silently as she slid her hand up to his hard shoulder. “I mean, Mikey, wow. Where did all this come from? You used to be a butterball.”
“You forget about the growth spurt.”
“Oh yeah.” Sara laughed, letting her hand drop back to his forearm. “When you shot up those eight hundred inches that one year? Yeah, you got gangly really quickly.”
He tucked her hand under his arm and started walking again. “I’m active these days. I’m working outside a lot, and I keep in shape for my expeditions. I need to make sure I can actually survive.”
“So, you wander around and just wait until you forget which way you came from, or something?”
“I have someone blindfold me, then drop me in an undisclosed location. I have to hump it out of there and find help as if I was actually in a survival situation.”
“What if you don’t find help?”
“I have a GPS device in the sole of my shoe. After four days, if I don’t make contact, they activate the device and come get me.”
“And what if you lose your shoe? Or can’t make four days?”
“Then I fail.”
It took a moment for what he meant to sink in. “Wow. Dangerous.”
“Survival.”
“I take it you’ve never died in one of your expeditions…”
He chuckled. “Nope.”
They emerged from the tree line onto a ledge with a small patch of wild grass. Fifteen feet from the nearest tree, the sky brushed the dirt, the mountain dropping away into a steep cliff high above the valley floor.
“Oh, whoa.” Sara pulled back, strangely worried that the whole ledge would fall away if she put any pressure on it. “Did I just stumble into my eventual murder scene? You’re probably going to toss me over the ledge…”
“Yeah, right. You’d probably drag me with you. It looks scary in the dark, but I’m here all the time. We won’t go to the edge, scaredy-cat.”
Sara took one step out. “What, do you take girls up here to make out?”
A cricket started its song off to the right. A glance told her what she suspected. “Oh really? Scabby little Mikey has turned into a lady-killer, huh? Well, you better hope I don’t meet your girlfriends or I’ll give them an earful!”
He chuckled, lowering her to the ground and then settling beside her. “Not so much. But I didn’t enter into any priesthood, either. I always treat a woman with respect, and this place is a great way to… initiate the beginnings of… a deeper respect.”
“Get her to drop her pants. Just say it! Get her to give it up. I’m not eleven anymore; you can be honest.”
“The scenery helps, yeah. But I like this place. It’s quiet. Peaceful.”
She nodded, looking out at the night. She let her head fall back, letting her gaze trace the blanket of stars above. “It’s breathtaking. All of this. Montana. It blows my mind. It’s everything I always hoped it would be.”
“Wait until winter. It’ll freeze your mind.”
“I won’t be hanging around for winter. I leave in late September.”
He leaned toward her. “Then what?”
She shrugged, fresh tears springing. She swiped at her face and set her jaw for a moment, willing herself to be strong. “I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far ahead.”
“I heard about Phil from my mom. Sorry. Must be hard.”
Words like that were as helpful as an iron belt on a swimmer. She blinked a few times to clear her vision. “How did you hear?”
“My mom. Everyone was shocked. I think that’s why my mom mentioned it to me.”
Sara shrugged, trying to dislodge the emotion. This wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have. It’d just make her cry. “I didn’t really recognize you. You’re all tall and broad and everything. No trace of that baby fat anymore.”
“It wasn’t baby fat—I was a pudgy little kid.” He nudged her shoulder with a chuckle, then settled back onto his elbow, looking out over the ledge peacefully. “I had another growth spurt after I left you. Kind of a late bloomer. I was skinny until I went into the Special Forces. They whipped me up pretty good.”
“I must look exactly the same. Plus a few dozen wrinkles.”
“I thought you’d have more laugh lines, actually. You used to laugh all the time. But I guess the breakup…”
“No, I stopped laughing long before then. Stuff just stopped being funny somewhere along the way. Not sure why.”
“Are you okay?” he asked so softly she almost didn’t hear him.
Her body bowed, slumping next to him. Her lower lip trembled as