking lot, securing everything before sorting through our stuff. We both carry a small backpack.
“Did we really bring enough stuff?” I ask.
“The hut is prepared for us and has the basics,” he reassures me. “They are used to having guests. During the summer season, they are always booked out. Winter is less popular because you can’t reach it by car.”
“How do they maintain it?” I follow Soren onto a small path, leading us into a forest.
“The owners usually take their truck and can drive as close to it as possible. The rest of it they do on foot. In winter, they do have a snowmobile.”
The air is crispy and cold, and I need a while to adapt to everything. Soren and I walk slowly with Barkley off the leash and happily jumping through the snow, his tail wagging so fast I am wondering how he isn’t spinning around yet.
Similar to the last time I went hiking, I am breathless pretty fast, obviously not used to this. Soren keeps me distracted, though, by telling me his current best-of jokes. His most memorable banger being:
“Leo, I have a question.”
“Huh?”
“What do you think is yellow and swims on the water?”
I stare at him, furrowing my brows. “I have no idea.”
“A leaf.” He pauses. “And what’s yellow and doesn’t swim on the water?”
I blink. “Again, no clue.”
“A tractor.”
The silence around us is deafening. Even Barkley pauses and tilts his head to the side to watch us. Then, however, I burstinto laughter, grabbing some snow and tossing it at my very handsome but kind of unfunny boyfriend.
Soren grins while brushing the snow off his shoulders. “What?! That was one of my favorites!”
“Something tells me that if we ever have a child together, you will embarrass them with the worst dad jokes ever.” I smile. “And you know what’s even funnier? I would be absolutely digging it.”
Soren wiggles his brows, an indication that he is about to say something silly or dirty. “You would be dicking it.”
“Oh no!” I groan. “Have mercy.”
Soren laughs before he looks at me with a smile. “Children, huh?”
My cheeks flush pink when I realize what I just said. I basically hinted that we could adopt in the future. We haven’t even been dating for a month. Way to get ahead of myself. “It was just… You know, don’t take it seriously. I was just creating a situation.”
“What if I want to take it seriously?” he asks.
My heart stutters before beating so fast I am scared I will suffer from a heart attack. “Are you for real?”
