The scent of strawberries overwhelmed my senses with familiarity, but now there was an overlay of sunblock and the outdoors. Sucking my bottom lip into my mouth was the only way to keep my wandering lips and needy tongue off the only path they wanted to trailblaze: Autumn’s neck. I could still remember the taste, even ten years later. I longed to learn more about her earthly sweetness, which had my head spinning.
Get it together. You only have a few more days.
“I’ll take that.” She grabbed the tongs right out of my daydreaming hands. I hadn’t turned my steak like I’d meant to, but her hand brushed over mine and the meat no longer existed. Our eyes locked, and the tongs slipped from her fingers, both of us aggressively diving for the fallen utensil before it hit the ground. The tongs clattered, and in the madness, Autumn’s elbow banged hard against the saucepan where our gravy was beginning to thicken.
“Shit!” She cried out at the contact, and the pan was in slow motion.
I tried to recover, grabbing the side of the pan with gazelle-like reflexes, just missing the handle. “Fuck, that’s hot!” I yanked my hand back and the pot tipped, spilling the concoction across my shirt.
I pulled the material away with a startled noise, almost embarrassed by the sound that came out of me. Quickly I removed the sauce-covered shirt before it could burn me. I regained my composure and found Autumn’s eyes were on my stomach the moment I looked up. Her gaze felt hotter than the sauce ever could.
“Like what you see?” I smirked, my eyebrows tilted toward her. Daring her. Autumn’s cheeks flamed pink. I cocked my “I know you still want me” smile at her.
She huffed and grabbed my hand, careful not to touch the burn. “Don’t be stupid. We’re going to get this looked at.”
Azalea had rushed over during the commotion, and was cleaning the gravy from the floor. She waved us off.
“I’m fine.” I was still grinning, glad to know I wasn’t the only one affected by this thing between us. “Unless this is a ploy to get me alone?” I teased.
But Autumn remained undeterred. Keeping hold of my hand, she led me out of the cooking class toward the front office. “Be warned, Jamie, I know every inch of these woods. It wouldn’t be difficult to hide your body.” The menacing threat forced a laugh from me, and a twinkling annoyance in her.
Leaves crunched under our feet as we walked side by side down the path. At some point she’d let go of my hand and I already missed it.
“So you’ve learned about my job, but I know nothing about yours,” I said. The pain in my hand was already fading, and I was grateful for the slow pace we’d adopted so that we could continue our conversation.
“What do you want to know?”
“Are you lumberjacking a hundred percent of the time, or…”
She chuckled. “Lumberjacking’s part of it. I also manage all the activities, promote, recruit staff, and help with the building of the camp,” she offered, much more articulate than she was in our first conversation about her role here.
“That sounds like a big job.”
Autumn shrugged. “It’s not quite surgery or saving lives, but in its way, I think it helps.”
Being here two days was already helping me sleep better. But I didn’t think she was looking for a compliment in the moment, and I didn’t want her to shut down. Instead, I focused on the breeze, which felt wonderful on my skin, up until I brushed her hand, wanting to reach out and grab it.
“Don’t put yourself down. You don’t have to be a doctor to have a worthwhile career.”
She let the compliment roll off her shoulders. “Well, if you want to see me in action, I’m in charge of craft time later today, it’s my last activity. And if you’d like, some of my friends and I will be having dinner after. You should come.”
“That sounds great. I’ll be there for both.”
We walked toward the front office. “You know, before we see to this burn”—she nodded to my injured hand—“maybe we should find you a shirt.”
I saw the thing clutched into a ball in her hand and wondered if I’d get that back.
“You’d want to hide all this?” I laughed and gestured toward myself.
She tried to hold back her smile, trying even harder not to look at my bare chest now that we were alone. “You really need to spend some time with Jack. You two would be perfect for each other.”
Her smile was wide and teasing, but just like that, the spell was broken. Shit, I’d almost forgotten about the man she’d been laughing with during yoga just a few hours ago. Jack, the luckiest man in the world.
