Page 42 of The Weekend Crashers
Maggie actually has no idea. She tries to think of outdoorsy women. Jane Goodall? She’s a conservationist. Does that count? Bindi Irwin? She’s more of a zoologist. An image comes to mind of knee-high Wellies and a pack of corgis. A hike in the Scottish highlands...
“We’re Team Queen Elizabeth,” she announces.
Barclay shakes his head no. “That’s missing the point, sweetheart. The theme is outdoors. Wilderness.”
“I know. Queen Elizabeth was a huge outdoor person—hunting, fishing, you name it. I bet she could have out-bushcrafted every one of us here. Including you, Barclay.”
He seems about to say something, then reconsiders. “Not so sure about your logic, but as an admitted Anglophile, I’m willing to go with it. So, Team Queen Elizabeth, you have an hour and a half left.” He pulls something from his bag, something copper and small, and hands it to Cole. It’s an old-fashioned compass.
“What did I tell you earlier?” Barclay asks him.
“Never walk into the woods without a tool for getting out.”
“Exactly! Ladies, I don’t want you picking up any bad habits from these two. You cannot—and it’s impossible to stress this enough—you cannot rely on your phone in an emergency scenario.” He looks at Maggie and she nods as if she knows exactly what he’s talking about.
She looks at Aidan and he mouths “Sorry.” She smiles. Barclay makes his way over to a pile of branches, hands on his hips.
“This is your insulation material?”
“That’s it,” Cole says.
“Not enough.” Barclay shakes his head. “Cole, you and your friend there—go gather more vines. These brittle little twigs won’t do squat.”
Piper looks at her, shrugs, then walks off alongside Cole without another glance in her direction.
Okay then.
Aidan smiles at her and says, “So. I guess it’s just the two of us.”
It’s merely a statement of the obvious, but it gives her a shiver of excitement.
“I’m sure they’ll be back soon,” she says, though she’s sure of no such thing.
Adian, dressed in a weathered flannel shirt and sturdy cargo pants, exudes a sort of charisma that makes it clear he’s perfectly at ease in the wilderness. He picks up thick branches and heavy rocks like they’re nearly weightless. He seems like someone who is used to manual labor, to getting his hands dirty. She can’t help but imagine what he’d be like in bed.
Stop it.
“So, what do you do when you’re not hunting and gathering?” she says. She’s starting to feel overheated. She’s wearing a wool turtleneck sweater under her bomber jacket. Lifting and balancing branches like some giant Jenga game was the most rigorous workout she’s had in a long time. Sweating and breathing heavily, she takes a time-out to shed her jacket. She folds it and leaves it on the ground, feeling self-conscious that Aidan is watching her.
“Are you asking me what I do for a living?” he says.
The way he asks shames her a little, but why should she feel embarrassed? It’s a perfectly normal question in her day-to-day life. Maybe in that moment, in that setting, it wastoo personal. Or like she’s looking for criteria by which to evaluate him.
“I own a chain of food markets here in Bucks County. Expanding soon to other areas. Cole’s in charge of the expansion.”
“Oh, that’s so nice that you work together.” God, she’d love working with Piper. It would be so much fun.
“How ’bout you?” he asks.
She tells him about the clothing store. “I started there when Piper was a baby. I never intended it to be my career. It just turned out that way.”
“I can relate. When I started working at the local supermarket stocking shelves I was maybe twelve years old. Did it for pocket money. Never imagined I’d go into the business for real one day. Life, right?” After a minute, he adds, “Taking off for this long weekend was a bigger deal than it should have been. I probably need to manage my time better.”
“You don’t get out much?” she says.
“I get out about as much as I want. But according to my friends, that’s not enough.”
She nods. “I hear you on that. I hate to give in to the knitters stereotype, but I’m perfectly happy to be curled up with a ball of yarn or a good book any night of the week. Although, my boss set me up on a blind date two nights ago. I think she was trying to show me what I’m missing, but it had the opposite effect.”
