Chapter 12

Oh my God, ‘It’s a date’? Ugh, who the hell do I think I am?!

For about the fiftieth time, Kira tried to pull her hair up into something resembling an even slightly sexy updo – only for it to all immediately fall lankly around her face the moment she took her hands away. It was no use – her hair was just too straight and fine to be stylable without the help of a professional, or at the least without more hairspray or mousse or whatever than anyone could reasonably be expected to have on hand.

And anyway, we’re going hiking, it’s not like we’re going to a fancy restaurant! Not that there really are any fancy restaurants in Girdwood Springs.

She told herself she’d look pretty ridiculous hiking through the forest all got up to the nines anyway. That would just be silly. She’d be better off just doing her usual, boring thing of a ponytail and no makeup. It wasn’t so wrong to want to look glamorous, but it just wasn’t practical for a hiking date.

And it’s not like this is really a date anyway, she thought, unable to resist one last attempt at a side-part. It was just a joke. A joke! Caleb knows that.

She wasn’t even sure what had possessed her to make such a stupid joke to begin with. Caleb was hot – like, smoking hot. Maybe her hormones had run away with her for a moment, for which she supposed she couldn’t really be blamed. And whatever the case, Caleb hadn’t seemed to be put out about it. He’d still seemed keen for the guided tour she’d offered him, so it wasn’t like he was offended or anything like that. She just had to not say or do anything stupid like that again for the whole day, and everything would be totally fine.

Ha. Ha. Yeah.

Kira shook her head at herself as she tied her boots. Could she really trust herself not to blurt out something silly? More than once yesterday she’d felt herself getting all dreamy and drifting off into imaginary land while gazing into Caleb’s startlingly blue eyes, or imagining what it’d be like to run her fingers through his black hair. Finding out whether his shoulders were really as broad as they looked under the jacket he’d been wearing.

Yeah okay, this is not helping. Kira shook herself as she climbed into her car. You’re just going to show the poor man around some of your favorite trails. You are going to have to do your best to restrain yourself and not eat him alive. Okay? Okay.

Starting the car, Kira managed to get her concentration together enough to drive through the winding mountain roads. Her house was a little way out of the main part of Girdwood Springs – up the mountain and down a long driveway. She liked it out there, even though the town itself could hardly be called large or bustling. But the solitude suited her, and she liked looking out of her bedroom window and seeing nothing but trees, and hearing nothing but birdsong and the leaves rustling in the wind. It had been her grandfather’s house, and he’d left it to her in his will, since her parents had decided they’d like to retire to somewhere a bit warmer and sunnier.

The old place does need a few repairs, though,Kira thought, as she turned down the road that led to the park, where she’d agreed to meet Caleb. I’d want to get it fixed up a little before I brought Caleb back there or anything… which I’m obviously not going to do, so I don’t know why I even thought that.

She let out a deep breath. Clearly, she still had a little way to go before she got her brain back under her control.

I can do it! I believe in myself!

The problem was, however, that she didn’t – especially not when she rounded the last bend, and saw Caleb himself standing by her office cabin, all six-foot-whatever of him, dressed in jeans and a flannel shirt, a warm vest snuggled comfortably over his shoulders.

Aw, man. That’s just not fair.

Kira parked her car, leaning over to the passenger’s seat to sort through her backpack and checking she’d remembered all her supplies. Water bottles – check. Nourishing snacks, courtesy of Sylvie – check. Raincoat – check. Waterproof flashlight – check. There was no rain forecast for today, but after yesterday’s freak rainstorm she wasn’t taking any chances.

Well – she had everything. So she really couldn’t put off getting out of the car and facing up to the… well, face of her persistent fantasies any longer.

Caleb came to greet her as she hopped out of the car, pulling her backpack with her.

Kira greeted him with a smile – a smile she hoped looked normal rather than manic. A smile that said It’s cool, I guess I’m happy to see you again, rather than Oh please let me pull your pants off with my teeth.

Kira coughed, feeling her face flushing bright red. She sputtered furiously, her eyes watering. Oh my God! No!

“Are you okay?” Caleb’s voice was all concern as he appeared at her side.

Kira waved him off, hoping she wasn’t coming across as rude. “No, no, I’m fine,” she said weakly, once she’d managed to get her breath back. “I just – something went down the wrong way. Sorry.”

“As – as long as you’re sure you’re not choking,” Caleb said, his face way more worried than a little bit of unfortunate and embarrassing coughing and choking warranted. “You’re really okay?”

