“It only takes a couple of minutes to cook. I’ll be right back.” Ned reached for his pack, and Flipper came running to his side. “Stay.” Ned pointed at her.
Flipper rolled his eyes and then plopped himself down under a nearby tree.
“He doesn’t like me.” She’d seen the look the dog gave her.
“Yes, he does,” Ned chuckled, “but he likes splashing in the water more.” Ned headed in the same direction she had just come from.
She looked around the surrounding area. The shadows were lengthening, and Flipper appeared to be snoring. Great; some protection he was. She eyed the top of Ned’s sleeping bag for wayward spiders and found only a small twig. She was clean, comfortably dressed, and scared. Ned would have a field day with that one.
What was there to be afraid of? They hadn’t seen an animal bigger than a chipmunk or another person the entire time they had been hiking. If a plane hadn’t gone overhead, she might have thought they were the only two people left on the face of the earth.
She reached over and pulled her backpack next to her. It wasn’t her fault she didn’t shop at L.L. Bean or Lumberjacks-R-Us. She wasn’t Kay or Jill. She dug into her pack and pulled out a flashlight and her small cosmetic bag. The flashlight had been her mother’s idea, just in case she needed to use the little girl’s bush in the middle of the night. The body lotion was hers.
She unscrewed the cap of her night moisturizer and began rubbing a few drops onto her face. She had taken the time to run a brush through her hair and clean her teeth down by the creek, but she had nixed the lotion. With Ned gone, she needed something to occupy her mind besides the thought of wolves, coyotes, and moose. Or was it mooses? Mices?
Two minutes later, she had the sweatshirt off, and she was slathering lotion on her shoulders and down her arms. She had taken Ned’s words to heart, so she hadn’t brought any sweet, flower-scented stuff with her. She had picked up travel size bottles of body wash and lotion that smelled like green tea at the mall after she’d bought the hiking boots and socks. She recapped the bottle, trimmed two broken fingernails with the clippers she’d packed, and then looked around again. No Ned, and it was getting darker.
A pile of wood and a hatchet were set neatly by the fire. She had heard Ned cutting it while she was bathing earlier. The man was a miniature version of Paul Bunyan and nature boy all rolled into one. He probably swung from vine to vine when nobody was looking. She reached out and put another log on the fire. She glanced behind her to make sure Chip and Dale hadn’t coordinated an attack plan to take her out and steal the Tic Tacs she had in her pack.
Ned wouldn’t have left her alone if there was any chance something would happen to her. She knew that, but she still wanted him to hurry back. There was a reason she’d never become a Girl Scout.
She rolled her pajamas up to her knees, kicked off the flip flops, and started to apply lotion to her legs and feet. The fire was nice and warm, but she couldn’t really say it was cold out. She had a feeling that the temperature was going to fall during the night. Thankfully, the sleeping bag she had carried up the mountain looked soft and warm.
Ned entered the small clearing without her even hearing him. One minute, she was alone; the next, Ned was there. She gave a small squeal of surprise and dumped a little too much lotion onto her leg. “Geez, warn a gal the next time.”
“Sorry.” Ned grabbed a long stick and fixed the burning logs in the fire pit. “What are you doing?”
“My legs are dry.” She noticed the way Ned was trying not to look at her legs. He was acting as if this was the nineteenth century, not the twenty-first. He had seen more of them the other day when she had been cutting the grass.
“You’re supposed to be camping, Norah, not spending a night at the spa.” Ned started to rummage through his pack, pulling out what he would need to make dinner.
“What do you mean, supposed to be camping?” She waved her arms at the surrounding trees and tent. “I am camping.” She finished rubbing the delicious-smelling lotion into her feet. “I want to see where it is written in your camping handbook that I can’t put on lotion.”
Ned’s lips twitched as he opened a huge can of stew and dumped it into a pot. “I don’t have a camping handbook.”
She looked into the pot and prayed she wasn’t drooling. “Is that real stew?” Her stomach gave a low rumble. “Don’t answer that; I’ll eat it even if it’s fake.”
