A Simple Wish About love - Karice Bolton Page 0,23
and waved.
“I guess that’s our cue.” Erika laughed, feeling oddly lighter.
It was funny. Slade mentioned feeling lighter since he arrived in Silver Ridge, and now she felt like a giant burden had started to lift.
Slade was about to open the door when Drew tapped on the window and asked, “Why so serious?”
Erika chuckled. “He’d feel like such a jerk if we revealed what we were just talking about.”
Slade laughed. “Then I won’t do that to the poor guy.”
Drew opened the door for Slade. “Ready to climb these trails? We’ll take it easy on ya.”
“I’m no slouch,” Slade joked, rubbing his belly.
“I don’t know why he’s so obsessed with his stomach,” Erika teased. “But I’m starting to wonder if he thinks he’s the Buddha.”
Drew reached out and tapped Slade’s belly, which made Erika chuckle.
“We’ll see if he brings me luck.” Drew winked at Erika, and Slade shook his head.
Slade rubbed his belly again and chuckled. “Do you treat all your guests this well?”
Erika loved the deep tone of Slade’s laugh. Maybe that was why she loved making him happy. It was more selfish than anything. She just wanted to hear his sexy voice.
“We try to go above and beyond at the Silver Ridge Resort.” Drew pretended to salute, and Erika rolled her eyes.
“I don’t think we’ve ever had a guest with a stomach as flat as yours,” Erika pointed out. “That takes great care and lots of work.”
“Nah.” Slade smirked. “I was born this way.”
Drew grabbed their backpacks out of the back and handed one to Slade.
“Enough chitchat,” she teased. “We’ve got salmonberries to see and daisies to pick.”
Drew glowered as he looped his backpack over his shoulders and grunted. “Yes, ma’am. I might need to start doing whatever Slade does for a workout because this bag I packed this morning is heavy.”
Erika chuckled as she watched the two men, who both towered over her by at least six inches, start up the trail moaning and groaning about the incline.
“It’s almost like this is the first hike you two have been on.”
“It’s just really early,” Drew explained.
“Why? Did you have a late night?” Erika asked.
“I might have.” Drew shrugged and glanced over his shoulder.
“You’re so bad. I thought you were trying to settle down.”
“I have needs,” Drew explained.
Slade slapped Drew’s back and shook his head. “Those needs will lead to bad places. Trust me. I know.”
Erika chuckled. “Yes, you might wind up being catfished and hiring Slade’s firm to clean up your messy online profile.”
Drew stopped hiking and turned around. “That’s a thing?”
“Which part?” Erika asked.
“Hiring a company to fix social media stuff.”
Slade nodded, his thumbs looped under the straps of the backpack. “It’s a big thing. We get tons of requests every single day. We can hardly keep up.”
Erika chuckled. “He calls himself the fixer.”
Drew furrowed his brows. “You’ve been watching one too many mafia movies.”
“Is it that bad to say?” Slade asked. “Because I thought it was pretty clever.”
“Remember how I said I’d help you with dating?”
Slade grinned. “How could I forget?”
“Well, don’t tell any prospective dates that you’re the fixer.”
“Noted.”
They started up the trail again, and Erika listened to the tweets of the songbirds and the rippling of the stream not too far away, but what she really loved hearing was Slade whistling.
It was one of her favorite songs, and she had to laugh because it was so old and leftover from her childhood.
“Wow.” Drew turned around, grinning. “Rainbow in the Dark.”
Slade laughed. “I’m a metalhead.”
“A man after my own heart. I could get lost in eighties rock.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “In fact, I could see you at the gym working on your abs and hollering out to this song.”
Drew started cracking up. “I could see him doing that too.”
“That’s it. You’ve learned my secret.” Slade smiled, and Erika knew she would miss him once he was gone.
Chapter Nine
First of all, Slade had never met a woman who loved Rainbow in the Dark by Dio, and more to the point, most women never even recognized the song.
But when his brother, Lucas, and he were in grade school, they chose to lip-synch to that song, and they killed it. All the girls wanted them after that performance. His school career was forever molded by that one fateful concert. He and his brother were kings of the school.
He smiled and walked off the plane with his carry-on. Silver Ridge had been good to him, but he was back to reality.
Slade was in Colorado, and the woman who