“Yeah – no worries at all.” Kira nodded in what she hoped was a reassuring fashion. Well, that was two meetings so far, and two times she’d stupidly embarrassed herself – yesterday there’d been stupidly tripping over and landing in his arms, today it was stupidly choking on her own spit. Kira wondered with a shudder what the rest of the day would bring.

“Should we get going?” Kira asked, trying to redirect Caleb’s attention. “While the skies are clear, I mean.”

“You know, I really can’t thank you enough for spending your day off showing me around like this,” he said as they walked together toward the gate leading to the trails. “After spending your working week here, I would’ve thought looking at more forest is the last thing you’d want to do.”

“Oh, no, it’s the opposite!” Kira knew she sounded way over-enthused, but when it came to the park, she just couldn’t help it. “I love spending time out here – I sometimes come out here on my days off anyway. And my house is surrounded by trees anyway, so even if I stay home, it’s still more forest. I do a little gardening, but really, it’s my favorite place to be in the whole world.”

“I can tell,” Caleb said, giving her a smile. “Me, I was born and bred in the city, so I haven’t spent much time in places like this. But I can definitely see the appeal.”

“I think everyone should spend a little time in places like this,” Kira said as they made their way through the gate, and then down the beginner track before the trails all branched off in different directions. “It’s really calming – well, most of the time, anyway. And I think if people could just see how lovely these places are they’d really understand more about why people feel so strongly about protecting them. It’s not just that they’re beautiful, though – the forest is home to so many birds, animals, insects… all kinds of things. And there’s so many rare plants that grow here too. I really think that –”

Kira cut herself off, realizing suddenly how much she’d said, and how stridently she’d said it. She glanced up at Caleb, but he didn’t look perturbed. The opposite, in fact – he seemed to be listening intently.

“Sorry,” she said, nonetheless. “I guess I just get a little carried away sometimes. I just feel really passionately about this stuff.”

“I can tell, but it’s really not a problem,” Caleb assured her, his voice warm. “It’s good to see people talking about what they feel passionately about. I don’t mind at all.”

“Well, what about you?” Kira said, feeling a little self-conscious despite Caleb’s reassuring words. “Do you have anything you’re passionate about?”

Caleb seemed to hesitate for a moment before he spoke. “Film,” he said, laughing a little. “Well – film preservation. I guess you could call it my family’s business. We run a small movie theater, where we show old and rare movies. Some popular things too, of course, since they’re profitable. But mainly we attract an audience through showing things no one would really get to see in any cinema but ours. Stuff people may not have seen at all, if we didn’t show it.”

Kira blinked, looking up at him. “Oh, wow. That’s actually really interesting,” she said, meaning it. “I never really thought about that kind of thing before. We don’t have a movie theater here, and the last time I went was when I was studying in the city. So I wouldn’t really call myself a movie buff, to put it mildly. What kinds of movies are your personal favorites, then?”

“Oh, I like anything,” Caleb said, grinning. “I’m not a snob – but to be honest, I really like old Westerns. That, and samurai movies. But they have a lot more in common than you’d think!”

Kira laughed – she couldn’t help it. The enthusiasm in Caleb’s voice was infectious. “Well, I can’t really say I’ve ever actually thought about it, or even seen a samurai movie to begin with. So I really will have to take your word for it. But I’ll definitely keep it in mind, just in case I ever do see one.”

Just in case you ever want to invite me to watch one,she added silently, though she couldn’t quite make the flirtatious line come out of her mouth.

“Well, I’ll have to see what I can do about that,” Caleb said. He glanced at her, smiling, but then held up his hands. “Not that I’m trying to bore you by trying to make you watch some old movies you don’t care about!”

“Oh – no, no, I wouldn’t be bored!” Kira stuttered out. Had Caleb seen her thoughts on her face? “In fact I’d… I’d kind of like to learn more about it. I mean. I don’t really know anything about either, so learning anything would be learning more about it.”

Caleb swallowed, blinking as if he was kind of surprised. “Well, I’d really like to show you, then. Soon. I mean, I didn’t exactly bring any movies with me, but…”

Kira looked down. She could feel a mortifying blush rising on her cheeks again.

Why am I so bad at this?!she thought furiously. A hot guy is asking me to watch movies with him, and I’m totally tongue-tied!

“… But for the moment, since we’re out here, maybe you can just teach me more about the forest,” Caleb finished, before Kira could think of something even mildly witty, or funny, or sexy to say. Though to be honest, she thought, being any of those things had never really been her forte.

But I do know about the forest!

“Well,” she said, smiling at him, “what would you like to learn first?”

“… S

o that one’s a red cedar?” Caleb asked, pointing to the massive tree to their left.

“Nope, sorry – red cedars have a fluted trunk and the bark doesn’t shed like that,” Kira said. “That’s a shagbark hickory. You can tell by – wait for it – the shaggy bark.”

