by Zoe York
Grace had thought that would be the end of it. Re-frame the lean-in as something normal and inconsequential. Promise it meant nothing and move on.
But Frank didn’t step back. In fact, he moved in closer, and this time there was none of the nervous energy zinging off him that there had been earlier. This man was more like a predator, coiled tight and ready to pounce.
And like she was his prey.
She knew this feeling, too. It was rarer than the frog kissing. There had only been a couple of guys over the years who had been this…intense. And it was dangerous, because she liked intense. Deep down, intense was her jam, and no no no, Frank could not be her jam.
“You know what I’ve learned, Grace?”
She swallowed. Don’t fall for it. She fell for it. “What?”
“Life is too short to be polite, or demure, or anything other than balls-to-the-wall.”
“That’s me. One hundred percent to the wall with my—”
He reached out and cupped her face, his thumb rubbing against her lips.
She fell silent. They weren’t bitching about the state of the world. He was talking about… She watched him move closer, his eyes bright and his jaw set. Yeah, he totally wanted to kiss her now.
And that was great, except for all the ways it was still a terrible idea. No big deal, but still nope. She stepped back, bumping against the wall before she pivoted and ducked under his still outstretched arm. “So anyway, how about that local sports team?”
“Grace.”
She shook her head, her back still to him. “Bad idea, Frank.”
“You told me it was okay to kiss you.”
“I think I specifically said, it would have been okay if you did. If it was spontaneous, I wouldn’t want you to feel bad or awkward about it. But come on, you’re an emotional hot mess and I am callous at best when it comes to feelings.”
“Is that true?”
“Yep, you’re a total mess.”
“I mean about you being callous. That hasn’t been my experience.”
“You’ve known me for three days.”
“Sure, but they’ve been a very long three days.” She heard him move, and then he was right behind her, radiating warmth against her back. “Why is it a bad idea for me to kiss you, exactly?”
“I…”
He waited.
She tried again. “You…”
“Yep. You and me. That’s it. This doesn’t have to be more complicated than I’m attracted to you, much to my surprise, and maybe yours, too. And I think you’re a pretty safe friend to explore that with a bit. I like talking to you. I like sharing a meal with you. I think I could probably kiss you without freaking out, if that’s your worry.”
He thought she thought—
She whirled around, right into the circle of his arms. She looked up at him. “I don’t think you’re going to freak out. Not immediately, anyway.”
“Maybe down the road?”
She wasn’t expecting him to have that kind of insight. She stumbled over her words. “Yeah, I guess so. I’m not one for commitment, Frank. And I’m sure that’s not where your head is at, at all, but you were married for a long time. It’s my experience that widowers and divorced men want—”
He crushed his mouth onto hers, a hard press that stole her words and her thoughts and left her mind strangely, wonderfully blank. His lips were firm at first, commanding, but then they softened, and oh, that was very nice.
He smelled good, and the way his lips moved against hers made her scalp tingle.
And when he pulled back—just a bit—he was smiling. No regrets. “Whatever you think of me, don’t for a second assume that what other men do has any bearing on my actions.”
She couldn’t breathe.
“Did you like that?”
“The kiss?”
He smiled again. “Yes.”
“Uh…yeah.”
“Good.” He kissed her again. “I like you. I like that you march to the beat of your own drum. I like that you don’t do commitment, or protocol, or expectations. I like Grace, and I want to kiss her without it being a big fucking deal.”
“You swore.”
“I’m a sailor. I do that from time to time. Just usually not in front of ladies.”
“I’m not much of a lady,” she whispered. “Feel free to say all sorts of inappropriate things in front of me.”
“Duly noted.” He pressed his forehead against hers. “Do you want to go for a hike with me tomorrow morning?”
She smiled up at him. “Will there be more kissing?”
“Damn straight.”
“Then I’m in.”
Chapter 8
Tegan: So I’m kind of scared to ask, but…is there any update about Rear Admiral DeMarco? Is he having an okay time?
Grace: Morning, baby. I think Frank is adjusting to camp just fine. No need to worry.
Tegan: Oh, phew. Love you!
Grace: Love you, too. What are you doing up so early?
Tegan: Last minute to-do list madness. See you soon!
For the third morning in a row, Grace had breakfast with Frank. This time neither of them approached the other. He was waiting for her on the step when she stepped out of her room, a big, broad form stretching the hell out of a worn t-shirt. Her heart skipped a beat as she took in the size of him, and it swelled in a total crush-worthy way when he stood up and held out his hand.
Nice wasn’t the right description for their walk to the dining hall. It was more than that, but she didn’t poke at it for adjectives.
While they ate, he told her a bit more about the trail he’d gone up the day before, and the one he wanted to take today. Then they collected the picnic lunch he’d ordered the day before.
“Convenient that you ordered food for two yesterday,” she teased him.
His cheeks turned pink. “I was planning on eating all of this myself. But I’ve got snacks we can add to the pack back in my room.”
And so he did. After he tucked the picnic food into the bottom of a high-tech looking pack that stood all on its own in the middle of his cabin, he grabbed another bag and started unloading food. A couple of squeeze tubes, a few protein bars, and three zip-lock bags of trail mix.
