The Stars at Night

by Gerri Hill

  “What did I miss?”

  “You missed the Cowboys kicking the Giants’ ass, that’s all.”

  “Good. Sorry I missed it. Did you eat all my wings?”

  “Mark only recently put them in the oven. Said he was waiting for you.”

  Kyler rested a hip against the railing too. “Thank you for helping me today. You did real good, Lexie.”

  “I was happy to help. I’m just so glad they’re okay. The girl is okay, right?”

  “Yeah. She let her mother tend to the wound on her head. She had scrapes and bruises all over her body, it looked like. I stayed until the EMTs got there.”

  “Broken arm?”

  “Yeah. They took her to the hospital in Alpine.”

  “That was so scary. I’m sure the parents are beating themselves up.”

  “Yeah, they are. I’m just glad they weren’t blaming the boy. He was plenty shook up himself.”

  “Does this happen often?”

  “Not really. Once a year, maybe. I think this is the first time an ambulance has been involved though.”

  “You were really good with the girl. If you hadn’t been there, I don’t know what I would have done.”

  “I like kids.” Then she smiled quickly. “Well, most kids. They come out here, they’re generally curious about the animals and the birds and stuff. I try to interact with them, teach them things about the park, about nature.”

  “Future converts?”

  Kyler laughed. “Yeah. Might make one of them a birdwatcher.” She moved away then, going to the red cooler on the deck. “You want one?”

  “No. I just opened this.”

  Kyler twisted the cap off and took a swallow. “Oh, that’s good and cold.” She looked over at her. “I’m beat. You?”

  Lexie nodded. “Although my second hike of the day wasn’t nearly as strenuous as yours. I missed having your hiking stick.”

  “Yeah, it comes in handy.” Kyler stared at her for a moment before speaking. “Do you want to talk about last night?”

  Lexie sighed. Did she? She could lie and say she hadn’t given their kiss a thought all day. But as she met Kyler’s eyes, she knew Kyler would know she was lying. So, she shrugged nonchalantly.

  “I thought we were going to pretend it didn’t happen.”

  “That was your suggestion, not mine.”

  She sighed again. “Kyler, we’re not—” What? Right for each other? Well, it wasn’t like Kyler was asking to marry her. In fact, she didn’t even know if Kyler wanted to date her. She frowned. “What are your intentions?”

  Kyler laughed out loud. “God, that is like the last thing I expected you to say.”

  “Okay. I’ll rephrase. What do you want?”

  Kyler came closer, joining her again at the railing. “It shouldn’t be this hard, Lexie. I’m attracted to you. You can deny it if you want, but that kiss last night said you’re attracted to me too.”

  She opened her mouth to do just that, but then couldn’t. “Yes. I am attracted to you. But as we’ve already discussed, we are not each other’s type. So why bother? Besides, I don’t even know if I’m staying here or not.”

  “Whether you stay or not shouldn’t have any bearing on what’s happening right here and now, Lexie.”

  Lexie stared at her. “Oh, good lord. You’re talking about sex, aren’t you?”

  Kyler’s smile was so sweet Lexie felt herself returning it. “Well, I was kinda talking about kissing but if you want to jump right into sex, I won’t complain.”

  Lexie laughed. “You’re right. It shouldn’t be this hard.”

  “Right. So relax. Let’s enjoy the rest of the day.” She looked past her to the house. “The chef is coming out.”

  Lexie turned, finding Mark coming through the door holding a tray loaded with chips and dips. Her stomach rumbled.

  “About time you got here,” he said to Kyler. “How’s the kid?”

  “Gonna be okay, I guess. Broken arm was the most serious injury. I doubt the family will ever forget this camping trip.”

  Mark shook his head. “This might be the last one they ever go on.”

  “Oh, I don’t know. It’s a learning experience. I’m going to bet that those kids never leave the campsite unattended again. The boy was plenty scared.”

  “Jeffrey,” Lexie supplied. “But he was a brave kid, trying to get down to help his sister. When I found them, he was crawling over the rocks toward her. I told the father as much.”