The amount of stuff Ned had fit into his pack was mind-boggling. Then again, the thing had to weigh forty pounds. She had offered to take some of the supplies, but Ned wouldn’t hear of it and had only allowed her the sleeping bag. He’d even carried her tent.
“It’s real stew, Norah.” Ned pulled out a small metal frying pan, dumped a package of yellow flour into it, and started to add water. “It’s a luxury out here, so enjoy it.”
“Why so special?” She was watching whatever he was stirring turn into a thick, yellow paste. “What’s that?”
“Corn bread, and I’m trying to impress you with my culinary skills.” Ned placed the pan on a flat rock at the edge of the fire. “Am I succeeding?”
“I was blown away by the peanut butter and jelly.” She stuck a finger into the batter and licked it. “For stew and corn bread, I might have to declare my undying love and devotion.”
Ned chuckled. “God, you’re easy.”
“Nope, just hungry.” She ran her fingers through her drying hair to give it some body. She’d had that feeling you get when you’ve forgotten something this morning, but she hadn’t figured out what it was until she’d started to wash her hair in the stream. She’d forgotten her styling gel. Tonight and tomorrow, Ned would see her hair in its natural state—à la flat.
“So now what do we do?”
“What do you mean?” Ned stirred the stew and moved it closer to the flames. He gave the pan with the corn meal a quarter turn and then pulled two metal plates from his pack.
The man had an entire kitchen in there. “This is it? You hike eight hours up the side of a mountain just to open a can of stew and sleep under the stars? You could do that in your backyard.” No wonder Kay and Jill had been so frustrated with their husbands.
“It’s more than that.” Ned glanced around him. “It’s the peace and quiet. Being surrounded by nature without another soul for miles. The tranquility.”
She leaned back onto the sleeping bag and stared up at the evening sky. Daylight had faded, and the stars were just beginning to come out. “Okay, I grant you it’s nice here.” She hadn’t really noticed the quiet until Ned had pointed it out. She closed her eyes and listened to the fire crackling and the night sounds of the forests. With Ned sitting three feet away, she felt safe. “I just wish we didn’t have to hike so far to get here.”
“Yeah, they could put a parking lot about three hundred yards away.” Ned turned the frying pan another quarter turn. “Families could do bonfires and bring the popups and the trailers and their big ass generators for their refrigerators and heaters. Teenagers could have beer parties and take potshots at the deer.”
“Okay, it wouldn’t be the same.” He didn’t have to make it sound so depressing. “I concede the point. If it was easy to get to, more people would be here, and they would probably end up ruining it.”
“It’s because it is so hard to get to that people appreciate it more and take care of it.” Ned dug Flipper’s bowl out of his pack and filled it from the baggie of dog food he had brought. He set the bowl over by Flipper, who immediately jumped to his feet and started to eat.
“Maybe my boss would let me write a column on hiking in the wilderness.”
“I’ll be more than willing to supply you with any facts and statistics you need.” Ned started to dish out the stew. He handed her a plate. “Careful; it’s hot.”
“Thanks, it smells delicious.” Of course, liver and onions, her least favorite meal in the whole world, would have smelled like heaven. She took a small piece, blew on it, and then popped it i
nto her mouth.
Ned sliced into the cornbread and dug her out a piece. “If you clean your plate, you get dessert.”
“What’s for dessert?” The cornbread tasted like butter-flavored cardboard, but it was filling.
“A pack of Ring Dings.” Ned grinned. “They might be a little squished, but I figured you wouldn’t mind.”
She stopped eating and stared at him. What were the odds that he would know her favorite snack food? “What did you do—call my mother?”
“Nope.” Ned continued eating his stew innocently.
“My mother called you?” Now that would be mortifying, but she couldn’t picture her mother doing it. Her mother liked Ned. She told her so about five times a day. There was nothing subtle in her mother’s attempt at matchmaking. Joanna was happy with Karl, and that meant her mother wanted everyone paired up and happy.
Ned shook his head. “Nope, haven’t heard from her.”
