“How’d you sleep?” I asked as soon as she settled in the golf cart next to me.
“Surprisingly well for being in a strange bed.”
“Strange?” I teased. “And here I thought we bought normal furniture.” We slipped into familiar banter, like we’d known each other for years instead of under twenty-four hours.
As if her giggle wasn’t enough to get my attention, she ensured it by offering me a genuine grin, a cotton-candy hue painting her neck. “It really is a comfortable mattress. Whoever picked it out did a fantastic job.”
“We make sure our guests are happy here at Black Bird Resort,” I retorted in a dramatic, over-the-top, cheerful voice one would expect from a manager.
The cart lurched forward slightly as I took my foot off the brake to drive away.
“What about you?” she asked as we made our way down the dirt path. “Did you sleep all right? I know you said that you had to get up early this morning.”
“I hit the snooze button a couple of times, but I managed to get up. Although, I’m pretty sure that had more to do with the time than how well I slept, because I don’t particularly feel tired at the moment.” That could’ve also been because of the adrenaline coursing through me, knowing what I was about to show her. I’d never been more excited to see someone’s reaction to the steeple; I just knew she wouldn’t be disappointed.
At the fork in the path, I veered right, which caught Kenny’s attention. She craned her neck to peer behind us and then settled her gaze back on me. If it hadn’t been for her pinched brow, I would’ve never picked up on her confusion from behind her sunglasses.
“Where are we going? I thought the dock and boats were that way.”
I hadn’t intentionally misled her, but I had to admit that the sudden suspense of the moment excited me a bit. “Yeah, they are, but we’re not going on the resort’s boat. We’re taking mine. I keep it at my dock…at my house. I live a little ways up the mountain.”
Kenny’s brow furrowed even more, causing my excitement to turn to worry.
I slowed the cart until it was at a snail’s pace and looked her way. “I hope that’s all right. I would’ve mentioned it to you last night when we made plans, but honestly, I wasn’t really thinking about the specifics.”
“Oh, you’re fine; I don’t care which boat we take. I just wondered how you live up the mountain, yet your boat is in the water…which is down there.” She pointed off into the distance toward the lake.
“You’ll see.” Rather than explain something she’d understand in a few minutes, I picked up the pace, knowing I didn’t have far to go.
“Did you get all your work done this morning?”
“Yeah, it was just paperwork. Really, I should have my dad take over that side of the business, considering he’s in the office most of the time anyway. It’d be one less thing I would have to deal with.” I gave that suggestion a quick thought and then shook my head. “Well, maybe not. I’d likely end up stressing over his accuracy.”
“Why? Doesn’t he know how to do math, or whatever it is you do?”
Part of me wanted to slow down and enjoy yet another conversation with Kenny. But the biggest part of me wanted to hurry up and get her on the water—not because I still had a day’s worth of work to do, but because we were in a race against time, and I didn’t want to chance missing our moment.
“My grandmother taught me how to do the books, so when she got sick and had to take a step back, she handed that particular task to me. Since then, I’ve created a more organized system to keep track of expenses and whatnot, and honestly, I doubt my dad would understand much of it. He doesn’t tech.”
There went that giggle again, and it made me curse the breeze that swept it away.
“So are you done with work for the day?”
“Not even close. I managed to spare a couple of hours to take you out on the water, but I have a tour at three, followed by dinner shift at The Feeder.”
I slowed down as we rounded a curve in the trail and ducked to avoid being smacked in the face with a wayward branch. The pathway got a little thicker back here, probably because I was the only one who came this way. The only thing ahead was my house, so there was no reason for anyone—other than my dad—to be back here.
“You run the tours, too?” she asked with genuine awe in her lilted tone. She made it sound like driving a boat around a lake and pointing things out to people was an impressive skill.
I rode the brake as I pulled to the side of my cabin just before taking a sharp turn to head down a private trail that ran behind my house. “My dad used to, but now that he takes blood thinners, he’s very sensitive to the sun. Even if he bathes in sunblock, he still tends to burn. Plus, it’s always worse on the water with the reflection and heat.” I came to a slow stop and turned to face her. “But I don’t do every tour; they’re rotated between me and another guy who works here—another Jack of all trades.”
Kenny met me around the front of the cart, childlike giddiness dripping from the corners of her infectious grin. It nearly took my breath away, as well as made me yearn to see her eyes. I itched to swim in the color and dance in the gleam. Except, it didn’t seem like I’d get the chance anytime soon. Even though the trees were denser in this one spot and offered plenty of shade from the midday sun, she didn’t remove her sunglasses.
Instead, she threw her head back, staring up at the tree-covered sky, and hummed.
And it instantly became my favorite sound.
I wished the sight would’ve lasted for hours, but it did not. She righted herself after only a few seconds and then met my stare through her tinted shades. With my heart showing signs of arrhythmia, I led her down the packed-earth trail to the back of the house. As soon as we made it through the trees and into the clearing, her gasp rang out, and it took everything in me not to turn around and bask in the sight of her once again.
The back of the house opened up into a panoramic view of the reservoir. It was high enough on the side of the mountain that I could see more than at water level, but not so high I couldn’t have my own access to the lake. It was also far enough away from the resort’s cabins to have a bit of privacy. It was the perfect location.
I continued to lead Kenny down the steep pathway toward the floating dock. With it being a reservoir, the water level fluctuated on a daily basis, hence the need for something that could adjust automatically. It also meant that with the water at its lowest, as it was right now, the hike to the boat was steep.
My palms itched, as if they had this undying need to hold her hand while we walked to the dock. My feet slowed any time she fell a step behind, as if they could sense her distance and lingered so she could catch up. I had to shake my head to rid the thoughts of not being in control of my own body, the feeling of something greater pulling the strings, forcing us together.
Something I couldn’t explain.
Something I refused to think about.
“This is your house?” Her words floated behind us as we walked.
I knew without seeing her that she had her attention over her shoulder in the direction of my cabin, which meant I had to verbalize my nod. “Yeah, it’s nothing fancy, but then again, I don’t need anything extravagant. It’s just me.”