  “Yeah, he said that. I think, all in all, he was quite proud of his son.”

  Lexie took a chip and scooped up a large blob of the guacamole. “I’m starving,” she murmured around her bite.

  “Wings will be ready by halftime. And I left the beef off half of the nachos. Just need to pop them in the microwave. We can snack on those during the game.”

  “Thank you.”

  Kyler took a chip too. “Got that meteor shower coming up. Who feels like getting up at two in the morning?”

  “Is that tomorrow?” Mark asked.

  “No. It’s Tuesday morning.” Kyler turned to her, eyebrows raised. “You feel like it?”

  Lexie didn’t think getting out at two in the morning sounded like much fun. “We’ll see.”

  “It’s pretty neat to watch,” Mark chimed in.

  “Then why don’t you go?”

  “I went last year.”

  “And the year before,” Kyler added.

  She sighed. “We’ll see,” she said again.

  “Heard our pleasant weather is coming to an end,” Mark said. “Big front coming in. Gonna be really cold and windy.”

  “That’s what Jim said.”

  “Snow’s in the forecast too. That would be nice.”

  “Snow?” Lexie asked excitedly. “Really? Like real snow?”

  “We had a nice storm last year. A couple of inches. That’s the most I’ve seen,” Kyler said. “It was beautiful.”

  “The second year we were here,” Mark said, “we had a two-day storm in January. Got almost ten inches. The locals said they’d never seen that much at once.”

  Lexie nodded. “I remember you telling me about that. Now that would be fun! Seeing as how I don’t have to commute to work any longer.”

  “Well, if we get any amount of snow, I know of a great hill that we can sled on.” Kyler winked at her. “Great going down. It’s the walk back to the top that will kill you.”

  “With all the rocks around here, I wouldn’t think there would be good sledding anywhere.”

  “It’s a great trail. She took me last year.” He motioned to the house. “Gonna go flip the wings. Be right back.”

  “Yeah. It’s an old Jeep road that’s been grated and scraped. No rocks. Goes down to Limpia Creek over in the canyon. It’s part of a hiking trail now, but it’s totally smooth. Of course, we could hike it without snow too. It’s nice down there.”

  “But like you said, you’ve got to get back up.”

  “Well, now that you’ve done Skyline Drive, it’ll be a piece of cake.”

  “My quads hurt. I probably won’t be able to get out of bed in the morning.”

  It was an innocent line, but as their eyes met, she could see the amusement in Kyler’s. Amusement and something else.

  “Call me if you need help,” she said quietly. “I can pop over.”

  “What is wrong with you?”

  “Nothing.”

  “You’re flirting with me,” she accused.

  “Yeah, I am.” What could she say to that? She took a swallow of her beer. “So. Meteor shower?”

  “Are you going to make me go?”

  “I believe you asked me to take you. We were watching the sunset and you—”

  “I remember. But—”

  “What?”

  “That was…before…”

  Kyler smiled. “Before you lost your mind and kissed me?”

  Lexie met her gaze. “I’m pretty sure you started it.”

  “Me? No
, no. I think you started things.”

  Lexie knew it would do no good to argue. Because right then, she wasn’t certain who had started the kiss.

  “Wanna watch a game?”

  “Sure.”

  When Mark came back out, Lexie relaxed, and their afternoon reverted to its familiar routine. She and Kyler chose opposite teams and again bet ten bucks on the outcome. It wasn’t fair, really. She’d picked the Chiefs, leaving Kyler with the Chargers, who were a two-touchdown underdog. Nevertheless, Kyler had flashed a ten-dollar bill at her, and Lexie had agreed.

  “Hate to take your money, but okay.”

  “I feel an upset in the making.”

  Kyler had no such luck with the upset, but they enjoyed the game—which was closer than two touchdowns—and ate wings at halftime. The beers relaxed Lexie, and she enjoyed the banter with Kyler, as she always did. And yes, she found herself flirting with her, as usual. She tried to stop, she really did. It was simply too much fun, especially when Kyler played along. Of course, time and again, images of the night before—images of the kiss—popped into her mind. Kyler was thinking about it too, she could tell. She’d seen her gaze drop to her lips more than once.