“So who told you I love Ring Dings?” Maybe someone at work had spilled the beans. After all, the whole place knew she kept a box of them in her bottom drawer.
“I think the word they used was addicted, not love.” Ned polished off his stew and his bread.
“What? The entire town knows my diet?”
“Nope, just Hank and Beth down at the local Gas ’N Go. Beth swears you buy them nearly every morning with your coffee on the way to work.”
“And they told you because?” She wondered if Beth had told him that she’d picked up a box of tampons there last week.
“They saw us having dinner the other night, and Beth wanted to make sure I knew your weakness.” Ned wrapped up the rest of the corn bread and poured fresh water into Flipper’s now empty bowl.
“What you are telling me is that a person can’t have any secrets and shop at the Gas ’N Go.”
“Or Barley’s, or Krup’s, or Claire’s, or anywhere else in town. If there are any secrets in Misty Harbor, they aren’t worth telling, or someone is paying a fortune to keep them quiet.” Ned gathered up the dishes and the pots. “I’ll go clean these in the stream, and be right back.”
“What am I supposed to do while you’re gone?” Evening wasn’t falling; it had fallen. The woods were now in total darkness. “How about if I come with you?”
Ned held out his hand and smiled. “Come on, Rose Fairy; I’ll make sure the bogeyman doesn’t get you.”
Chapter Twelve
The sleeping bag was soft beneath her, and the fire was warming her front, while Ned was snuggled up against her back. She lay there on her side, using her sweatshirt as a pillow, and stared, nearly mesmerized, at the fire. “I love all the colors that are in the flames and the way they move. It’s almost like they are dancing.”
Ned nuzzled the top of her head. “So, what do you think about hiking and the great outdoors now?”
“I think that if they put a Jacuzzi and a real bathroom up here, I’d never leave.” She didn’t know what Kay and Jill had been complaining about. She thought backpacking had a lot of romantic possibilities. Especially when your partner packed you Ring Dings and made you hot chocolate.
There was also something very seductive about lying beneath the stars and hearing nothing but the fire crackle.
“It would take away from the rustic ambiance.”
“There’s outhouse rustic, and then there’s caveman primitive. I prefer to live in the current century on certain things, like bathrooms.”
“Point taken.” Ned chuckled. “May I ask what happened with you, Kay, and Jill last Saturday?”
“What do you mean what happened? Nothing happened; we went to lunch and then did some shopping. Why?” As far as she knew, everyone had had a wonderful time.
Once Kay and Jill got into the swing of things, their inhibitions had been lowered, and then they had really had some fun in the mall. Kay dared Jill to buy a black thong; Jill countered with a red see-through teddy. It had been competitive shopping at its finest.
She had enjoyed the show, left it up to them as to what they should or shouldn’t buy, and only voiced an opinion when she was asked. All she knew was that both women had been carrying a huge bag when they left the store, and the sales clerk had been beaming. Maybe Ned’s brothers had gotten the credit card bills already?
“Something must have happened.”
“Why do you say that? It was just a girl’s afternoon out shopping.”
“My brother John dropped a case of beer off at my place yesterday. Found it on the front porch when I got home from work with a note stuck to it.”
“What did the note say?”
“Tell Norah thanks. It was signed John, and then he had drawn a smiley face. John isn’t the kind of guy to draw smiley faces.” Ned’s fingers were slowly stroking the curve of her hip. “Want to tell me what I’m supposed to be thanking you for?”
“I have no idea.” Oh, she had an idea, but she wasn’t about to talk to Ned about his sister-in-law’s choice of sleeping attire.
“What about Paul?”
“What about him? I haven’t seen Paul since I was at your place when they came to pick up the kids.”
“On Thursday night, he returned the chain saw he borrowed from me six months ago. He had it professionally sharpened for me.” Ned’s fingers trailed down over her thigh and then back up to her waist. “He too wanted me to convey his thanks. For some reason, he couldn’t even stay for a beer or wipe the stupid grin off his face. He had to hurry home, and I’m pretty sure it was past the kids’ bedtime.”