“Oh, right, that should’ve been a giveaway,” Caleb laughed. “But that one over there is a white pine.”

“Yes! Correct!” Kira grinned at him. “Wow, you’re getting this way quicker than the fourth graders I usually do this with.”

“Well, I guess that’s a relief,” Caleb said. “But then again, kids are pretty sharp.”

“You can say that again. Usually we give them a little list and a description, and then they draw a picture of the bark, the trunk, the leaves – it’s fun, and it’s kind of like a little scavenger hunt for them. Whoever can fill in all their tree descriptions first wins. It’s not every day you get to see kids being so excited about a tree.”

Caleb laughed. “Sounds like you really enjoy your job.”

“Yeah, I do.” Kira smiled. “It’s great – I get to be out in nature, and I get to teach people about the forest. It’s kind of my dream job, really.”

“And you said you’d lived here all your life?”

Kira nodded. “Yeah – I mean, I moved away while I was getting my qualifications. But I came back, like I always knew I would. It’s not that I’m such a homebody, or anything like that, but… there’s just something about Girdwood Springs, you know? It was a great place to grow up, a great place to live now, and I think it’d be a great place to raise my own kids one day –”

Kira cut herself off, glancing at Caleb. He’d been hinting at wanting to ask her out on a date just before, and now she’d dreamily let slip stuff about wanting to raise kids here – which might have been moving just a bit too fast.

He’ll think I’m already planning our wedding or something!

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.

“I – uh – I think so,” Kira managed to get out, despite her tight throat and breathlessness. Both of which she knew had only partially to do with the surprise of the situation. She could feel a red flush on her neck and cheeks, and she knew that if she didn’t get out of this situation right now she was going to end up embarrassing herself terribly.

But still – oh my God – it was so tempting just to lie here for a moment longer… and she couldn’t help but notice that Caleb didn’t seem to be in any particular rush to get himself off her, either.

He probably just wants to make sure there’s no more falling branches,Kira scolded herself. He’s just shielding you with his, uh, body.

“I – I think we should be safe now,” she finally managed to whisper, still unable to tear her gaze away from the blue of his eyes, framed by their thick dark lashes.

“Oh. Uh. Right. I think so,” Caleb said, sounding as if he was in a daze. Slowly, he levered his tall, broad body up away from her. Every cell in Kira’s body seemed to protest at the sudden loss of contact, and it was all she could do to keep her arms where they were by her sides, instead of grabbing him and pulling him back down.

“That was… that was so weird,” Kira managed to stutter out as she sat up, staring at the bough that now lay across the trail. “Oaks are usually as sturdy as… well, oak. Branches don’t usually just shear away like that, especially not in weather like this. It’s hardly windy at all.”

She glanced at Caleb, and was a little shocked to find him looking perturbed, his eyebrows drawn together, hand in his hair.

“This is my fault,” he muttered, almost as if to himself. “I didn’t think – I just wasn’t thinking. Of course the –”

He cut himself off, glancing at her, eyes pained.

Kira shook her head. Was Caleb blaming himself because he thought she might not have been out here to get almost squashed by a branch if she wasn’t showing him around? “No – this wasn’t your fault at all,” she told him. “I walk these trails all the time. This could’ve happened anytime. If anything, I should be thanking you for pulling me out of the way. That could’ve been a lot worse than it was.”

Opening his mouth, Caleb looked like he was about to offer some kind of counterargument. But in the end, he just looked away, shaking his head.

“Still, I – I feel like this is a little risky. Maybe we should head back. I don’t want… well, I’d rather not risk another accident.”

“I don’t think that’s likely to happen twice on one walk,” Kira said as she got shakily to her feet. “But sure, we can go back if you prefer. I just really hope this hasn’t put you off hiking for good.”

Or loving the forest,she added silently.

“No! No, not at all,” Caleb said, shaking his head. “I just think… maybe we could do something else for a while… like go get some lunch? Together, I mean. If you wouldn’t mind. We could get takeout or something and… eat it somewhere where there’s no big trees.”

Despite herself, Kira laughed. “Well, that’s gonna be pretty challenging here in Girdwood Springs, but we can grab a chili dog if you like and eat it on a bench outside.”

It wasn’t until she’d said it that the rest of what Caleb had asked her caught up with her.

Wait… together?! He wants us to eat together?! Like on a date?!

Caleb still looked a little ruffled by the whole almost getting squashed by a falling tree branch thing… but he also looked kind of hopeful.

Oh my God.

Kira felt a huge, goofy smile spreading itself across her face.

“Sure – we can do it together.”