“Now there’s a shocker. No necking, Turner. I know you, and you wouldn’t want to stop at necking. But you’re not going any further until you’ve been cleared by your doctor.”
“Spoilsport.” He leaned over and kissed her, then climbed out of the Range Rover.
She wrestled the picnic basket away from him and fretted every minute of the hike up to the point, watching him like a hawk. The man was pushing himself too hard during this recovery. He simply didn’t use good sense. This picnic he’d insisted on was a prime example. By the time the picnic bench came into view, she was a nervous wreck.
There’s not a limit on nervous. We can both be nervous.
She suspected he’d brought her up here to ask her to marry him.
The confounded man had never said another word about the subject since leaving the hospital. Sex, yes. He’d been complaining about the lack of that for a week now. But he hadn’t said one word about a wedding.
He sat on top of the picnic bench and Savannah searched his face for signs of pain before taking a seat beside him. “You are such a worrywart,” he told her.
“Yeah, well, I’ve earned the right,” she grumbled. “I lived through three days of hell not knowing if you were going to live at all, Zach Turner.”
He laced his fingers with hers and brought her hand up and kissed it. “We’re both recovering, though, aren’t we?”
She sighed. “Yes. Are you hungry? Do you want your sandwich?”
“Sit with me awhile first, Savannah. Let’s just be here, together, for a little while.”
“That sounds lovely.”
And it was. She didn’t know how long they sat without talking, simply staring out at the breathtaking vista beyond. Ten minutes? Twenty? However long, it was soothing. A comforting, healing stretch of time.
Eventually Zach said, “I bought a plane ticket this morning.”
A plane ticket? Not tickets, plural? Like for a honeymoon? “Oh? Where are you going?”
“To Atlanta. With you and TJ.”
“What? No, you’re not. We leave next week. You can’t make that trip. We’ve already talked about this ad nauseam. Why, the trip home from Gunnison almost put you back in the hospital. No. Absolutely not. I won’t have it.”
“I went to the clinic yesterday. Rose cleared me for the trip.”
“But—”
“I’ll be fine. It’s a plane ride and a car ride. I’ll be sitting on my ass most of the time. I don’t want you making that trip without me. It’d be worse for my health to stay at home. We’d do a role-reversal thing and I’d worry myself sick, and then what would you do? Besides, I want to see TJ in his new digs and meet his dad.”
Savannah knew that what really worried him was the possibility that Gary would be an ass. “Zach, I’ve talked to Gary. It’s … better. Not great, but okay. A little awkward, but that’s understandable. We have some bridges to build.”
“Which is why I want to be there.”
Truth be told, Savannah wanted him there, too. “Rose really said you’d be okay?”
“She really did.”
Savannah blew out a long breath. “Okay, I admit it. I’ll be very glad to have you with me. Seeing Gary again … and I’m so worried for TJ. What if my brother screws up again? TJ will be devastated.”
“Well, yeah. On the other hand, if that happens this time around, we’ll be there for him and he’ll know it. But I have a feeling it’s going to go well, honey. I talked to the authorities who oversee that treatment program. It’s had amazing success. Your brother has worked hard to get where he is. Despite his faults, he wants to be a father to his son. He and TJ deserve this chance.”
“I know. He’s so excited.” She watched a bird swoop from the top of a golden aspen to alight on the green branch of a fir. “I’m going to miss him.”
“I know. I will, too. He’s a good kid. So, how about that sandwich? What kind did you bring us?”
“My grandmother’s pimento cheese.” She opened her basket and pulled out their lunch. “Fruit slices. Carrot sticks.”
He waited, and when she said nothing more, he actually whined a little and reached for the basket. “No chips? No peach cobbler?”
Savannah laughed and slapped his hand, then tossed him a bag of corn chips. “You have to eat the carrot sticks before you get cobbler.”
“Nag.”
They ate their lunch in companionable silence. Once he’d polished off his meal,