Page 40 of The Marrying Kind
Did she just say yurt?
“This thing is giving meThe Shiningvibes,” I said with a little hitch in my voice.
Austen threw an arm around me as Pam pulled open the door. “Yeah, but they only used this vehicle when they were escaping in the end, remember?”
“Not sure that’s helping,” I muttered as I climbed up beside him in the back seat of the beastly vehicle.
When Pam started the engine, it was quieter than I’d imagined. Pretty soon, she was steering us up a hill so steep, it felt like I was lying back in a reclining chair. Austen gripped my hand as we passed by endless snow-covered trees.
Finally, we broke through the thick woods to a clearing. I spotted a small grouping of yurts jutting out from the mountainside, each with a pleasant little stack of smoke coming from their chimney pipe.
“Here we are,” Pam said as she cut the engine. “You’re in that yurt on the far end, and I’ll be in the middle one if you need anything.”
Austen thanked her, and we hopped down into the fluffy snow. It took me a second to realize that the sun was setting, casting a beautiful purple and pink coloring in the smattering of clouds.
“Okay, this is pretty bucket-list worthy,” I said, drawing in a breath at the sight.
Austen just chuckled to himself as he held the flap to the yurt open for me.
“Wow, this is surprising inside.”
There was a potbelly stove radiating a pleasant warmth, and a big cozy bed in the center. A table on the edge of the tent held a bottle of champagne and chocolate-covered strawberries.
“Hey, look, the honeymoon vibes extend up here too,” I joked.
Austen came up behind me, planting his hands over my lower belly. “I hope it’s not too much, but I wanted tonight to be special. If I only get you for a limited time, I definitely have to make each moment count.”
I spun around in his arms. “You are an amazing man, Austen. I’m really glad I met you.”
He gave me that sad little smile again. Dang, it hurt seeing him sad.
Turned out, in the duffel bag, he had packed us each a pair of warm pajamas and a toothbrush. Just the essentials—I liked his kind of adventure.
“Let’s get some champagne and then head outside and take in that view,” Austen said. He pressed a kiss to my nose that made my heart melt a degree or two, then he popped the cork on the bubbly and poured us two glasses.
With a big wool blanket in hand, we stepped onto the deck of the yurt, and I snuggled down into Austen’s lap in one of the pair of Adirondack chairs. If ever a lap felt like home, it was this one, on a steep mountainside as the sun dipped down and bubbles tickled my tongue.
“You comfortable?” Austen asked softly in my ear, his warm breath ghosting over the spot.
“This is pretty awesome. You are sweet for bringing me here. I really appreciate it.”
“Just wait,” he said in a sure tone.
As the sun dipped and darkness took over, the sky shifted from the pink-orange glow to a bright blue twilight, and finally to black, but with a hazy green light that slowly took shape until it hit me all at once.
“Is that ...?” I gasped, sitting up from the cozy place I had claimed against Austen’s broad chest.
“Northern lights. You ever see them?”
“No. And they’re number sixteen on my bucket list.”
“Seriously?”
I looked back to see his smile.Damn, that smile made me feel complete in a way that scared me.
I planted a kiss on his lips in reply and then felt him squeeze my hip a moment later.
“Look, it’s changing.”