He tossed one at her. “Do you like gorp?”
“GORP?” She laughed as she caught it. “Man, I haven’t thought of that forever. Not since Tegan’s short-lived Girl Scout days. What does it stand for again? Good Old Raisins and Peanuts?”
He snagged two protein bars and shoved the rest of the food away again. “Ah, in fact it does not.”
“What do you mean?”
“That’s a backronym.”
“A what?”
He put their snacks in the bag, then pulled her close. “A back-ronym. An acronym applied backwards. Like fuck meaning ‘for unlawful carnal knowledge.’”
She touched her fingers to her temples and then exploded them outwards. “Mind blown. That’s not true either?”
“Nope.”
“I’m the most gullible person on the planet, clearly.”
He kissed her lightly. Their first kiss of the day, and she found herself leaning into it. She wanted more, but she didn’t want to push him, either. His lips caressed hers and made her heart flutter in the most delicious way. “Hardly,” he murmured before deepening the kiss. The barest of licks, and then a final peck. “You’re fun. Don’t ever change.”
“Deal.”
Once they ran through his checklist of things she needed to have—hat, sunscreen, good shoes, extra pair of socks—he put his bag on his back and off they went.
At first the trail was wide and easy to walk along side-by-side, but after a bit it narrowed, and they needed to move to single-file. Frank led at first, going at a slow but steady pace until they reached a plateau spot, where a few trees had fallen, creating a break in the overhead canopy. Sunlight flooded a small clearing and in this space, flowers were growing. Wild, untamed beautiful tangles of color. The Berkshires had some stunning
hidden corners.
“These are gorgeous,” she said, picking a few and twirling them between her fingers as Frank dug out their water bottles. She held out her hand as he handed over one of them. “Thank you.”
“I saw some of those on the ridge on the other side yesterday. They’re all over the place here.”
“I love them.” She took another long drink of water, then handed the bottle back.
As he got everything squared away, she picked a few more blooms to carry as they continued along the path.
This time she led, with Frank following closely behind. They talked a bit and enjoyed silence the rest of the time. By the end of their second leg, she was definitely feeling the hike in her thighs.
Frank gestured to a thick log. “Let’s sit and we can have our lunch here,” he said.
She wiggled her wildflowers at him. “But what about my friends here?”
He took them from her and slid them through the loop on his water bottle lid. “There.”
“Nicely done.”
The lunch was thick sandwiches, still cool from the included ice packs. Ham, cheese, tomato, and lettuce. There were also apples and a brownie for each of them, so she gave her second sandwich half to Frank. “You might need this more than me.”
He pulled a knife from the side of his bag and carefully cut it in half. “How about we share it?”
She beamed at him. “Hiking with you is fun.”
They took their time eating. She finished first, and Frank handed her the map so she could decide how much further they would go before turning around.
It looked like the trail opened up not that much further, and when she looked ahead, she thought she could see it through the trees. She pointed to a detail line on the map. “What’s that?”
“A ridge. There’s a plateau…” Frank leaned against her as he pointed.
She thought about burying her face in the warm skin of his neck, but they hadn’t been that physical today. She settled for relaxing into his side. “How much further is it?”
“Probably another ten minutes of climbing.”
“Then let’s do it!” She jostled him, and he chuckled. “We can race.”
“You got it.”
Frank hung back as Grace picked up the pace. He let her pull ahead. He liked to watch her move, and it wouldn’t take long for her to slow down again. She hadn’t been trained to keep a steady pace. Hadn’t had the fun trained out of her. And that was just it—hiking with her was fun, just as she’d said. But it was her doing, not his. And just when he thought he might ask if she was tired, she’d speed up again. Bursts of speed, bursts of energy, always keeping him wondering.
It was her youthful energy that made it fun. Same as she had with kayaking, too.
They reached the plateau almost at the same time, and in front of them stretched a meadow full of the same flowers she’d picked in the small clearing.
This time, he did the picking, gathering her a big bouquet to add to the small bundle she’d carried up with her.
“I love them,” she said as she turned in a slow circle. When she stopped in front of him again, he took her in his arms.
She pushed up on her toes and they kissed. Not just once, but over and over again, until every muscle in his body was tense and ready to do more than just kiss.
He moved his mouth to her neck, then up to discover the soft spot behind her ear. Finally, he brushed a loose strand of hair off her cheek, tucking it behind her hair. “You’re a bit of a wildflower yourself, aren’t you?”
“How do you figure?”
“Beautiful, untamed, unexpected.”
“Often mistaken for a weed?” Her eyes danced, but he heard the silent caution. Don’t try to be sweet. I don’t like sweet.
“And only romantic from a distance,” he retorted drily. She laughed out loud at that, and he kissed her neck again, this time noisily. Not romantic. Just fun.
He could stick to fun for her. That wouldn’t be any kind of hardship.
“Ah,” she sighed, then gasped. “Oh. Frank.”
Suddenly, she sounded alarmed, and he pulled back. “What is it?”
She pointed behind him.
