by A. L. Cook
“We can take a cart if you want, or we can walk. It’s not too far, and it’s an easy slope.”
“Sure, we can walk,” she told him, her breath clouding in the still air. “I mean, not fast or anything, and with frequent breaks.”
Mikey laughed, soft in the muffled clearing, and slid his pack on. “Come on, this way.”
They set off at an easy pace, their shoes crunching in the snow, with Mikey in the lead. The silence of the forest was profound without even a breeze to rustle bare brush and evergreen boughs, and Mikey wondered if Shelley maybe expected him to explain what was going on. He threw a glance back at her and was met by a warm smile as she pulled her dark hair forward to cover her ears.
“Here,” he said, pulling his beanie off and stopping so she drew level with him. He stepped closer to her and pulled the beanie over her hair, making sure it was sitting nice and low.
“What about you?” she asked as she stared up at him, her skin luminous in the slowly-increasing light.
“My jacket has a hood,” he reassured her. “Will you be warm enough now?”
“I think so,” she told him, rubbing her hands together.
Mikey reached up and took one, lacing her fingers with his own. “Put your other hand in your pocket and you’ll be okay.”
“I’m feeling much warmer already,” she blurted out, staring at where their hands were joined.
“Good. Come on, walking will help, too.”
Shelley felt the butterflies start back up with a vengeance, Mikey’s large warm hand wrapped around her own and her heart pounding in her ears. She shifted a little closer as they walked until she was nestled right in against his side and he leaned over to press a kiss to her temple.
As they walked, the sun gradually rose high enough to begin throwing long, horizontal rays of light through the trees. The light was diffuse and smokey through the fog, and Shelley stared around them in amazement.
“This is so beautiful,” she breathed reverentially.
“It’s definitely worth the early start,” Mike agreed.
“Hey, can you take a picture of me? I want to send it to my mom.”
“Sure; just make sure you send me a copy too, okay?” He took her phone from her and backed up a bit to get as much background in as possible. She turned to him and smiled, opening her arms wide, and held that position for a moment as the camera tried to focus in the low light. “Let me take another one,” he told her, and took a quick series of pictures as she smoothed her hair and shifted a little in preparation. He gave her a thumbs up and then took one more picture while she thought he was looking back over the pictures, catching her with a thoughtful little smile as he did so.
“Thanks for bringing me up here,” she told him, slipping her hand into his again as they resumed walking. “I’m not usually into this sort of thing- I’m mostly into my bed, or the sofa with a blanket and a good movie- but I’m glad I’m here. With you.”
“I am too,” he told her. “I promise that not all of our dates will start this early; I just wanted to share this with you.”
“All our dates?” she asked. “Implying there will be more?”
Suddenly uncertain, Mike looked at her. “I hope there will be,” he told her seriously.
Her answering smile was radiant. “I’m pulling your pigtails, Mikey,” she told him laughingly. “Of course there will be more dates.” He felt her shrug against his shoulder. “I- and by ‘I’ I mean Erin- paid quite a bit for a date with you. Maybe three or four dates’ worth, even.”
“If that’s the reasoning then I think Erin and Cam will be getting married any day now,” Mike snorted.
“They will,” Shelley said with confidence.
“Tell me more about these dates, though,” he prompted her.
“I was thinking something along the lines of dinner somewhere, maybe a movie afterwards. That’ll be our first date.”
“Where?”
“Maybe the new seafood place down near the terminal?”
“Sounds pretty great. The second?”
“Hmm. Drinks and watching the College Playoff Championship at McGivney’s on Egan. They do an amazing salmon burger.”
“I like their gyros. Definitely count me in for that one.”
“For the third we could do a First Friday and check out the new local art- before you protest, just know that I have a short black dress dying to be worn, even if that means that my legs will freeze.”
“That’s a sacrifice I’m willing for you to make,” Mike told her, making her laugh. “What about the last free date? You said four, right?”
“Yeah.” Shelley hesitated. “I was thinking maybe, if you wanted to - and I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t - maybe you could come by and have dinner with me and my family.
That surprised him. “I- yeah, I’d like that a lot,” he told her honestly.
“Good,” she smiled. “And then maybe after that we can go back to your place?”
“We can do… wait, what?”
“Sure. If you wanted to,” she added in a rush.