  Oh, it was a fun afternoon and she was sorry to see it come to an end. Things were safer with Mark around. There wasn’t that tension that was there between them when they were alone. It was enjoyable and carefree, the beer and the warm weather contributing too.

  By the time they’d helped Mark clean up and put the TV back in the house, it was almost dark. That meant that Kyler would offer to drive her home. She panicked. No. They’d been flirting too much. They didn’t need to be alone. No. So she hurried over and picked up the jacket she’d brought along.

  “I should go before it’s too dark to see,” she said in a rush. “Had a great time, as usual.” She turned to Kyler. “I guess I’ll see you for the meteor shower.”

  “Why don’t you let Kyler drop you off?”

  “No, no. I can still see enough to walk,” she said to Mark, glancing to the now nearly dark sky.

  Kyler nodded. “Okay, but watch out for those javelinas.”

  She met her gaze. Damn. She’d forgotten about the mean little pig things Kyler had told her about. She blew out a breath.

  “Oh. Yeah. Maybe I will ride with you then.”

  Mark looked at her quizzically. “Why would you want to walk through the woods in the dark? Kyler’s going right by the lodge.”

  “I was going to walk off those last two wings you made me eat.”

  He laughed. “I thought you were going to take my hand off when I reached for that last one. Don’t blame me.”

  “They were very good,” she conceded. “Almost as good as my cauliflower wings.”

  Mark stood on the deck, watching as they went down the stairs. She and Kyler both turned to wave at him before getting in the Jeep.

  It wasn’t cold by any means, but she tightened the jacket around her, as if that could protect her from Kyler. She stared straight ahead, not daring to look at her.

  “You can relax.”

  “I am relaxed.”

  The drive down the hill took all of two minutes, if that. When Kyler pulled to a stop beside her car, she wanted to jump out of the Jeep. She didn’t, though.

  “I did have a good time today,” she said, as if perhaps Kyler thought otherwise.

  “Me, too. The hike was fun and thanks for helping with the kids.”

  She nodded, finally daring to look at her. There wasn’t enough light to see her eyes clearly, but from what she could see, it caused her breath to catch.

  “Um…thank you for the ride.”

  “Anytime.”

  She should get out. Quickly. But still, she lingered.

  “Lexie?”

  “I know. I’m going.”

  “You don’t have to. We could—”

  “No.” She opened the door. “So I’ll see you at some ungodly hour on Monday night?”

  “Two a.m., which is technically Tuesday morning.”

  She got out finally but looked back at her. “I’ll be at your place by two. It better be worth it.”

  “It’ll be fantastic. I’ll take my work truck. Sleeping bags on the back, a couple of heavy quilts, some hot chocolate or something.”

  She swallowed. Sleeping bags? Quilts? She had a visual of them lying side-by-side and…

  “Okay. I guess I’ll see you then.”

  “Yeah. See you then.”

  She hurried inside, not trusting herself to look back. She closed the door and leaned against it, eyes closed. Damn. Should it be this hard to not like someone? Oh, of course she liked Kyler. It was the other part that she wished she didn’t feel. She and Kyler had no future together, whether she stayed here or not. Kyler was an outdoorsy person, unassuming and down-to-earth. She was none of those things. Well, she wouldn’t really call herself pretentious, would she? No. But still, Kyler wasn’t her type.

  She pushed away from the door. Kyler wasn’t her type, no, but she was attracted to her. That made no sense at all.

  The quiet knock on her door made her whip her head around as if someone had banged on it. It wasn’t her mother’s knock. She swallowed, hesitating.

  “I know you’re standing right there.”

  She blinked several times, then moved the few steps to the door, opening it. The look in Kyler’s eyes stole her breath. She stepped inside, then closed the door behind her. It was only then that Lexie realized she hadn’t turned on any lights yet. The blinds were still open on the window and the glow from the porch light sent streaks inside. Enough to see Kyler.

  It didn’t matter. She didn’t need to see.

