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“How long is this date going to be, exactly?” I tease him.
He glances at me as we make our way to the register. “How long will you let me have you?”
“Well, I don’t have to work tomorrow, so technically you can have me until the day after tomorrow,” I say playfully.
“Good,” he says, and starts to unload the basket onto the conveyor belt, keeping his other hand in mine.
5
THORNE
“You have family in Peach Ridge?” I ask Sunny as I drive us up to the bluff. The road is lit by moonlight, and we haven’t seen any other cars since we left the outskirts of town. I’m hoping it’s a sign that we’ll have the bluff to ourselves once we get up there.
“My parents live here,” Sunny answers. “But all of my extended family is in Montana. Do you have family here?”
“No,” I tell her. “My folks passed away a while back, and the rest of my family is spread out all over the place.”
“Gosh. I’m sorry to hear that.”
“It’s okay.” I shrug. “I mean, you know. It is what it is.”
Sunny is quiet for a moment. Then she asks, “How did you get into firefighting?”
I think back to my younger years, when I was struggling to find my place in the world. “I have a cousin who’s in the fire service,” I tell her. “I went to visit him, just to get out of town for a while,and I got a glimpse of what being a firefighter was like. I came back home finally knowing what I was going to do with my life.”
“I love that. I bet your cousin was proud of his influence, huh?”
“Yeah,” I say, thinking of how excited Matt was when I told him about my plans. “He sure was.”
We’ve reached the bluff. As I hoped, there isn’t anyone else around. I park my truck and reach into the back seat for the groceries and an old blanket I keep back there.
Outside, under the moonlight, I shake out the blanket and lay it on the ground. Sunny sits down on it, tucks her curvy legs beneath her, and runs her hands over her hair to smooth any wayward strands into place. Fuck, she looks so sweet. I don’t know why I’m the lucky one who gets to spend this time with her, but I know I’m not going to waste it.
“Well, this is a treat,” Sunny says as we unpack the food. “To be honest, I’d rather have a picnic like this than sit in a fancy restaurant, anyway.”
“Not a fan of fine dining?” I ask.
“It’s just not really me,” she says.
I nod. “It’s not really my speed, either. But I wanted to take you somewhere nice.”
She smiles. “This, right here, is nice. I mean, look at that view.” She looks out toward the twinkling lights of our small town. “I wish I could live up here and see that every day.”
“Yeah. Same.” I look around us, studying the trees. “We could put a house right there.”
“Oh, now we’re moving in together, huh?” she says with amusement.
“We can get married first,” I say, shifting closer to her. “Then build the house. How many bedrooms do you want?”
Her eyes are full of playful delight. “You’ve got quite the fantasy going there, Thorne.”
“Answer my question.”
“Hmm.” She presses a fingertip to her lips as she thinks. “Well, I’d like to have at least three kids, so that means four bedrooms at minimum. What do you think?”
“Let’s go with six.”
“That’s quite the house,” she muses. “And quite the brood of kids.”
