I'm surprised by how much fun I'm having. I've never been a man who liked small talk. I mostly drift off, my mind wandering to projects I'm working on or ones I'd like to do. But not here, not with her.
I'm listening intently, stealing these little bits of her and tucking them away. She tells me how much she loved the flower boxes in the apartment she grew up in, and how her mother would braid the flowers into her hair.
I'm enjoying her smile, her soft laugh, and the way she reaches out to touch my arm as she talks. Her fingertips send a spark up my arm, a spark that quickly zips down to my cock, making it thicken.
“You want a coffee?” she asks, taking my plate from in front of me and placing it in the sink.
“Yeah, sure, I'll take a coffee.”
I watch her body move as she reaches up to grab the French press, her shirt inching up and revealing a beautiful strip of soft, pale skin. I remember what it was like to touch it. When the coffee is prepared, she passes one to me as she nods her head for me to follow her. Moving through the living room, she snatches a blanket off the couch and heads for the front door.
“Where we going?” I ask.
“The front porch. I like cozying up in a blanket with a hot coffee when it's cold out.” She pushes the door open and holds it open with her back, giving me space to walk past her.
There's an outdoor swing on the porch, with snow piled up underneath and a little on the seat. Brushing off the bench, I take a seat.
Laney plops down beside me, throwing the blanket over both of us. “There,” she says, snuggling her body deeper as she scoots a little closer. “I mean, look at how clear the sky is up here. It's amazing.”
“Yeah, it is. You can see all of Crestline from here.” Pointing my finger, I aim it down between the tree line. “Lake George is right there.”
She squints her eyes and looks down the line of my arm and follows my finger.
“Oh yeah, I can see it.”
We sit quietly like that, rocking gently and drinking our coffees. The crickets chirp loudly out here, and every once in a while a shooting star streaks across the black sky causing Laney to cry out. She doesn’t get many of those in the city.
When she finishes her coffee, she motions toward mine. “You done with that?” I drain the last drops and hand her the mug. She places them on the ground and then she moves her head close to my chest. Her hair brushes the side of my cheek, and the urge to wrap her in my arms consumes me instantly.
Slowly, I wrap my arm around her shoulders and pull her in. Laney closes the gap between and pulls her legs up under the blanket. Using my other arm, I point out a bright sign in the distance. “That there's the Bear Claw. That's the sign you can see from the highway.”
Nuzzling herself deeper into the nook of my arm, I can't stop the grin that spreads on my face. My arm hooks around her tightly, and I curl my fingers around her thigh. I don't want to let go, I want to keep her here, right here like this.
“Was this place always like this? Secluded and perfect?”
“Actually, it used to be more secluded. When I was a kid there was nothing but trees everywhere. We were a logging town. Main street only had the post office, a few little stores, and the grocery. But then things changed, people came in and bought up all the open land. It went from logging to tourism in a blink of an eye.”
Dropping my head back, I keep talking. “I helped build a bunch of cabins with my dad, it was nice. That's what I miss the most. I miss working side by side with him.” My eyes drift up to the cloudless sky as thoughts of the past fill my head.
Laney shifts in my arms, her head tipping back against my shoulder. “You were close with him, huh?”
“Yeah,” I say, my voice low.
I can tell she can hear the pain in my voice, so she changes the subject. “The sky is incredibly clear up here. You see that star cluster right there, the four stars that bend and then there are five above and to the side. You see it?” she asks, pointing and moving her finger.
“I think so.”
“That's Leo.” Her hand sweeps across the sky, almost bumping me in the chin. “And you know the Big Dipper, right there?”
“That's one of the few I actually do know,” I say with a chuckle.
“Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but it's not a constellation, it's part of Ursa Major, the Greater Bear.” Her finger dots across the stars, and I try to follow.