Page 60 of A Marriage Pact for the Cowboy

“It’s in ten days, and the forecast says it will stay unseasonably warm at least that long.”

He eyed her. “You really want to go?”

This had been Paisley’s big idea for a surprise party for Maxwell. Eryn might have misgivings, but the outcome would be worth it, right? She still didn’t know what she’d give him for a gift — what did you get a man who had enough money to buy whatever he wanted? No clue. “It sounds fun?”

Maxwell shook his head and laughed. “I never thought you’d be a diehard outdoorswoman, but if you want to go and it’s not snowing up there, sure, I’m game.”

“Paisley says it’s a really nice spot and there are two pit toilets and a campfire ring and everything.”

“A really nice spot in July.” Maxwell chuckled and raised both hands in surrender. “No, I said I’m game, and I am. Did she say if there are any hot springs in that area?”

“Hot springs?”

“Montana has loads of them, but I’m sure she’d have mentioned if there was one. I was teasing.” He scraped the remaining food to one edge of his plate. “I hate to dump this, but I will, anyway. Ready to go?”

“I’ll clean our table so it’s ready for morning.”

“Okay.” He carried their plates and cutlery into the kitchen and added them to the small stack awaiting morning while she snagged a spray bottle and a cloth to wipe the last couple of tables.

She put the supplies away to find him waiting for her. “Ready?”

“Sure.”

Maxwell ushered her out of the lodge and paused on the wide front steps. “Listen.”

“What am I listening for?”

He tugged her to his side. “What do you hear?”

Not much. “An owl.”

“The wind in the treetops. Anything else?”

Distant laughter from up on Hummingbird Lane. A door shutting. “It’s so quiet.”

“I love it. I hadn’t realized how desensitized I’d been to the sounds of nature living in Chicago so many years.”

Memories of the Kansas farm flooded Eryn. The horses Dad sold along with the sleigh after Mom died. The smell of prairie grasses in spring and of the wheat harvest in late summer. The blue, blue skies and puffy clouds and the shelter belt of trees around the farmhouse, alive with songbirds and small mammals. The breeze — occasionally hurricane-force — that swirled her hair away from her face and cleared the cobwebs from her brain.

She leaned against Maxwell. “Kansas wasn’t noisy.”

“You’re right. Not like Chicago, but we lived in town limits and not really in tune with nature. This—” he waved his free arm “—this all is something I never knew I needed in my life. I didn’t want to need it.”

“Too busy to need it?”

He scoffed lightly. “You’ve been listening to Bryce too much. Sure, I kept busy, but not too busy to be aware of my surroundings. It’s the entire pace of life here that’s different. The sounds around us are only an indication. No traffic and sirens and gunshots, just stillness.”

The owl hooted again and was answered by another across the lake.

“And owls.” Maxwell laughed. “Let’s walk. It’s freezing.”

Eryn tucked her arm around his waist and reveled in the embrace of his arm around her. Yes, he was busy and often late to meals. Yes, he had a rude brother. But moments like this made it worthwhile.

They hiked up the hill to where several lanes diverged then Maxwell stopped and turned her to look back down the way they’d come. The rising moon shone a path across the small lake and illuminated the dimly lit lodge.

He took her face between his hands and planted a gentle kiss on her lips.

Oh, yes. Moments like this made it all worthwhile.

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