It didn't take long for their order to be ready. Hannah brought it out. Greeting them all, she asked Julian and Rob, "You gonna be here for the turkey parade?"
"I thought it was the Fall Harvest Festival," Julian said.
"It's held on turkey day, so it's all the same whatever you call it. You guys gonna volunteer or slack off and sponge off the work of others?" she asked.
Julian didn't like either choice. "I'll see what I can do." He didn't answer for Rob, but it was nice to think that he would be around for that and they could go together to the festival.
"Are we going to a fun place?" Danny asked once they were on the road.
Since it was a longer drive, Rob was in the back with him and Lenny. "We're going to a waterfall that's little, like you two guys," Rob told Danny.
That was the idea anyway, but even when they arrived at the turnoff, they saw no sign of the place where they were going. They drove down a dirt path under canopies shimmering with yellowed leaves. Julian knew to head for an outcropping of rock, but he could only glimpse it through the trees.
When the dirt road ended, it was time to go the rest of the way on foot.
"Are we lost?" Danny asked as they walked among the trees and dry leaves shushed under their feet.
"Lenny isn't lost," Rob pointed out. "Look at him sniffing all around."
"You know where you goin', Lenny?" Danny asked him, but the little doggie only snuffled and strained to go forward and explore all the forest smells.
There wasn't much to the waterfall. The water came down from an outcropping of dark gray rock. It was only as much water as would come from a faucet but plenty to fill up a pool underneath it, and it made for a pretty sight. The iron gray stone surrounded the blue-green pool while rust colored leaves undulated on its surface.
"It's not big but it is a nice place," Rob said as he took some pictures of it.
Julian was dying to take pictures of Rob, standing there and looking even more beautiful than the backdrop of the waterfall and the rocky hillside behind it. As he took pictures of Danny and Lenny, Julian only got Rob in one shot, mostly by accident.
Danny had a different perspective on the Little Waterfall. "It's not little," he said, looking up at it.
Rob chuckled. "I bet it's the biggest waterfall he's ever seen, so it's not little to him."
Lenny liked it too. Drinking from the pool eagerly, he then shook himself out and went back to sniffing everything in sight. Danny held the leash and didn't mind following him around wherever he wanted to go.
"Only as far as those two rocks, OK?" Julian warned him, pointing out a pair of rocks that stuck out of the ground. He sighed as he turned to Rob. "I swear Lenny has sniffed every tree and every single leaf on the way here."
"That's why he's digging under now." Rob nodded toward Lenny poking his head under the carpet of dry leaves.
"Let's just hope he doesn't find anything interesting," Julian said.
"I'm pretty sure dogs never find anything good," Rob said to Julian and then grinned at his worried expression.
The blanket was spread out on a small, sun drenched clearing, and their sandwiches were served. Julian got roasted vegetables with balsamic for himself and a maple glazed bacon sandwich for Rob.
"You can order for me any time," Rob told him after having a bite.
It wasn't easy to get Danny to sit still for long. Hardly done eating his simple chicken sandwich, he wanted to follow Lenny and see what he might find. That left the picnic blankets for just Rob and Julian to share. With Danny chasing after Lenny, the two of them might as well have been having a picnic alone.
Julian did his best not to think that way. He needed to remind himself that Rob was probably bored. But looking at him, Julian noticed that he smiled as he stretched out, his long legs sticking out off the blanket. Resting on his elbows, Rob stared up at the clear, autumn sky above them while the sun shone down on him.
He was so gorgeous that Julian thought his heart might stop. That was probably as good a warning as any to not stare at him. To keep his eyes off him, Julian took in their picnic spot.
He couldn't believe how pretty it was here with the fallen leaves in brown, red and every shade of gold, and the green-blue water of the pool. But his eyes always returned to Rob. He felt so lucky to be there with him. Leaning back on the blanket, the two of them were surrounded by the rich colors of autumn and the sound of water cascading softly. It was like a dream.
"Do you want to talk about your call with Thayer?" Rob asked, breaking him out of the dream.
Julian groaned. He didn't really want to rehash that unpleasantness. "Let's just say that I'm glad to be far away from him," Julian told him, but even the little he said made Rob grit his teeth.
"Kills me that you have to put up with that asshole as your boss," Rob said.