Dark clouds were quickly gathering on the horizon. A storm was coming in and fast. It didn’t bother Frank at all. He’d been stuck in a lot worse places than a meadow in the Berkshires with a beautiful and entertaining woman. But from the way a frown had settled in between Grace’s eyes and how she kept glancing at the clouds, she didn’t like the idea of getting caught in the rain.
It had taken them two hours to climb up. He guess-timated he could get down the mountain in forty-five minutes if he needed to, but could Grace move that fast? He wouldn’t want her to try. And from the looks of the sky and the way the wind was picking up, that wasn’t going to happen anyway, because the storm was moving in faster than that.
He rubbed his jaw, quickly thinking of options. “Do you want to take shelter or hoof it back to camp? We won’t outrun the rain, but we might make it back before the worst of it.”
“What would taking shelter look like?”
He dug out his first aid kit and handed her the silver emergency blanket. “We can use this as a tarp. If we get back under the tall trees, they’ll help protect us from the worst of the downpour, too.”
She didn’t hesitate. “That sounds way better than running down a muddy slope.”
He liked that she’d thought that far into the descent plan. “I agree.”
Moving quickly, they headed back to the log where they’d stopped for water, then kept going a bit further, into the dark shadows where the trees were thickest. He didn’t have rope on him, so he found a tree that had a horizontal branch nice and low to the ground. He folded the blanket over it, making a decent little tent for them. He used the second blanket from his kit to make a floor, lifting the sides up, and then they hauled logs in to pin the top and bottom together.
The floor blanket ripped twice in the process, but for a makeshift shelter, it wasn’t bad.
As the first fat drops of rain hit them, they scrambled inside.
Grace started laughing as she stretched out on her back.
“Having a good time?”
She shook her head side to side. “This isn’t how I expected my day to go.”
“They’re probably having a lot of fun back at camp.”
She snorted. “Playing Spin the Bottle, most likely.”
“Or Seven Minutes in Heaven.”
She rolled onto her side. The storm had darkened the sky enough that once again he was having trouble reading her face. Lucky for him, Grace had no problem communicating her desires. “I bet we have more than seven minutes in here, don’t you think?”
The foil blanket crinkled beneath them and the rain beat faster on the blanket above them. Neither noise was louder than his pulse as she slid into his body and offered up her lips.
He tangled his fingers in her hair and took the deep, hungry kiss she was offering.
They made out as the storm raged around them, as rain began to lash in the open ends of their shelter, and didn’t stop until the emergency blanket gave up under the onslaught of heavy water against it.
With a rip, the shelter gave out, and Frank rolled onto his back, grabbing Grace with one hand and the blanket with the other. He cocooned them together as she laughed into his neck.
“Did I mention that hiking with you is fun?”
“You did,” he rumbled.
She giggled. He threw his head back and joined her in the laugh, because she was right. This was fun.
He felt alive for the first time in a year, and Jesus Christ it was wonderful.
When they made it back to camp two hours later, just in time for dinner, they found everyone milling around in the lobby. And for once it didn’t seem like a live-action silver-haired Tinder-sponsored full-contact sporting event.
It wasn’t just campers. Most of the staff were in the lobby, too.
Frank stopped the
first person he recognized—Rachel from the craft building. “What’s going on?”
She reached out and squeezed his shoulder, then did the same to Grace. “You didn’t hear?”
“Hear what?”
“She’s okay, but one of the campers, a woman named Ruth, had a heart attack this afternoon. Over board games right here.”
“Oh, my goodness,” Grace said. “Ruth? We had breakfast with her yesterday. She’s okay, though? There’s an update?”
“She’s safe and sound at the hospital and being taken good care of there.”
“Has someone organized a card?”
Rachel pointed to a table set up next to the fireplace. “Over there. Everyone is signing it before you head in for dinner.”
Grace grabbed Frank’s hand and dragged him along. She signed her name in a tiny spot on the card, and he added his name right next to hers. Then he pulled her into his arms for a hug, because that felt like the right thing to do.
Dinner was a buffet, and they quickly grabbed plates of food, but Grace only picked at her choices.
“Are you thinking about her?” he asked.
She jerked her head up. “Ruth?” She worried her bottom lip. “I guess I am. And I’m tired from our adventure, too.”
“Early night tonight?”
“Maybe, yeah.” She gave him a soft smile. “Thank you. For asking, and for the day.”
He reached across the table and squeezed her hand.
“You two were gone all day, huh?” A woman stopped in front of them. Frank recognized her as someone from the bus. “That’s fun.” She winked. “Did you get lost in the woods?”
“Got in a big zombie fight, actually,” Grace deadpanned. “Took all afternoon to slay them.”
Frank choked on his water as the lady gave Grace a confused look.
She just blinked innocently. “We have to get back to the battle soon, too, so…”
Frank nodded. “True story.”
The woman left them alone, and he pointed to her plate. “Eat up, zombie slayer. You’ll need your energy later.”
He’d meant it as a joke. But Grace slowly slid her gaze to meet his and gave him what could only be described as an inappropriately dirty smile. “Really?”
