Page 34 of Riverside Reverie

“Ex-boyfriend,” Lux corrected, eyes snapping back to mine.

“Your ex-boyfriend is an idiot,” I finished, grinning at her.

“I agree,” she smiled, her eyes hopeful. “I’m glad though. Now I can go wherever I want, do whatever I want. There’s nothing tying me anywhere.”

“Where are you planning on going?” I asked, unable to look away from her.

Lux had no issue breaking our gaze. She looked back up at the sky, letting a soft sigh escape. “Wherever. I’ve applied to jobs in so many different cities. I’ll go wherever they hire me. I have no attachments to anywhere in particular.”

“Well, that’s exciting. Here’s to wherever,” I said softly, appreciating her for a moment longer before looking straight ahead.

I felt her turn, felt her eyes on my face and saw her smile out of the corner of my eye.

“What about you? Are you happy with your career?”

“Yes, I am.”

“I’ve never met an environmental geoscientist before,” she said, a smile playing on her pretty lips. “How’d you get into it, anyway?”

“My grandfather was really into nature, so was my dad. My family did a lot of camping when I was younger.” I shrugged. “My dad was a miner, he’s retired now, but he always hoped I’d do something…more. I decided to focus on environmental geoscience because it’d give me the opportunity to be in nature, but also have steady work.”

“Do you often go out of town for work?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I leave in three weeks for Peru to run tests on the soil in one of the mines there. I’ll be there for at least a week, then I’ll come home and work from the office until after Zoey and Kai tie the knot. I’m in town for the wedding, but I’ll be on a flight to Vancouver two days after for a couple of days.”

She nodded. Her pinky finger found mine, resting on the rock beside it, and I wondered if her nerve endings sizzled with the contact too. “It sounds exciting, getting to see all those different places.”

“It is,” I admitted with a grin, my pinky brushing against hers.

We both glanced back up at the sky in time to catch a shooting star falling. Lux let out an audible gasp, reaching for my hand to grip it with excitement. “I’ve never seen a shooting star before!” she exclaimed with wonder.

“It’s said that when you see a shooting star, it’s the universe sending you a message, urging you to listen to the whispers of your soul,” I said, turning to her, seeing the astonishment in her eyes.

“Is that so?” she murmured, her hand still grasping mine. Her eyes held me captivated, daring me to make a move. “And what message is the universe sending me?”

“To take a chance,” I murmured. Rolling over, I pressed my lips to hers.

Kissing Lux was otherworldly. She tasted like the tail of a shooting star, sparks everywhere. I’d never experienced a kiss so filled with electricity that it left me near dizzy, my body vibrating like it had been struck by lightning. It was more miraculous than witnessing the northern lights. More colourful.

Resounding and amorous, the kiss went on and blessedly on until Lux shifted her body, rolling so she was half laying on me and half on the rock beside me.

Breathless, she lifted her head to study me incredulously.

“Do you have a girlfriend?” The question seemed to come out of nowhere, but the fact that she’d stopped the kiss to demand it had me grinning.

“Nope, currently unattached.” Except even as I said it, I tasted the untruth in my words—I was forming an attachment, a new one, to this beautiful illuminating woman before me. I wanted to know everything there was to know about her, and I wanted her to find out everything about me too.

And I definitely didn’t want to stop kissing her. Not yet, anyway.

Luckily, my answer seemed to be exactly what she needed. Her gaze went to my lips, and then she was kissing me again.

10

RAINY DAYS

Lux

Theo and I made out on the rocks for just under an hour, until the sun started making its ascent. We watched it crest the horizon, the light painting the underside of the thick clouds gathering in the distance. Then we crept off to our own tents to sleep for a bit.

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