to my place to have hot, raunchy sex.” Damn the bad luck. “There is nothing for you to be ‘ready’ for other than maybe to catch a trout.”
“Fishing? You’re taking me fishing?”
“Do you have something against fishing?”
After a moment’s hesitation, she said, “I don’t know. I’ve never been fishing before.”
He gaped at her. “Now, that’s just sad. We will definitely take care of that this afternoon. I’m taking you up to this place I know on Murphy Mountain. It’s a beautiful picnic spot, and the fishing is great. You can give it a try, and if you don’t like it, we can hike over to Heartache Falls or just sit and talk.”
“Fishing sounds fun. I do like to hike, too.”
Zach followed the path of her gaze and noted she wore sneakers. “You might want to bring along some boots, just in case. Want help with the food?”
“Sure. The basket is on my kitchen table. Let me get my boots and Inny’s leash and we’re ready to go.”
Zach’s dog, Ace, gave a happy yip when Savannah put Inny in the backseat with him. The two dogs had played together twice before at the dog park and had become great friends.
They stopped by Cam Murphy’s sporting goods store and bought a fishing license for her. Zach kept the conversation general and light as he took the scenic back road up the mountain and she slowly relaxed. Like gentling a horse, he thought.
When he turned off the road and onto a rutted trail, she cut him a glance. “You sure you know where you’re going?”
“Trust me.” He flashed a wide grin and added, “It is rough through here. You might want to grab the hold strap.”
She held on to it for dear life, her brow furrowed in concern until the moment the path curved and the Jeep burst onto the meadow. “Oh,” she breathed, a smile of pleasure brightening her face. “How lovely. The view is absolutely breathtaking.”
“Best view of Sinner’s Prayer Pass around. Cam would like to build a house up here, but Sarah says it’s not practical with them both having businesses in town.”
“He owns this land?”
“Yep. He owns all of Murphy Mountain except for the section he sold to Jack’s charitable foundation for the camp they’re building.”
“Cat mentioned something about it, but I haven’t heard the details. It’s for troubled kids?”
“Children whose lives have been touched by tragedy. They had hoped to open in June, but licensing red tape held them up. I think they’re set now for some time in August. They’re going to have a couple of test run sessions for local kids first.”
He drove to the center of the meadow and stopped the Jeep beside the creek. “Here’s our lunch spot. So, what would you like to do first? Eat? Hike? Fish?”
“You said we can hike to Heartache Falls from here?”
“Yes. Takes about half an hour.”
“Is it too difficult for the dogs?”
“No, but we’ll need to keep them on their leads. If we run across wildlife, it’s better that we keep control.”
In the process of lacing up a hiking boot, Savannah glanced up warily. “Wildlife? Are we talking mountain lions and bears?”
“It’s possible, but chipmunks are much more likely. I’ve seen how Inny guards her backyard against the evil chipmunk interlopers.”
“Yes, she is the ruler of her domain.”
Zach kept a loaded pack in his Jeep for hikes, so he grabbed it and Ace’s lead, and once Savannah was ready, they headed into the sun-dappled forest. To Zach’s ears, a heavily wooded mountain had its own unique sound, a muted sense of life that, though quiet, was never still. A forest’s city street was the crash of a falling pinecone onto a pile of brittle windswept leaves, the chatter of birds above, and the bubble of a brook almost always out of sight. Fir trees dominated the landscape on this part of the mountain and perfumed the air with a scent Zach always associated with Christmas. He said as much to Savannah.
“I’m still traumatized by the year my parents decided we needed an artificial tree instead of a real one,” he added. “I thought there was just something wrong about dragging your Christmas tree out of the attic instead of traipsing to the Boy Scouts’ tree lot to pick out the perfect one. That only lasted a year, though. Dad and I whined about it enough that the next year, Mom compromised. Dad and I got our real tree, but when it came time to take it down