“In the bathroom upstairs.”
“You promise?”
“I promise. I don’t want that thing around any more than you do.”
“Then let’s go. Our palace awaits.”
She locked the doors and turned off most of the lights and in minutes they were in Erick’s truck heading to the rental, all of five miles from her own house. She did feel a little silly about spending two nights in a cabin that was so close to her own place. Like everyone else, she lived in the woods—sort of. There were trees everywhere, anyway. And she was within walking distance of the river. Could this little Lost Lake cabin be that much different from her own place? No big deal if it wasn’t. She didn’t care about the cabin. All that mattered to her was that Erick wanted to stay there and he wanted to stay there with her, just her, for two entire days. She would have stayed in a creepy motel with him if he’d asked. They could have creepy-motel sex, which was surely on the list of types of sex that could be had. Cabin sex sounded much
better, but then again, as good as Erick looked right now in his khaki cargo pants and his long-sleeved navy T-shirt stretched tight over his broad chest, she wouldn’t say no to creepy-motel sex right about now. Or any sex. At all. Anywhere. As long as it was with him.
“Here we are,” he said. “Not bad, right?”
Clover didn’t reply. She couldn’t reply. Her jaw was on the ground and she hadn’t picked it up yet.
Erick hopped out of his truck and walked to her door, opening it for her.
“I thought you said this was a cabin,” she breathed.
“It is a cabin. A big fucking cabin and a big cabin for fucking. Nice, right?”
“Nice, yes. That’s the word we’ll use.”
It wasn’t nice. It was stunning. Perched at the edge of Lost Lake was a two-story mountain cabin with a glass chandelier inside hanging from the lofted ceiling. She knew that because Erick had left the light on so she could see it through the wall of windows. The entire east wall was nothing but glass. Although the sun had set, she could see that the cabin had been painted an elegant blue-gray and that a deck extended over the water. They walked side by side to the front door and as Erick pulled the key from his pocket Clover stepped out onto the deck. She set her bag down by the steps and walked to the railing.
She looked up and saw the outline of the clouds. The moon must be behind them, lighting them up from behind. If she squinted she could see the outline of the snowcapped peak of Mount Hood.
“It’ll be incredible in the morning,” Erick said. “That wall faces right into sunrise.”
“It’s incredible right now,” she said. “I love the sound of wind on water. There’s nothing quite like it. Always sounds like it’s trying to tell you something. That sounds stupid. I don’t know why I said that.”
“It doesn’t sound stupid,” he said, standing behind her with each hand on either side of her so that she stood in the triangle of his arms and the deck railing. “It sounds like something Mother Nature’s handmaiden would say.”
Smiling, she leaned back against his chest. The night air was cool but not cold, not at the moment. No need to rush inside quite yet. A perfect moment to simply be. The pine trees rustled as the wind shook them. Crows cawed and owls hooted. Maybe she was Mother Nature’s handmaiden, and maybe Mother Nature was saying thank you for all the hard work she’d done over the years. Maybe Mother Nature had sent her Erick, too. Any man as good with wood as he was surely had been blessed by someone. She felt blessed in this perfect moment. Blessed because she was in it. Blessed because Erick was in the moment with her. Blessed because she knew it was perfect.
“I feel better already,” she said. “Just being here makes me feel better.”
“Nothing like a couple of days on the lake to clear your head.”
“It’s not the lake, although it’s beautiful here. It’s not nature. It’s not the forest or the mountain. I feel better because I’m with you, and you did this for me.”
She turned her back to the lake, to all the loveliness of it, and faced Erick. He was an even better view.
He dipped his head and kissed her on the mouth.
“Weird,” he said against her lips.
“What is?”
“I feel better with you, too. It’s almost like we like each other or something.”
“Or something.”
“You want to see inside the house?”
“I would love to.”
He took her by the hand and led her to the door. She’d expected the room with the chandelier to be the living room. And maybe it could have been or should have been, but it wasn’t. She walked down three steps into a sunken bedroom that held a king-size bed facing the lake. A bed right on the lake. If she broke the bottom window water would rush right into the room.