“Shelley, I’m in no rush,” he told her, using his hand around hers to halt her so they were standing close together, face-to-face, on the snow-covered path with pale blue shafts of light surrounding them. “We can wait until you’re sure-”
“I am sure,” she told him firmly. “Hell, I’d go right now if-”
“Oh god, Shell, you can’t say things like that,” Mike half-laughed, half-groaned. “It’s killing me.”
“Me too,” she confided. “But there just feels like an inevitability to this, you know? To us.”
“I know,” he agreed. “Like this has all been a long time coming.”
“Exactly!”
“Which is why it’s totally cool if we wait until the perfect time,” he cut across her. “I don’t want you to feel like you have to do anything if you don’t want to.”
“But I do want to, Mike, I really do. I mean, I’d be more than happy to maybe switch up the order of those dates, too.” She stepped closer until she was right in his personal space, looking up into his face. “Maybe we could do date four first-”
That was all he could take, and Mike’s self-control broke. He slid one hand around behind Shelley’s head and the other around her waist and drew her close, lowering his face to hers and claiming her mouth with his own. Her own arms immediately came up to encircle him as she kissed him back, sliding her tongue sensuously against his.
He shifted a little and she made a little sound of protest and used her hold on him to haul him close again, pressing as much of herself against him as she could manage. The butterflies in her belly changed to arousal as his hand slid around to rest on the side of her face, his thumb stroking gently over her cheekbone as they kissed.
His hand began to shift from her waist when a series of crunching staccato footsteps made them draw apart. Mike turned his head and began to grin, and Shelley followed his gaze to see a large mountain goat standing about thirty feet away and just staring at them curiously.
“This guy has been around since I was a kid,” Mike told her quietly, his voice low. “See how his left horn is split at the tip? He comes around for treats every now and then, though he’s never really been tame enough to approach.”
“He’s so beautiful,” Shelley breathed, afraid to move in case she scared him away. Not to mention how well she was enjoying being held by Mike.
“Yeah. It’s always good to see him come back around from time to time.”
They stood like that for a moment or two before the goat turned and meandered away from the path, his white coat rendering him virtually invisible.
Mike looked down at Shelley, her cheeks glowing pink and her eyes fixed on his. “Hi.”
“Hey there,” she grinned in return, and went up on her toes to kiss him briefly again. “Should we maybe keep going?”
“Probably,” he said reluctantly, taking her hand again. “Come on; what I want to show you is pretty a
mazing with the sunrise.”
*
It didn’t take them to long to get to their final destination, and as they rounded the last corner Shelley let out a low exclamation of surprise.
There, laid out before them in a stunning panorama was a two hundred degree view of a fog-filled valley, the sky above them blue and clear. They were above the clouds here, and it took a moment of orienting herself for Shelley to realise where they were.
“Is that the Chilkat Mountains?” she asked incredulously, pointing into the distance.
“Sure is,” Mikey told her as they stood side-by-side and looked out across the view. “We’re about five hundred eighty feet up Thunder Mountain here, and when the fog burns off you can see everything: Mendenhall Valley and the wetlands, Gastineau Channel and even Douglas Island.
“This is incredible,” Shelley breathed, making her way to the edge of the lookout and leaning on the railing to survey the valley. “I can’t believe how high up we are- you can see everything!”
“There’s a boardwalk that curves around there a bit,” Mikey told her, pointing. “I’m not taking you out there while it’s covered in snow, but we can come back when the Gardens open in May, if you like?”
“Yes please,” she agreed instantly. “That would be awesome.” She slowly walked the length of the lookout platform, taking in the view, while behind her Mikey began unpacking his backpack.
“What’s that?” Shelley asked curiously when she caught sight of the number 8-shaped orange object he had laid out on a large fallen log.
“It’s called a Jetboil,” he explained as he set up. “It’s a portable stove.” He glanced up at her and smiled. “You didn’t think I’d drag you all the way up here without making sure you were fed, did you?”
To her amazement he produced a pan to place on the small gas burner, and when he uncovered it she was delighted to find a few eggs in a small carton and several rashers of bacon.
“Bacon and eggs? Are you for real?”
“Coffee too, if you’d like it,” he told her, turning the burners on and beginning to cook.
She watched him as he worked, confident and capable, and admired the way a thick lock of wavy hair fell over his forehead, only to be pushed absently back with a hand holding a spatula that matched the stove. He was just so… delicious, she mused. Everything about him, from his golden brown eyes to his quiet confidence was just so attractive to her.