She chuckled. Both of the Porter wives were bound and determined not only to seduce their husbands but also to bring a little romance back into their marriages. She had the feeling they were succeeding admirably. “I didn’t do anything. Whatever Kay and Jill do in the privacy of their own homes is their business.” She surely wasn’t going to think about what they might be doing in their bedrooms with their poor, unsuspecting husbands.
Ned gently rolled her onto her back and smiled down at her. “I really don’t want to know, do I?”
“Nope.” She returned his smile. Lord, he was handsome tonight, all fresh from his own bath in the stream. Ned smelled like pine soap and the smoke from the fire. He’d even managed to shave. She lifted her hand and stroked his smooth jaw. “Are you the kind of guy that has to shave twice a day?”
“Depends.” Ned turned his head and kissed the center of her palm.
“On what?” She loved the way his mouth smiled against her hand.
“What I’m planning on doing with my evening. If I’m going to be sitting home in front of the television or working in the office, then I don’t bother.” Ned’s teeth playfully nipped at the base of her thumb.
“Tonight you shaved.” She wrapped her free hand around the back of his neck. “What are your plans for this evening?”
“Kissing you.” Ned’s lips trailed over her wrist and to the sensitive area inside her elbow.
She had never known arms could be an erogenous zone. “I like a man with a plan.”
Ned raised his head and looked at her. “Kissing you is very dangerous, Norah.”
“How so?” She didn’t see anything dangerous about kissing Ned. He made her feel safe.
“I don’t want to stop.” His thumb rubbed her lower lip, which was pouting. “You understand what I’m saying, don’t you?”
She understood now. Ned was waiting for her to put the brakes on the physical side of their relationship like she had the other night when she had joined him for steaks and heated kisses at his place. Ned was going to have a long wait. “I came up here with you, didn’t I?”
“This trip wasn’t about us; it was about the article. There was, and is, no alternative motive, Norah. You’re free to say and do anything you want. Anything you’re comfortable with.”
Ned was so sweet. A lot of men would have taken advantage of the romantic fire and seductive night. Not Ned. He was once again allowing her to call all the shots. Was it any wonder she was falling in love with hi
m? “I’m comfortable with you.” She reached up and kissed him. “I’m more than comfortable.”
The heat between them exploded. Ned’s mouth was gentle but hungry. She pulled him down on top of her and marveled at his size. Marveled that he didn’t frighten her at all.
Ned caught most of his weight on his forearms as he broke the kiss. “Norah, I need for you to be sure.”
“In one of the many little pockets on my backpack, you’ll find a box of condoms I picked up last night at the mall.” She ran her toes up his jean-covered leg and grinned. “I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t pick them up at the Gas ’N Go.”
“You planned on seducing me?” Ned seemed both shocked and fascinated by her announcement.
“Oh yeah.” Her fingers climbed their way up his chest. “Is it working?”
“Am I breathing heavy?” Ned was fighting a smile, but he was allowing her to trail her fingers wherever they wanted to go.
“Yes.” Her fingers stroked his chest and dipped lower. Ned was definitely having a hard time breathing normally. She liked having the power to excite him.
Ned caught her hand as it dipped a little too low. “Then it’s working.”
“Good; you’re easy.” She loved the heat in Ned’s touch and gaze. She could see the reflection of the flames dancing in his brown eyes.
“Only for you, Rose Fairy.” Ned’s mouth lowered, and he whispered across her lips, “Only for you.”
She welcomed his warmth. His touch. His sweet, hungry kisses. Mouth mated with mouth. Tongues danced, and the fire between them was finally allowed to rage out of control. Her hands tugged at his T-shirt. Ned broke the kiss long enough to pull his shirt over his head and toss it aside.
Her fingers wove their way through the dark curls scattered across his chest. His skin felt like fire beneath her touch. Warm, hard steel.
Ned’s mouth skimmed its way down her throat and nuzzled at the swell of her breast. “I’ve dreamt about this moment.” His hands slowly inched her top up her stomach, across her breasts, and then over her head. Ned’s gaze was watching her eyes, not the skin he was exposing.
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