I didn’t care. It was absolutely fucking hilarious to watch her drowning in my coat, with the sleeves too long for her, while trying to navigate a ridiculous footpath in ridiculous heels.
“Stop it,” she said, but she was laughing as hard as I was, pausing with her feet buried deep in a puddle with her legs splattered brown. “We’ll both go flying if we don’t get a grip.”
Fuck my life, I felt like me as I watched her being her, right there in that moment. It was magic. Magic and stupid giggles and the wind in our faces.
We were only about halfway up the bank when she slipped a whole load harder and dragged me back a few steps along with her. I managed to keep my balance, and enough steadiness to keep her upright, but it was a losing battle and we both knew it.
“Back down?” I asked, but she was shaking her head as she laughed.
“I’m pretty sure back down is going to be even harder than the way up.”
“I’d carry you if I wasn’t certain I’d go tumbling with the both of us.”
“Can you even begin to imagine how hard we’d go tumbling?” she asked, and she was doubled up at that, pissing herself laughing so hard it was the most contagious thing in the world.
Another few steps and she tried to keep to the side of the track, but it was too steep. She slid back into the depths, but her legs slipped wider and she braced herself for the fall. I made a grab for her waist, and I thought I had her, but then Ted sealed the deal by racing on down.
What a fluffy little prick.
I shouted him to stop but the wagging, barking idiot goofed right on up, skidding close enough that Anna recoiled a step backwards.
Backwards down a particularly squelchy divot in the path.
Backwards down a slurp, and a slip and a tumble that moved in slow motion, her heels finally bailing out of the climb and bailing her legs out with them.
I watched the scene unfold, arms flailing, hands reaching out and closing on air, and down she went, slapping down onto her front with her tits into a slop of a puddle, and it was classic.
So classic that I couldn’t breathe for the laughter, and she was struggling too, laughing so hard she had to roll onto her back, caking herself even further in the brown gloop.
She was hilariously beautiful and her eyes were sparkling with so much fun it would have taken my breath, even if the laughter wasn’t already on the case. I stepped back down to her and reached for her hands and braced myself to pull her to her feet. But it was too much. Too much and too damn stupid for the both of us.
So I went tumbling too.
Chapter Seventeen
Anna
He was on his ass in the mud alongside me, and I felt like such an idiot for even thinking I’d be up to this in stupid heels. But I was glad I was an idiot. I was glad we were there, wallowing in the puddles, because it was hilarious.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d laughed as much as I was laughing there in the country winds with the fresh air filling my lungs. I reached out for him when I was finally breathing steady enough to attempt the rise, but he was still roaring and held me tight. Mud to mud through the coat that was stupidly big and the stupid skirt that was riding up my splattered thighs.
And then the dogs came bounding, just as muddy as we were, leaping all over us and barking loud. I held them just as tight as I was holding Lucas, my hands in their damp fur as they licked my face, and it was perfect.
I gave up on my feet and opted to crawl, and he came with me, on his knees like I was. He took my hand, slopping them joined together in the mud on every shunt forward, and slowly we made our way to the top. He pulled me to my feet when we got onto firmer turf, and then he hugged me tight. I hugged him tight right back and breathed deep and free.
I was free.
“Your shoes are fucked,” he said, laughing fresh while stating the obvious.
“I don’t give a shit,” I said. “It was worth it.”
We walked along the brow of the hill in the most stunning silence, and it was