When she had first started flirting with Mike, it had been primarily because she had loved how flustered it made him. But as she had seen him more often, and as he had begin to actually speak to her it had changed into something more. She hadn’t been sure he had felt the same way, but had decided that she had to take a hold of the opportunity the auction had presented. And now, standing here with him in the quiet, snow-blanketed forest as he cooked them breakfast, she was so glad that she had.
As the smell of bacon filled the air, Mike retrieved a waterproof-backed blanket from his pack and spread it on the lookout platform. “Will you fill this with snow please?” he asked her, passing her a metal cup like a reusable coffee mug. “Make sure you pack it in.”
Before too long they were sitting together and eating, passing the cup of coffee back and forth as the city below them slowly got moving for the day. Shelley sighed contentedly when she had eaten her fill, shaking her head when Mike offered her the last of their meal.
“Thank you, Mike,” she told him sincerely. “This has seriously been the greatest first date I've ever been on.”
He looked a little self-conscious and shrugged. “I know it wasn't really a typical first date, but this place is special, and I wanted to bring you here when it was just us.”
“It might not have been typical,” she sighed, looking back out at the valley, the fog thinning now as the sun rose and began to burn it away, “but it has been absolutely perfect.”
She turned and smiled at him, only to grin wider she he leaned over and kissed her again.
Jonathon and Rose
Something was seriously bothering Erin, Cam knew that much. He hadn’t seen her this on-edge since the day they had first met, almost a year ago. She had been broody and snappish for a week, and while he was trying his hardest to keep a cool head, the tension in the house had ratcheted up to near-breaking point.
He was in the study doing paperwork but could hear her in the kitchen, putting the dishes away with strictly more force than was necessary. He wondered again if he had done something - or not done, maybe - but he knew Erin and was confident that she would have addressed the issue before it got to this point if that were the case.
He was up on his feet and in the hallway the second he heard something break followed by a string of creative curses. He found Erin standing over the kitchen sink, her hand dripping blood, and pieces of glass sparkling over the counter and on the floor.
“Jesus, Erin, what the hell happened? Are you alright?” he asked, grabbing the broom and carefully sweeping the floor around where she was standing in bare feet. When he was done, he returned to her side and carefully grasped her wrist, turning her hand over. “Let me see… okay, it’s not too bad. Don’t think you’ll need stitches, but let’s rinse it to make sure all the glass is gone.” He turned on the tap and held her hand under the cool water, pretending not to notice how resistant she was to being held close to his side.
Then, without warning, she just kind of… melted into him, turning her body as much as she could so her face was pressed to his chest and her free arm was wound around his waist. Cam held her close, his lips pressed to her temple, and stayed there for a long while. She eventually gave a shuddering sigh and went to move away, but he turned the water off and snagged a towel off the counter to wrap her hand in. It was only then that he noticed she had been crying.
“Hey- what?” he asked, looking down at himself where a darker patch stained the front of his shirt. “What’s going on, Erin? You’re starting to scare me a little.”
She looked at him through red-rimmed eyes and wiped tears away with her cloth-covered hand. “It’s the anniversary tomorrow,” she told him in a small voice.
“What anniversary?” he asked, confused.
“Of Daniel… of Daniel’s death.”
It only took a moment, but once Cam realised, his heart sank. “Oh, sweetheart,” he said gently, pulling her back into his arms and holding her tightly, “I’m so sorry.”
“You don’t have anything to be sorry for, I’m the one who’s been walking around like a bear with a sore head for the last few days.” Her voice was muffled and a fresh slide of warm tears soaked his shirt further.
“I should have asked you a few days ago what was wrong when I first noticed something was up.” He led her from the kitchen to the living room, pulling her down onto the couch with him and arranging them so her legs were slung across his lap and she was curled against his chest. “Is there… I mean, what do you- do you commemorate the day or do you need anything? What can I do? What do you need?”
Erin began crying in earnest, her hands gripping the front of his shirt tightly enough to pull it close around his neck. “I’m so sorry, Cam,” she sobbed. “I know I’m being selfish and I’m so grateful that you’re such a good guy… so much better than I deserve, and-”
“Hey, no, you stop that right now,” he told her firmly, gently taking her shoulders and pushing her away from himself so he could look at her face. “Don’t you dare apologise. I love you, Erin. All of you- the good and the bad and the sad and the hard bits included. You and Daniel loved each other, and he was a huge part of your life; he’s still a huge part of who you are. I don’t want you to ever feel like you have to hide that from me, or that I’m… I don’t know, jealous, or something.”