Page 87 of Unexpected Kisses

“I haven’t, so it will be a first for both of us.” I glance across at her.

Her answering grin and whispered words, “I like that” make me feel as though I’m standing atop El Capitan.

Once we arrive at Stovepipe Wells, we grab our camping site, and I make us a bite to eat from the supplies in the fully stocked kitchen. Because it’s almost late afternoon, we decide to check out the nearby Mesquite Sand Dunes for some fun and then we’ll have a picnic dinner to watch the sunset. I specifically brought Sarah here because, while it’s not considered the darkest area in the United States, it’s rated pretty high by the International Dark Sky Places Program. And I remembered her saying she would like to experience this when we watched the documentary about the most extreme places in the US.

We climb out of the RV, and as Sarah and I scan the area, the vastness of the dunes steals our breath. “Oh my. It’s gorgeous,” Sarah whispers reverently.

“Yeah.” I grab our sand boards, which were kindly supplied, and hand in hand, Sarah and I begin our trek through the dunes. The number of footprints in the soft sand is incredible, but what’s surprising is that some parts are dry and cracked like a dried-up lake bed. Obviously, it hasn’t been too windy the last couple of days to erase the footprints covering the dunes.

Sarah points far off into the distance. “Look at that one. It must be enormous, it juts out so much higher than the others.”

“Shall we check it out?”

“Yeah. But let me carry one of the boards.”

“I’m okay. If they start to get heavy, you can carry one.”

We climb over each dune, past dead gnarly trees, taking the time to snap some shots of the magnificent backdrop with our phones. Sarah photobombs some of my shots so I make sure to return the favor, pulling funny faces as I leap across in front of the lens.

As the sun crosses the sky, we finally reach the highest dune we were aiming for. We must have walked about a mile. Nobody else is here and we’re both hot and sweaty from the workout of climbing dunes in soft sand. Panting, we both drop to our asses.

“Shit, that was quite a workout!” Sarah exclaims through panting breaths.

Sitting beside her, I raise my knees and clasp my hands around them loosely. “I’m gonna need a minute before we take these bad boys to the bottom.” I tip my chin to the boards beside me.

“I can’t believe I was sitting in the NICU this morning and this afternoon I’m sitting atop the tallest dune here.” Her eyes are full of wonder as she takes in the incredible landscape, and I take the opportunity to sneak in a photo. Her skin looks golden with the reflection of the late-afternoon sun casting across the dunes.

“Are you ready to ride the dune?” I ask, wiggling my eyebrows.

Sarah chuckles. “Of course. Let’s go.”

We situate ourselves on our boards and push off at the same time, ensuring we’re a safe distance apart. Sarah screams on the way down, holding onto her board for dear life, while I laugh at her, ensuring I don’t fall off my board. When we get to the bottom of the dune, my board stops, but the momentum of the slide means I keep going forward, rolling in the deep sand. I manage to close my eyes, but my mouth fills with sand. Once I come to a stop, I spit out as much sand as I can as Sarah comes running over to me and drops to her knees.

“Are you okay?” I can’t make out her face with the sun shining behind her, but I can tell by her tone that she’s worried.

I begin to laugh and reach forward to pull her down on top of me. “I’m fine,” I tell her through the grit stuck to my tongue. Our water bottles are at the top of the dune along with our shoes, so I’ll have to wait until I’m at the top before I can rinse out my mouth. “That was so much fun. I wanna do it again and again and again.”

She chuckles as she props herself up on my pecs. “Me too!” I push up and press my lips to hers chastely, then we climb to our feet and begin the trek back to the top. The afternoon passes by as we slide, climb, and slide again until our legs won’t carry us any further. “I think my legs are gonna fall off. I don’t think I can climb it againandhave enough energy to walk all the way back to the parking lot.”

“Let’s head back then. I have a picnic dinner waiting for us and we can watch the sunset.”

“You’ve thought of everything.” I hope I thought of everything. I wanted to make this getaway memorable for her.

I pull her into me, holding her hands behind my back, making her body flush with mine. Lowering my head, Sarah presses up on her toes to meet me halfway and our lips collide. Our kiss is deep and bruising. Rough and explorative as we connect. I love how we can go from laughing our asses off, sliding down a dune, to sharing passionate kisses which leave me breathless.

Sarah pulls her lips away, her eyes glistening in the low light. “I felt like a kid again. Sliding down the dune was exhilarating.” She squeezes my hands. “Thank you for planning this. It’s the best birthday present I’ve ever been given.”

“Anything for you, Cupcake.”

Sarah sets up the outdoor camping chairs while I collect our picnic dinner and we both put our feet up while enjoying the feast as the sun disappears below the horizon. She points toward the dunes. “Look at how the colors are changing with the waning light.” She takes a drink of her soda. “Stunning,” she whispers.

“Yeah.” I couldn’t care less about the colors of the dunes because I can’t tear my eyes away from my girl.

She notices I’m not looking at the dunes. “Look. You don’t want to miss it, we’ve only got a sliver of sunlight left.”

At her insistence, I turn my head and my eyes catch on the almost glowing amber dunes under the waning light. I reach my hand out to grasp Sarah’s, and I picture us doing this when we’re much older and we’ve lived a long and happy life together. The way her face lights up with an appreciation of the spectacular show nature is putting on for us is something I’ll file away and remember for the rest of my days.

We clean up from dinner and lock our RV, then head back into the dunes with a blanket tucked beneath my arm. “Thank goodness for the full moon. It’s making it easy to see where we’re going.”

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