  Last night, their kiss had been unexpected. It had been nearly frantic, heated. Hard and urgent. Tonight? Almost completely different. She felt relaxed, unhurried. In control. In control, that is, until they actually kissed, until Kyler’s soft mouth moved against hers, until her lips parted for her. Kyler drew her closer and she felt her hands—moving without her permission—slide up her arms, around her shoulders.

  A delicious whimper—hers—made her senses reel and she pulled Kyler even tighter, bringing their bodies impossibly close. The slow, measured kiss changed then, tongues touching, their moans blending into one. Kyler’s hands slid to her hips, cupping her, pulling her flush against her. Her moan turned into a groan at the contact, and she felt what little control she had quickly slipping away.

  It would be so easy. Take Kyler to her bedroom. They would make love. If their kisses were any indication, it would be fantastic. But no. Her mother would see Kyler’s Jeep outside. There would be questions­—lots of questions that she wasn’t prepared to answer.

  So she did the sensible thing and eased out of the kiss, finally pulling away. The only sound in the room was their quickly drawn breaths, nothing else. Kyler must have sensed her apprehension.

  “A simple kiss, Lexie,” she whispered.

  At that, Lexie smiled. “Jesus, Kyler, that’s your definition of simple?”

  Kyler smiled too. “It started out that way. You changed it.”

  “Me? No, no. You changed it.” She moved away from Kyler, her fingers brushing through her hair in a nervous gesture. “Don’t you dare tell Mark we kissed. Or my mother,” she added quickly.

  “God, no.”

  She flipped on the light, chasing the shadows away. It may have been a mistake. She could see the desire in Kyler’s eyes clearly now.

  “We can’t do this.” She moved away from her.

  “Are we talking about kissing or are we talking about having sex?”

  Lexie felt a blush light her face. “Good lord, you just blurt it right out, don’t you?”

  Kyler shrugged. “I’m attracted to you.”

  “We can’t sleep together, Kyler.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because it’ll ruin our new friendship.”

  “Maybe it’ll make it better.”

  “But what if it doesn’t?�
��

  Kyler laughed. “What are you doing?”

  She smiled too. “I always worry over things. Mom says I analyze stuff to death.”

  Kyler reached out and took her hand. Their fingers entwined easily. “I’m going to go now, Lexie. But I don’t want to pretend there’s nothing going on with us. Because there is.”

  She nodded. “I know. So what are we going to do?”

  “We’re going to do stuff like we have been. And we’re going to kiss. And eventually we’re going to make love.”

  Lexie’s eyebrows shot up. “That’s it? Simple as that?”

  “I’m attracted to you. You’re attracted to me. That’s all.” Kyler took a step closer. “I like being with you, Lexie. Out hiking, out biking. Hanging with Mark.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Kissing. All normal, natural stuff.”

  She nodded. “I really do like you, Kyler. Obviously, I’m attracted to you, yes.”

  “But?”

  Lexie held her arms out. “I don’t even know if I’m staying or not.” She took her hand and squeezed her fingers. “I don’t want you to be a factor on whether I stay or go. That’s not fair.”

  Kyler nodded. “You’re right. Your decision to stay here should be based solely on you and whether you can see yourself living up here long term. It should have nothing to do with me.” She dropped her hand. “I should go.”

  “I’m glad you came in. We needed to talk about it.”

  Kyler smiled. “I came in for a kiss. Not to talk. So have a good day tomorrow. Get to bed early tomorrow night. Don’t forget to set an alarm.”

  “The meteor shower. I’ll be over at two in the freakin’ morning.”

  Kyler leaned closer, brushing her lips across her cheek, pausing at the corner of her mouth. “Goodnight, Lexie.”

  Once again, Lexie closed the door and leaned against it, this time with the lights on. Perhaps it was the lights that made her see things more clearly. Because she feared she was getting in over her head. It would be so very easy to fall in love with Kyler. Wouldn’t it?

  She pushed away from the wall. Don’t be ridiculous, she told herself. Kyler wasn’t the type of person she would fall in love with. Kyler was too…too earthy, too outdoorsy. Too—

  Too sweet. Too nice and charming. Too fun. Too real.