Page 28 of Boston
“Yep,” Boston said. “We’re gonna go right up over that ridge after breakfast where we saw those deer yesterday.”
“Perfect.” Shawn clapped his hands together and rubbed them.
The butter in the pan sizzled behind Boston, and he got busy making breakfast. He flipped bacon slices, turned sausages, and scrambled eggs. Breakfast came together quickly after that. With the meat resting, he was able to use both griddles for the French toast, and all five men had shown up, lured by the scent of maple, cinnamon, and bacon.
Boston served them buffet style down the front of the peninsula, and they ate, laughing and chatting, at the dining room table. Boston scarfed down a couple of pieces of French toast and all the leftover sausage and scrambled eggs before he started cleaning up.
William, the oldest Adams’ son, came to help him. He held out his hand with his fingers practically in a fist. Boston glanced at him and then down to his hand as William said, “Thank you so much for this. It’s meant so much to my dad.”
He had a couple of folded hundred-dollar bills in his hand, and Boston’s first inclination was to refuse them. But Silver Sage allowed him to take tips, and so he simply put a smile on his face and said, “Thank you so much. It’s been a great weekend.”
“Well, it’ll be great if we can get Shawn a deer,” William said. “I don’t think we’ll ever hear the end of it if we don’t.” He rolled his eyes and rejoined his family.
Boston tucked the money away, and when he had the cabin sufficiently cleaned, he started packing up their supplies.
“We’re not going to be coming back here,” he said. “Everyone needs to pack everything out.”
Thankfully, the National Forest Service had a dumpster just a half-mile down the road from this cabin, and it was in the direction of the ridge where they’d be hunting that morning. So Boston could carry out all their trash and wouldn’t have to take it with him back to the lodge.
He didn’t actually hunt on these hunting expeditions, but he was an excellent scout and wildlife tracker, and every single expedition he’d done since joining the staff at Silver Sage had had a successful kill.
They were hunting with bow and arrows this weekend, and activity reigned through the cabin as the men moved around to pack everything they’d brought.
Boston led the way out as usual, saddled his horse first, and got everything in the packs. Then he saddled the other five horses, finishing up the last one just as the Adams clan came out of the front door.
“Do we need to lock it?” William called.
“Just leave it,” Boston said.
Silver Sage paid a mountain cabin services company to come clean the cabin and remake all the beds so that it would be ready for the next excursion.
Boston made sure all the men were in their saddles first, and then he hurled himself into his. He led the way down the road, talking easily with everyone, getting rid of the trash and then leading them into the hills.
He loved the last day of a hunting expedition, especially a successful one. And while they spotted a few more deer during the morning hours, they couldn’t get close enough to aim and shoot.
Boston delivered everyone back to Silver Sage in one piece—happy, whole, and fed—and he passed them off to Ernie and Bill Charger at the excursion counter so that they could get their meat wrapped and their room assignments for that night.
He hurried through brushing down the horses and putting them back in the stable. He took everything home with him, where he would go through the supplies and extra food and put it all away tomorrow after church.
Right now, he just wanted to shower and get over to Cora’s. So he turned on his phone and texted her.Just back to my cabin. I’m going to shower and come over. Be there in maybe thirty minutes?
Sure,she said.I’m here and waiting.
Boston smiled because he hadn’t had a womanwaitingfor him in a long time. He showered and shaved, put on a clean pair of jeans and a red and black plaid short-sleeved shirt, doused himself in cologne, and got behind the wheel of his truck.
Until that moment, he hadn’t felt an ounce of nervousness, but now every cell in his body seemed to jiggle and quake.
He drove down to the intersection that had different roads going off of it like the spokes of a wagon wheel, and he did a near U-turn to go down the next lane where Cora lived in the family row of cabins.
She sat on her front steps, her knees practically drawn to her chin, and when he pulled into her driveway, she stood and tugged down her shorts so that they just barely kissed the tops of her knees.
Boston had never seen a more beautiful woman in his life, and judging by the width of the smile on her face, she sure seemed happy to see him too.
That settled some of his nerves, and he dropped to the ground as a laugh came out of his throat. He hurried around thefront of the truck and down the front sidewalk. “Wow. Don’t you look amazing?”
She giggled and met him at the bottom of the steps, where he swept her into his arms and lifted her a couple of inches off the ground.
“I bet you’d say that to anyone after you’d been hunting for three days with five other men.” She beamed up at him, her dark eyes sparkling like midnight stars.
