“Hi!” she waved, greeting me with enthusiasm.
Ugh, she was nice and pretty. I liked her immediately. I gave her a small wave just as the guy opened a SUV door for her.
Once they got into the SUV and pulled away, Jaxon closed the space between us, shrugging the strap of the backpack up his shoulder when it slipped. He didn’t say anything. He took my hand, and we made our way through the same space the couple came out of. Once we passed the fence post, the tall congregation of trees created shade that made the temperature drop a few degrees.
Jaxson was right to have me wear boots. The ground was slick and wet, the thick mud, causing my boots to sink into the dirt, and with every step, the soles pulled away with a suction sound. A creek sounded in the distance. The wind smelled like rain, and the leaves rustled. Twigs snapped under our feet, and butterflies fluttered in front of us, their blue wings flapping furiously to get away from us.
Birds chirped, and as we climbed the steep hill, I noticed a small creek cutting through the ground, descending from rock to rock as it made its way down to the bottom of the hill. We walked in silence, and I knew right then Jaxon was mad at me. He wasn’t speaking, he didn’t turn around to look at me, and whatever was built between us, started to crumble.
We were forged out of stone, but the foundation was cracked, the roof started to cave in, and the home I thought we rebuilt was falling into a pile of what used to be and what had been.
How many times did we have to dig our way out of the rubble to find each other again?
“I want that,” he said out of nowhere, leaping over a falling tree.
I stepped on the log, and he lifted me up and off until my boots were on the ground again. “What?” I asked, confused about what he was talking about.
“Kids. The whole nine yards. With you.”
My foot slipped on a rock, and Jaxon’s arms tightened around me, saving me from a few broken teeth. Right now, nothing was under us, but jagged stones, eroded over time into sharp points.
“Maybe not the best place to drop information like that on you,” he said, lifting me into his arms as he carried me over the rugged terrain.
“Can I tell you a secret?” I asked, my arms looped around his neck as he carried me.
“You can tell me anything,” he said, placing me on my feet.
I was out of shape. I hadn’t even done much of the walking, and I was huffing and puffing. My stomach cramped, and I was thirsty.
And hungry.
“I thought we would already be married and have babies by now. When we were nineteen, I had it all planned out. Marriage at twenty-two, kids at twenty-five, a house with a white picket fence. And then….”
“Yeah,” he said. “And then.” He knew what I was talking about without it needing to be said. “It’s a good dream, Quinn. And I want it with you.”
“Yeah?” I asked, blinking up at him as he pulled me into his arms. A light mist of rain hissed against the leaves as he leaned in and kissed me.
It was a toe-curling kiss, the kind that made my head spin and my heart drum.
“Yeah, baby. I want it all. I wanted it all years ago. And now that I have you again, the last thing that I want to do is wait to build a future when too much time has already been taken from us.”
The tears gathered in my eyes— happy tears— and I nestled my cheek against his strong pecs and grinned. We weren’t ruble after all.
We were the rainbow after a damn hurricane, defeating the wind and rain, and casting our new beginning through the infinity sky.
“I’d like that,” I said, doing my best not to feel giddy. I was ready to look at wedding dresses, flowers, baby clothes, anything and everything that made us press the play button on this relationship and get it moving forward.
His groan fizzled out on a growl when he kissed my forehead. “Come on, before I take you right here against the tree.”
“I wouldn’t protest,” I let him know. Keeping things spicy was important in a relationship. Right?
“Killing me. I’m still aching from the tease in the car,” the words got softer and lower than a whisper when another hiker came walking down the hillside. He was sweating and guzzling water from a blue bottle. He wore a black bandana around his head and had earbuds in his ears, jamming out and banging his head.
“I’ll take care of you later.” I winked and brushed my hand over his cock as I walked by him.
He slapped my ass. “Tease,” he said as he nipped my ear.
“I’ve got to keep you on your toes. Now, where is this damn rock that’s so special?”