Page 60 of Blame It on the Bikini
They parked near the entrance to the garden and followed the short loop trail to see the chollas, which were called "teddy bear cactus" for their deceptively fuzzy appearance. But each spiny creature was its own unique creation and glowed like it was lit by the desert sun. It was quiet here, with only the whisper of wind through the cactus spines and the occasional call of a desert bird. It made every sound more significant: the crunch of gravel under their feet, the click of her camera.
As she crouched to frame a shot of the densest patch of chollas with the distant mountains behind them, she noticed a young girl nearby, maybe ten, struggling with a small digital camera while her mother chased a toddler nearby. The girl kept taking the same shot of a particularly large cholla over and over, frowning at the results.
"Try moving over there, closer to that smaller one," she suggested, pointing to a spot where a smaller cactus created better foreground interest. "Sometimes getting closer to something in front makes the whole picture in the back more interesting."
The girl brightened and moved to the suggested spot. When she looked at her camera screen this time, her face lit up. "That's so much better! Thank you!"
"You're welcome."
The girl beamed and ran off to show her mother.
"That was nice of you," Grayson commented.
"I just wanted her to get the best shot," she said with a shrug. "There's nothing better than that moment when you finally capture what you were trying to see."
"You do that a lot—help people without thinking much about it."
His words surprised her. "Do I?"
"You see things differently. Not just through the lens—in life. You put yourself forward, you reach out, you don't hang back, waiting for someone else to jump in." He gave her a smile. "You're as unique as these cacti."
"But not as prickly."
"Sometimes," he said with a laugh.
She grinned back at him. "You were being so complimentary a second ago… Let's keep walking. I think the ridge is only about a mile from here, and I don't want to get back in the car yet."
"Sounds good to me."
As the trail took them into the hills of the park, the air cooled, and a faint breeze picked up as the sun began to sink toward the tall peaks to the west. It was almost five now. She couldn't believe how much time they'd spent in the park, but she still wasn't ready to leave. When they reached the ridge, they found themselves looking out over the beautiful Coachella Valley surrounded by the rocky mountain landscape.
"I thought the sunset over the ocean would be impossible to beat, but this view has its own beauty," she murmured as Grayson's shoulder brushed against hers.
"Don't you want to take a photo?" he asked.
She shook her head. "I have enough. I want to take a minute to just be in the picture instead of behind the camera." As she glanced at him, his expression grew serious. And there was a look in his eyes that she couldn't quite decipher. "What are you thinking?"
"That when I kissed you on the beach the other night, I didn't think I could have picked a better setting." He reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, his thumb brushing her cheek as he slid it down her face. "But it feels like we should see how this setting compares."
He was so handsome in the late afternoon light, his thick dark hair falling over his forehead, his cheeks warmed by the sun, his lips ever so inviting… She wanted to kiss him more than she wanted to take her next breath, and when he didn't make a move, she did.
Cupping his face with her hands, she pressed her body against his as she kissed his lips, and as he wrapped his arms around her, she sank deeper into his embrace. She felt so connected to him. Every taste, every touch, was better than the last. When they finally broke apart, she looked up at him and said, "Well? How did it compare?"
"The scorecard doesn't go that high," he murmured, his hands lingering at her waist. "I've never met anyone like you, Lexie."
"Same," she said, but she couldn't help wishing that the reason they'd met was not because he wanted to sell her home. And just like that, the dark cloud was back. "We should go. We still have to walk back to the car."
He nodded, but there was reluctance in his gaze. "All right, but I'm going to hang on to this," he said, taking her hand in his. "Just in case the path gets rocky."
She had a feeling their path was always going to be rocky, and there was going to come a time when he would let go, but that time was not now.
They arrived at the car thirty minutes later and as they drove out of the park and down the highway, she was glad that the light was fading. She might need the shadows to hide from herself, from her growing feelings for the man beside her, a man she'd probably never see again in two weeks. But she wasn't going to think about that now.
Twenty minutes later, as they were nearing the turnoff for the highway that would lead them through the mountains and back to Ocean Shores, traffic came to a crashing halt with lights, fire engines, and police cars blocking the exit.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Looks like some kind of bad accident," he muttered. "This isn't good."
