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Taking the wildflowers from him, I lifted them to my nose, then tucked the little bundle into the front pocket of my bag. “There.”
His smile was slow, and he completely threaded our fingers together and brought my knuckles to his lips. “There.”
His truck bounced over the bumpy terrain as we climbed the nearly invisible path, following the ambiguous tracks of what appeared to have only been a vehicle or two that had passed over it before.
It guided our way along a steep incline up the mountain.
I sat up high in the seat, watching out the windows as I clung to the little bar on the roof and braced the other against the dashboard.
“Nervous, Little Trespasser?” Ezra glanced at me with a grin.
“I wouldn’t be if you’d keep your eyes on the road.” Not that it really could be considered a road.
Ezra chuckled. “Seems I have better things to look at.”
That heated gaze raked over me.
I snapped in his face. “Eyes on the road, buddy. The last thing I want is for us to go toppling over a cliff.”
He returned his attention back out the windshield. Comfort slid into his voice. “You don’t need to be nervous, Savannah. This is the kids’ favorite place to go when we do a picnic, and you know there’s not a chance in hell that I’d risk putting them in danger.”
Everything softened, and I loosened the death grip I had on the handle.
Of course, he wouldn’t. I knew he wouldn’t with me, either.
Trust.
The threat of it trembled around me.
I’d always thought it a curse. A weakness. My gaze traced Ezra’s face. Over the stubble that lined his jaw and the creases that marked the corners of his eyes.
I realized I did—I trusted him.
And for the first time in my life, it didn’t feel like a burden but a gift.
“Where are the kids staying?” I murmured, overcome with the realization of what I felt right then.
“With my mom.”
“I miss them…we should have brought them with us.”
He reached over and squeezed my knee. “Next time, Savannah. Today, I want you all to myself.”
Next time.
The path shifted to the right and weaved through a copse of trees, their branches covering us in a glittering ceiling before we emerged from the thicket into a clearing.
Ezra came to a stop at the edge of it.
My breath hitched, and I slowly undid my buckle and snapped open my door, no words to be found as I slipped out and took in my surroundings.
Awestruck.
Twilight had barely begun its approach, the very first wisps of pinks strewn in the endless expanse of blue sky as the sun slowly began to dip into the west.
It sat a blazing orb of orange and red.
The woods rose behind us. Dense and deep and climbing the mountain that from this vantage completely disappeared into the heavens above. A canopy that covered and protected.
But what squeezed my lungs was the waterfall to the left. Its source came from somewhere up the mountain, and here, it crashed over the edge of a craggy, jutted cliff, the rocks sharp and spiked, before it dove into a pool below. The pounding of it filled my ears, close to deafening though I swore I could hear a million whispers of the woods at the same time.
The mist that filled the air was close to cold where it brushed across my flesh, and it stirred the oxygen into a swath of water and pine and the earth.
Beyond it, the view tumbled out over the valley, and I could see Time River in the distance.
I shivered, and Ezra eased up behind me and wrapped me in his arms. “Breathtaking, isn’t it?”
“It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
His mouth was at my ear when he mumbled, “And I only share it with the most beautiful things in my life.”
If the view hadn’t stolen my breath, Ezra would have. He would have held it in his hand the same way as he had somehow come to hold my heart.
His arms tightened and his muscles flexed like he felt the need to explain. “I’ve only brought my children here, Savannah. It’s our special place. And now I’ve brought you.”
“How do you make me feel that way? Special?”
“Because you are.”
I’d never been that to anyone.
“And you asked me to bring my camera…” I chanced, already knowing.
“Because I heard what was in your voice when you told me about it the other night, and I thought you must miss it, and I doubt there is any other place on Earth that could inspire art more than here.”
The camera bag was still strapped to my shoulder, and I unwound myself from his hold and dug my camera out. Releasing the lens cap, I turned to face him, lifted it, and snapped.
Because this place might be gorgeous, but Ezra Patterson was the beauty. The beauty that hadn’t existed before he came into my life.
