Page 9 of The Marrying Kind
“Is this not a good time?” she asked with a blush.
“I don’t know a lot about mountain climbing, but it’s hard enough just to drive down the mountain’s roads this time of year, let alone hike it.”
She shrugged it off. “Well, there’s plenty of other things on my list that I can do here too.”
Our gazes moved toward the window when my automated porch light flicked on. Because of the snow, the whole outside world looked like a shaken snow globe at the moment.
“Is there something,” she started to ask, but the sight of a brown bear casually walking across my deck stopped her in her tracks.
“That’s Lewis. He’s mostly harmless.”
“Mostly?” She let out a cynical little laugh.
I shrugged, my gaze trained on the little pulse point in her neck that thrummed away.
Lewis stopped right then and looked into the window. With the glare of the light, he probably couldn’t see much, but it was admittedly creepy all the same.
“As long as you keep your distance and don’t have any food on you, he’ll leave you alone.”
Ella looked spooked, the color draining a little from her cheeks. Maybe she hadn’t really thought through much of the mountain-climbing plan at all. I mean, you’d definitely need to be able to defend against bears on the trail.
When Lewis dropped off the other side of the deck into the night, Ella turned back to me and let out a breath.
“Maybe I’ll just start small, like building a snowman.”
“Don’t you get snow sometimes where you’re from?” I asked. There were random cold snaps that dropped down from the mountains and blew clear across the Southwest from time to time.
“I did, but I never bothered to make the most of it. That’s pretty much what this trip is about. I’m afraid I forgot to live my life so far.”
“Get busy living or get busy dying,” I said in my best impression of Morgan Freeman.
She smiled, a little sparkle in her eye as she nodded. “Shawshank. That was my dad’s favorite movie.”
Was?I caught the past tense but thought I’d better not pry, because her face had twisted up shortly after she said it.
“It’s a classic.”
Ella stretched her legs out and sank further down into the cushions.
“There’s a lot of bucket-list-worthy things to do around here, if you need more ideas,” I said helpfully.
My intentions were mostly pure, but I wouldn’t mind spending a little more time with Ella, if I was being honest. Especially if it meant getting to ogle her like this, looking cozy on my couch, her arms tucked under her full breasts.
Shit. I needed to stop this train of thought before it became too obvious what I was thinking about.
“I’m always up for suggestions,” she said with a little yawn.
Of course, my mind ignored the yawn and latched onto a few ideas for filthy suggestions.
“Well, if you’re still here in the morning, I’ll fill you in on some of them. In the meantime, why don’t I set you up in my bed. You’re half asleep already, by the looks of it.”
“I can take the couch,” she said, shaking her head.
“The bed is way better. I just changed the sheets this morning. Come on.” I stood up and held out my hand.
As she placed her palm in mine and our skin connected, I felt a little jolt in my chest that I did my best to ignore.
I grabbed her bag then and set off for the stairs up to the loft, and she followed me. She looked around with a little more energy, probably checking out whether I was some sort of creeper. I set her bag down and pulled a pair of sweats from my dresser drawer.
