I hang up the phone and gather my dirty clothes and decide to just do the laundry now. Let’s hope I don’t run into any more Judgemental Judy’s in the laundry room.
Chapter 23
Sarah
It’sourlastnightin California and Chris told me he has a surprise for me. We've been bird watching by the ocean, in the city and in the woodsier areas. Chris even got to see the Nuttall Woodpecker he wanted to see. We took a break one day to go to downtown Hollywood. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. It was super crowded. The best part, though, was walking down the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Seeing all the stars and then putting my hands in the prints of some of my favorite movie stars at the famous theatre.
Hollywood was a place I never thought I wanted to see, but now that I have, I am glad I did. It was an experience. One that I probably won’t ever need again, but an experience, nonetheless.
I spent three out of the five nights with Chris. I love being able to be so open with him. The way he looks at me, giving me his full attention when I am talking, is something I have grown to love. We finished the mafia romance book, but it ended on a cliffhanger, so when we get to Oregon I am going to see if I can’t find the next one in paperback. If not, I will download it onto my phone. It has become almost a habit to only read when I am with him. Also, when the book gets steamy, I always have someone there to help the ache become explosive pleasure.
Tonight, I wear the one dress I brought. It’s a cute summer dress, cream-colored with little red flowers speckled all over it, a sweetheart neckline, and buttons that run the length of it in the front. Just as I slip on my strappy brown sandals, there is a knock on the door. I open it and Chris is there, in a blue plaid shirt, dark blue jeans, and dark brown square-toed boots. To top it off, a cowboy hat rests on his head. I never saw the appeal, until right this second.
He scans me from head to toe and bites his lip.
“We can just stay here,” he says as he walks towards me, hands ready to grab me.
I smile and back away playfully. “No, come on. I want to see what you had planned.”
“Alright, fine. But I’m not letting you sleep alone tonight,” he says with a wink, and my core tingles.
“Fair,” I say, grabbing my little brown purse so we can leave.
We walk to the van, and he holds the door open for me.
“What is the plan?” I ask after he gets in and buckles up. He turns his head and points to the back with his eyes. There is a picnic basket in the back with a heap of hotel blankets.
“A picnic?”
He nods his head.
“Where?”
“There is a park right outside of the city. A ten-minute walk will take us to a small lake.”
“I love it,” I say and get comfortable.
An hour later, because of traffic, we are at the park.
“Let’s go over there,” I say and point to a place where I see a bunch of ducks in the water.
“Looks good to me.”
Chris lays out the blankets. He may have brought six too many.
“I wasn’t sure how many we would need,” he laughs.
“It’s okay, better safe than sorry.”
We get everything out and eat. He brought traditional picnic foods. Potato salad, pinwheel sandwiches, fruit salad and lemonade. All things I love to eat.
“Oh, I brought binoculars,” he says and digs further into the basket.
“Great. Who knows what we will see out here?”
The next couple of hours fly by, and before we know it, the sun is down. The only light is coming from the full moon that isn’t quite all the way in the sky yet. We spotted a few new birds and finished off all the picnic food.
“We should probably get going,” he says.