into three trails and easily confuses everyone.
We used to get lost out here almost every year as kids, but I’ve taken it so many times now that I know it just by looking at the trees. “What do you and my brother do for fun?” I ask, breaking the silence.
She looks up from her feet for the first time in minutes. “I don’t know.”
“Okay…” I say on a laugh. “You don’t know, or you don’t want to tell me?”
She’s silent for a few minutes, as if thinking. “I’m starting with the easy questions here. Is it really that hard to think of one thing you guys do for fun?”
“What if it is?” she asks quietly. “Your brother is busy a lot and our schedules don’t give us much time for fun. We barely get to spend more than three hours a day together.”
I stop walking, not liking her answer. “You don’t need time to have fun, Nat. I could plan a fun activity for us that lasts only thirty minutes if I wanted to. You take what time you do have and use it to make your partner happy. That’s part of being in a relationship. My brother really needs to take lessons from me in the relationship department, because he’s clearly lacking there.”
“Okay.” She stops walking when I start, so I stop to look back at her. “What kind of activities would you plan for us if we were a real couple? I suppose I should know these as your “girlfriend”.”
“Axe throwing. I do that sometimes when I’m in California to let off some steam. Doesn’t take long. I bet if you imagined my face as the target, you’d be pretty good.”
“All right.” She laughs and begins walking again. “I have wanted to try that out for a while now. What else?”
“Darts. Again, my face could be the target, which I’m sure it was the other night.” I smirk when her lips curve up into an amused smile. I’m trying to loosen her up and it seems to be working. “You’re imagining it again, aren’t you?”
She ducks under a branch as I hold it up for her. “No, but I find it funny that you think I hate you that much. I don’t. You just drive me crazy most of the time.” She squeezes my left cheek and laughs. “Besides, we both know that your face is too pretty to be a target. I’m sure millions of women would hunt me down and hurt me if I ever messed it up. What else?”
I should have a smartass remark over her finally admitting that she finds me attractive, but instead, all I can think of is the most inappropriate activity of them all. “I’d take you for a ride on my motorcycle and find a nice, quiet spot to take care of your body. That’s my favorite one.” I turn my baseball cap backward, before turning around and looking straight ahead as I walk.
She doesn’t say anything more, and I wonder if maybe, just maybe, I’ve taken things too far with the last one.
It’s not like I was telling her what I’d like to do to her. She asked which activities I’d plan if we were a couple and that’s most definitely something I’d plan for my woman.
It’s quiet between us for a while, both of us enjoying the peace and quiet of the trail, until Natalie walks over and takes a seat on a fallen tree.
I take this as my opportunity for a smoke break and pull out another cigarette to help calm my nerves. I can feel Natalie watching me. “When did you learn to play the guitar?”
I smile at the memory. “When I was eight. My uncle used to be in a band, and I wanted to be cool like him.” I snuff out the rest of my cigarette and take a seat next to her. “Don’t get me wrong, the band was horrible. I might’ve been young, but I remember that much. That didn’t matter to me, though. I thought it was so cool to watch him play, and I wanted people to look at me and feel the same awe that I felt while watching him. I begged him for weeks to teach me how to play before he finally gave in.”
When I look over at Natalie, she’s watching me with a smile. “I can picture a miniature you, holding a guitar way too big for your size, while drowning in that leather jacket of