Page 53 of Colton in the Wild
But he’d never really wondered if there was another reason he did it, why he made certain to keep those interactions on the surface, essentially meaningless. Never wondered if there was a reason he’d never been even slightly tempted to hang on to one of those freely given phone numbers after the client—and some of them had been pretty darned attractive—was on the way back to wherever she’d come from.
But now he wondered if it was that, somewhere down deep, he’d known it would never turn into anything because that part of him was already taken.
By Hetty Amos.
He finally swallowed that very well-chewed bite. Stared down at the sound below, at the sunlight dancing on the water, at the cargo ship heading out after unloading whatever portion of its load had been sent to Shelby. He knew in some places they were considered unsightly, but in Shelby they were welcomed, bringing in things from far away. Of course, pretty much everything was far away from Shelby, so if something you wanted or needed was out of stock, you waited. And waited. His gaze shifted to the ever-snowcapped mountaintops, and once again deemed it well worth it.
“It’s wonderful to love where you live, isn’t it.”
Hetty said it as if it were a given, not a question. And suddenly he realized this was the key, this was the way to say what he wanted to say, because he knew she would understand.
“Yes. And I especially love the hidden places I’ve never told anyone about, places where I never take anyone.”
She drew back slightly, her head tilting as she studied him. Hetty-like, instead of asking what places, she asked simply, “Why?”
He sucked in a deep breath and took the plunge. “Because they’re special to me, and I wouldn’t want to show them to anyone who wouldn’t love them as I do. There’s a spot up on the ridge—” he gestured up and to the east “—where you can see three of the lakes, the sound, and on a clear day all the way to Mount St. Elias. There’s a place in Wrangell where I’ve been watching a family of Canadian lynx grow up and coexist with a herd of Dall sheep. And a spot lower down where I actually collided with a flying squirrel. Or vice versa.”
She was staring at him now, and he knew she hadn’t missed the significance of this outpouring, right after he’d said he never told anyone about these special places. But he said what he needed to say anyway.
“I want to show you all of those, Hetty. And so many more. Places so beautiful you have to remind yourself to breathe. So amazing, you’re thinking it has to be special effects. Places I’ve hoarded, kept to myself, because there wasn’t anyone who’d look at them or from them and feel what I feel.”
“I would,” she said softly.
“I know. That’s why you need to get well fast, so I can show them to you. All of them.”
“Spence.”
It was all she said, and he didn’t quite know how to interpret it. A spark of fear careened through his brain, that he’d misinterpreted everything. It wouldn’t be the first time. But he had to know, and he had to know now. And so it came out a little bluntly.
“I meant what I said that night in the cave. Did you?”
He thought he saw her take in a breath. Then she looked up, holding his gaze steadily. And said, softly, almost reverently, “Every word.”
His heart seemed to miss a beat then race to catch up. “All this time…” he said and stopped because he had no idea how to finish. But Hetty finished it for him.
“We’ve been hiding, me behind sarcasm, you behind flirting. We’ve wasted a lot of time.”
“We have. That stops now.”
“Agreed.”
A vista as vast as the one they were looking at in reality seemed to roll out in his mind. A future, built on a foundation started more than a decade ago, starring the woman who had changed his life then and would change it again now.
He reached out and with his thumb gently wiped away the trace of that tangy sandwich sauce from the corner of her mouth. That mouth… He wished he had leaned in and kissed it away. Her lips parted, and her tongue crept out as if to taste that spot he’d touched. It was too much and his resistance—resistance that was merely habit, now that they’d admitted out here in the brilliant light of day as opposed to under that Midnight Sun—vanished.
He slipped a hand around the back of her neck in the same moment she reached up to cup his cheek, sending a ripple of luscious sensation through him. And then his mouth was on hers and the ripple became a wave. He let her lead, because it seemed the thing to do. And she did, tasting, probing, until his control snapped. The next thing he knew they were sprawled on the canvas he’d laid out, arms around each other, deep into a kiss he never wanted to end.
It was everything he’d ever thought it would be in those rare times when the idea crept around his defenses and into his imagination. No, it was more. It was incredible. Staggering. Maybe even astonishing.
What it wasn’t was impossible. Not anymore.
After all these years, after all the sniping and mocking, and his own fakery and pretending, this was what was real. This was what they’d been hiding.
This was what he’d always wanted but been afraid to go after.
And when they finally broke the kiss, they simply stared at each other, blue eyes boring into green, and Spence knew he had never in his life felt anything more right than that kiss and Hetty in his arms.
He wondered if the smile that he couldn’t stop looked half as goofy, as giddy, as he felt. And if Hetty’s smile in return was at how silly he must look or because…she felt the same way. He didn’t have to wonder long.
