"A few days..."
"That’s plenty of time to get him to fall in love with you," she remarks.
"I don’t think I’m going to go that far," I laugh, but I have to admit – the mention of the word love makes my heart ping happily in my chest. Yeah, I could manage that. I could cope with the thought of the way he looked at me lasting a little longer...
"Do you think I should go for it?” I ask, lowering my voice as though there is someone listening in right now.
"I think you should follow your intuition," she replies. "You know what’s best for you. And if this guy is the best thing, go for it."
"I think I just might," I reply. I can’t keep the smile off my face.
"I don’t want to get in the way of your dirty weekend," she replies. "So I’ll let you get back to it. Call me up when you need to gossip, okay?”
"Will do," I promise her before we hang up. I turn over and stare at the ceiling, unable to keep the smile off my face. I want to scream, in the best way possible. I rise from the bed and head for a shower, wondering when Cliff is going to turn up again.
I wash quickly, and as soon as I step out of the bathroom, Cliff is here to greet me.
"Well, good morning," Cliff greets me, leaning back on the bed and looking me up and down with a grin on his face as I come out of the shower.
"Good morning yourself," I reply. "Where did you go?”
"I was just taking care of some stuff around the site," he explains. "I wanted to have the rest of the day clear."
"For what?"
"Depends on your foot.”
“It’s good as new,” I say, lifting my foot and showing it off.
“Damn, your legs get me so hard, you know that?”
I giggle. “I didn’t, but I’ll keep that in mind.”
“If you’re really good as new, I’ll show you what I was thinking about," he replies.
I raise my eyebrows, but I go along with what he’s saying. I like the idea of spending the day with him, no matter what it is that’s happening.
I get dressed, then we head to my cabin so I can put on the tennis shoes I packed. Once I’ve slipped them on, he hooks a backpack over his shoulder. He heads for the door, holding it open for me, and I duck under his muscular arm, inhaling a quick whiff of his gorgeous scent and trying to fight the urge to drag him back to the bed that I just left.
"So, why the adventure?” I ask him.
"Because you told me that you came here to do one thing, and I figured you might have time in your schedule for something else," he replies. He reaches for my hand, wraps his fingers around mine. It’s almost as though we have done this a million times before, as though he is used to being with me like this. I wonder if anyone is looking at us right now – I kind of hope they are. I want people to see us together. To see that this gorgeous man wants to be seen with me.
"Where are we going?" I ask him. Honestly, as long as he’s holding my hand, I am willing to follow him pretty much anywhere that he wants to take me – I'm sure not complaining about a single step.
"There’s this path, Rose Road, filled with wild roses," he explains, squeezing my hand a little tighter, bringing it to his lips so he can plant a kiss on the back of it. "It leads down to the falls near the lake, and it’s gorgeous. I thought you might like to see it while you’re here."
"That sounds so perfect," I murmur, and I am practically skipping as I keep up with him. How is one man just as perfect as all of this? He grins at me, and I notice that his smile is slightly crooked. It suits him. Gives his face a little more character.
We hit Rose Road, and he tells me about moving out here in the first place, how long he has been here – he talks about it as though this has been his home for as long as he can remember, as though this is the only place he has ever been and the only place he wants to be. I like hearing him talk. He has this deep voice that lights up when he is telling me about something he loves. I could listen to him talk about anything and everything all day long if it meant that I could be right here with him.
The path down to the falls is gorgeous – wild roses climbing over the greenery, wrapping themselves up the trunks of trees. Cliff plucks one and tucks the rose in my hair, making me feel like a fairy princess, in the woods with my huntsman.