Page 29 of Losing Hope

Chapter Eleven

With breakfast finishedand both of them dressed, Hope packed up a small cooler full of snacks and drinks while Gage gathered his camera equipment. They met in the entryway, supplies inhand.

“Hey, what do you think about taking old blue out today?” Hope asked. “It’s a stick shift, though, which I’m not very good at, so would you mind driving?”

His face lit up with a wide smile. “That would be fantastic. I can handle a stick, no problem, and I can probably get some great classic shots with the truck.”

“That was easy!” She laughed and pointed to a set of hooks behind him. “The keys on are on the blue keychain hanging on that thirdhook.”

He turned and grabbed the set off the hook before reaching down to grab his camera bag and the cooler from her. “Let’s hit the roadthen.”

He placed the cooler in the bed of the truck and unlocked and opened the passenger door for her. She turned and gave him a shy smile as he reached to help her up into the truck. “I’m still not used to you opening my door for me like this. It’snice.”

“Guess you’ll have to keep me around then.” He leaned down and pecked her on the lips before closing her door and making his way over to the driver’s side and hopping in. He put his camera bag down between them and put the key in the ignition to start the truck. One turn and she came to life with a loud purr. He pressed on the gas lightly to rev the engine.

“You weren’t kidding! Walter does do a great job keeping this old girl in shape!”

Hope was smiling widely with pride. “I told you.” She pointed back toward the driveway. “If you follow the driveway to the end, then take a right, we’ll follow Route 2 down into Charlotte. I’ll show you a little covered bridge that’s kind of on the side of the lake down there. It’s pretty in thefall.”

“Okay, sounds good.” He headed out in the direction she had directed him, noticing that Walter had cut up the fallen tree that blocked their path the other night. “Looks like Walter’s beenbusy.”

“He’s so wonderful to have around. He makes sure this place is always in tip-top shape. We’re lucky to have him.” She reached over and turned the radio on. “Do you care what we listento?”

He shook his head. “As long as it’s not rap, I’mgood.”

“Oh my God! Me too! I can’t stand rap. I call it rap crap. My brother gets so mad at me because it’s all he ever wants to listen to.” She scanned through the stations until she found one that was playing a James Taylorsong.

“This is perfect,” he stated and smiled over at her. They chatted easily about everything and nothing during the twenty-five-minute ride to the first covered bridge. As he rounded the corner of the narrow town road they were on, the bridge came in toview.

“Well, look at that! She’s an old beauty!” He pulled the truck into a small turn-off on the side of the road just before the bridge and shut the engineoff.

“I told you it was pretty.” She opened her door and jumped out of the truck, meeting Gage as he rounded the front of the vehicle.

“Hey, I would have helped you out of the truck.” He set his camera bag down on the hood and turned toher.

“You don’t have to help me every time we stop. I’m a big girl. I can get in and out of the truck by myself.” She smiled over athim.

He stepped closer to her and, leaning down, cupped her cheek lightly as he brushed a kiss across her lips. “But then I don’t get to do this.” He kissed her again, this time more deeply, both of them stepping into one another’s arms. A car, beeping its horn as it drove by, had them pulling apart quickly, laughter tumbling from both of them. “Oops. I guess we don’t need to give the townsfolk a show, eh?”

Hope’s cheeks were flushed pink, but she was smiling and happy, regardless of being caught in such a passionate moment. “If they want a show, we could give them a flash of those abs of yours.” She grinned mischievously and winked athim.

He shook his head laughing and began opening the camera bag and taking his gear out. He quickly changed the lens, made some adjustments to the settings and started walking over to the bridge. She followed along beside him, watching him take in the bridge, the lake, and the overall scene with a calculating eye. He stopped abruptly, brought the camera up to his eye, and started snapping pictures.

She wandered closer to the lake, leaving him to do his thing. There was a small family of ducks just off to the left of the bridge, so she walked closer to see if she could get a better look. Then she made her way onto the bridge itself and found herself looking at all the old initials that had been carved by past visitors. People had been carving their initials in this bridge for as long as she had been coming here. Some people even carved in little poems or sayings.

“Hey,” he called from the end of the bridge. She turned to find him pointing the camera at her. “Stay just like that.” She obeyed his command and froze, just looking straight ahead at the camera. At some point through his clicking and walking closer to her, she let herself lean up against the side of the bridge, her body relaxing intoit.

He finally pulled the camera away from his face and smiled serenely at her. “You are such a breath of fresh air. Do you have any idea how you make the simplest things look beautiful?”

She tilted her head and bit her bottom lip like she always did when she was slightly embarrassed. “Really? I was just reading the carvings.”

He had reached her now and ran a hand gently over her hair before resting it on her shoulder. “You’re so expressive, though. I could almost see what you were thinking as you read certain things—when one made you sad, or when you thought something was sweet. I love that aboutyou.”

Wait? Did he just say he loved something about her? He watched as she clamped onto her lower lip hard enough to draw blood and knew she noticed it, too. Screw it. It is what itis.

He reached over and used his thumb to pluck her lip out from between her teeth and kissed her tenderly. “Show me what you were lookingat.”

“Okay,” she answered softly and turned back toward the inside of the bridge. “Look at this one right here. April loves John ’56. This has been here for seventy years. Isn’t that crazy? I wonder if they’re still together?”

---