“Yes, please.”
The air was thinner here, crisp and sharp, smelling of pine and cold stone.We joined the trickle of tourists heading up the path, the crowd thinning as the lake came into view.
I stopped dead.If the highway had been breathtaking, then Webster needed a new word for this.
The turquoise water stretched out like liquid glass, cradled in the arms of jagged peaks frosted in snow.Even in May, the mountains still wore their winter jackets.For a second, the chatter of other visitors, and the scrape of gravel under footwear faded.Never in my whole life had I seen anything of this magnitude.Stunning wasn’t even the right word.Perhaps there wasn’t even the correct expression for what lay stretched before us.No wonder it was called the Jewel of the Rockies.
“Beautiful, huh?”Tristan said softly.
I glanced at him, except he wasn’t looking at the lake.He was watching me, steady, like he was memorizing the moment.The soft, almost reverent look in his eyes caught me and for one wild second I felt like returning the smile would betray someone so I looked away first, because of course I did.
I forced a scoff.“It’s...fine.You know.Pretty enough.”
“Liar.”His grin widened.“Your mouth says fine, but your eyes say Disney princess on her first day outside the castle.”
I elbowed him, but my cheeks were warm, and I hated that he noticed.
We wandered closer, taking the path around a cluster of rich trees that edged the lake.Groups of people, most chattering away in languages I didn’t understand, jockeyed for position, phones and cameras lifted high.
Tristan grabbed my coffee, setting it on the stone pathway, and pulled his phone from his pocket and turned it toward us.
“Souvenir selfie.”
“Oh, no.Absolutely not.”I dismissed the idea with a strong wave of my hand.“Mr.Moose, yes, of course, but I don’t need to be in any.”
“Spoken like a true mom.Come on.You’ll regret it if we don’t.”
An uncontainable laugh burst out.“I’ll regret it if we do.My selfie face looks like I swallowed a lemon.”
“Perfect.I love lemons.”He held the phone high.“Ready?One, two—”
The inhaled fragrance of the nearby pine trees tickled the inside of my nose and before I could stop myself, I sneezed unexpectedly.The picture caught the top of his hair and a blurred image of my ear.
“That’s hilarious, but since we can’t tell who’s in it...”He flipped it back to camera mode.“Let’s try again.This is history in the making.Two old friends reunited.”
“It’s humiliation in the making,” I whispered since I hadn’t even applied mascara that morning.I was as plain as I could possibly be, like a typical workday.No muss, no fuss.
We tried again.And again.Either his arm was too short, my hair caught the breeze, I lost the grip on Mr.Moose, and one tragic angle had me squinting like I was in pain.But the outtakes were hilarious.With each flip I started laughing, really laughing; the kind that bubbled up and refused to be tamped down.
Careful.This is how it starts; the laughter, the ease, the slow slide into wanting more than you should.You have a life waiting at home.Two kids who didn’t ask for complicated.
“Excuse me,” a woman’s voice interrupted.A mom in a bright parka stood nearby, her husband wrangling two squirming kids.“Would you mind taking one for us?”
“Of course.”Tristan was already moving, her phone in hand.He crouched down and coaxed the kids to smile.
“Would you like some out of the ordinary photos?”I asked the lady.
With a quick tilt of her head to her husband, she agreed.
“Okay.Here’s what I’m thinking.You all line up there.Mom, Dad in the middle, with a child on each end.All face the lake.”I turned to Tristan as they got into position.“Okay, you’re up.Take the pics.”
He snapped a handful of pictures like he’d done this a thousand times.
“What about you two turning to look at each other?”I gestured to the woman, having more fun directing the pictures than I should’ve.
They were a willing family and humoured me with each suggestion I pulled from a memory book of photos someone had taken with me and my kids, when they were a little younger than these kids were.Sadly, no romantic lead was beside me in those stills, but I had my kids, looks of total happiness, and that was enough.
Beside me, Tristan kept clicking away.
