Caleb’s expression hadn’t changed though – he still looked calm and peaceful as he gazed around the forest, watching as some birds above darted between the branches of an oak tree.
Okay, well, maybe he didn’t notice,Kira thought with relief. And anyway, it’s a bit egotistical of me to think he’d immediately jump to the idea of having kids with me!
“So, I guess if you’ve grown up here and work here… then you must know this place inside out, right?” Caleb asked a moment later.
“Well, as much as anyone can, I suppose,” Kira said. “I’d like to think I know it better than most, though.”
“Then…” Caleb hesitated, a troubled look passing briefly across his face. Then he let out a slightly forced laugh. “Then I guess you’d know if there’d ever been any crazy rumors about… I don’t know… hidden gold or something buried out here. Or a lost treasure, something weird like that.”
Kira blinked, frowning. It was a weird question, but maybe Caleb was just making conversation. “Well, I guess I would – but no, I never did hear of anything like that. Which is a pity, I guess – it’s the kind of thing I would have gone wild for as a kid, you know, running out into the forest to try and dig it up, something like that!” She laughed. “But Girdwood Springs isn’t that exciting – no hidden treasure, as far as I’m aware.”
“Ah, right. Yeah, I guess that was a bit of a strange question, wasn’t it?” Caleb’s voice sounded light, but Kira couldn’t help but notice that he looked a little deflated.
“Oh, no, not really – it’s kind of a romantic notion, the buried pot of gold, the lost treasure,” Kira said. “And I guess if anyone was going to hide some treasure, out here in the middle of nowhere would be the best place for it. No one would ever find it out here, that’s for sure.”
“Oh – yeah. For sure. I guess there’s a lot of ground to cover. Finding something like that would be next to impossible.” Caleb was sounding more and more downhearted by the minute. Kira wasn’t completely sure why, though – it wasn’t as if there was actually a secret buried treasure chest out here, or that Caleb had come to find it. It was all a little perplexing.
“It’s a big park,” she said, by way of consolation – even if she wasn’t completely sure what she was consoling him for. “But look at it this way, if you ever wanted to bury some hidden treasure, you have the perfect place to do it in. I’d even help you.”
Caleb laughed – a big, genuine laugh. “Well, that does actually make me feel better. I mean, knowing you’d help me if I ever had treasure I needed to hide.”
Despite her confusion of a moment before, Kira found herself laughing along with him. “Oh, for sure – I can tell you all the best hiding spots around here. Places not even the nosiest fourth-grader would think to look.”
Kira continued leading him on up the trail. She’d chosen a trail of intermediate difficulty, and just as she’d predicted, Caleb was having no trouble whatsoever with it. It seemed like those broad shoulders and thick thighs weren’t only for show after all – he really was as fit as he looked. He didn’t even seem to be slightly out of breath even after some of the steepest sections of the trail, despite him telling her he was a city guy.
I guess they have gyms in the city,Kira thought, slyly watching Caleb’s denim-clad legs as he strode through the ferns and grasses that trailed themselves in his path.
But still – something about Caleb just seemed to belong in this place. He looked completely at ease in the woods. And he was looking around too as if he was completely enchanted by the place, blue eyes wide, his head constantly turning as if trying to take everything in at once.
“I can’t believe they want to turn this place into a resort-mall-type thing,” he said softly, after they’d hiked in silence for a while. “Seems too beautiful even for a company like Tongle & Heit to take a bulldozer to.”
Kira swallowed. “Yeah, I know. But I guess to some people, there’ll never be anything more beautiful than money.”
“I guess that’s true,” Caleb said softly. He sighed.
Kira bit her lip. Oh man – he’s hot, he’s nice, he’s sensitive, he seems to really care about the forest… what’s the catch? Surely, there’s gotta be a catch.
But even if there was, Kira knew she wouldn’t find out what it was if Caleb went back to the city and she never saw him again.
But… even if I asked him out, he’d go back anyway. I’m sure he has a whole life back there – he told me about his family’s cinema business just before!So even if he said yes, and then we had a really nice date –
“Look out!!”
Kira was jerked out of her – kind of silly, she had to admit – musings by the sound of Caleb’s voice, and then by an enormous cracking sound from above her.
Startled, she looked up, just in time to see the bough of a huge red oak smashing through the branches of the smaller trees below it, hurtling right down on top of them –
Before she could even begin to think what to do, Kira felt a pair of warm, strong arms encircling her shoulders, before she was heaved bodily out of the branch’s path. It landed with an almighty crash on the path just where she’d been standing only a moment before, smaller branches scattering as they snapped off with the force of the impact, the main branch shivering and bouncing, almost as if it had come to life.
Kira blinked, her heart in her throat. What the –?
But the shock of almost having been crushed by a branch was quickly replaced by the sudden… uh, realization that she was lying beneath Caleb’s long, warm, solid body.
Oh. Uh. Okay.
She knew it was probably the least appropriate response to have after just having been saved from a falling oak bough, but Kira immediately felt her stomach tie itself into a knot – a warm, desperate knot of sudden desire as she felt Caleb shift on top of her, his blue eyes gazing down into hers.
“Are you all right?” he asked, voice shocked, his breath warm against her cheek.