Page 97 of The False Flat

As we walked in and joined the line at the reception desk, Grant looped his arm around my waist and kissed my helmet hair. I smiled at him, unable to resist running my hand over his chest. We were a couple, a real couple, moving at our own pace.

My heart flipped in my rib cage.

William grabbed menus from the counter and passed them out.

I loved this place. This half-suburban, half-rural route with its sloping, tree-lined landscapes and small eateries that were famous for homemade cinnamon rolls or cycling mountain goats possessed the southern charm I was growing to love.

“And what are we stuffing our faces with today?” a young, heavily bearded man asked as we approached the front of the line.

William pointed to two items on the menu. “I’m going to kick a TreeHugger in the face with a Flying Pig.”

The beard on the other side of the counter nodded slowly. “I’m writing that down just as you said it.”

Deanna ordered next; then The Beard looked at Grant and me. He turned the menu toward me and pointed to the Kale Yeah pizza.

“Uhh, Kale No.”

“But you loved the dip at the farmers market.”

“But this is pizza.”

He rolled his eyes, then pointed to the Goat BLAT. Bingo. He knew me better than I liked. Or maybe I liked how well he knew me. Or maybe I was still confused about how I wanted him to feel about me. No, I wanted him to know me. This was ridiculous. I needed to stop and order my sandwich.

The Beard wrote down our orders, but before we left the counter, Grant pointed to the felt letter board sitting beside the cash register. “Ladies.”

The letters spelled out the message for the day: JUST IN CASE NO ONE TOLD YOU TODAY: HELLO. GOOD MORNING. I BELIEVE IN YOU. NICE BUTT.

“You should pay special attention to the last line,” Grant whispered in my ear.

I resisted the urge to grab his butt, and we each took one of the red stools around one of the large industrial spool tables that sat in the middle of the room.

Before long, a woman in a cow costume brought us our food.

“Once we get to the campsite,” Grant started, nibbling some kale, “we’ll pitch the tent and have enough time to explore the trails on foot before sundown.”

“You’ll feel like exploring on foot after this?” Concern crept into Deanna’s voice.

“Well, we may want to stick around the camp, because we’re in for a treat.”

“What kind of treat?” I asked. “Did you bury fermented vegetables there too?”

He exhaled a laugh. “I’ve told you we’re staying at the Franklin State Forest campgrounds, right? Well, when I was researching the area, I came across a mountain biking group that planned to have their semiannual gathering this weekend. I messaged them to see if we could join in, and as luck would have it”—he shimmied his shoulders—“they’re a pretty friendly folk. Locals. They know the ropes and the terrain. Tonight, they’ll be grilling steaks and telling ghost stories around a fire.”

“That sounds like fun!” Deanna said with enthusiasm. Probably because being around a fire meant sitting down.

“I’ve got to hand it to you, Grant,” William said; “this trip hasn’t disappointed.”

Grant nodded, his mustache splaying in delight.

William was right: we all needed this.

After we’d set up camp and met the mountain biking locals, Grant grabbed my hand and pulled me away from everyone else. We walked slowly, listening to the sounds of scurrying animals in the brush and the soft call of birds overhead until we’d made it to the base of an unadorned deck overlooking rolling hills that reached into the heavens, touched the clouds, and then dipped back down to the earth and dove into the water like an eagle morphing into a mermaid.

I wondered how many had stood on this very spot—suspended over a fiery tapestry of nature—and proposed. I thought of Erin and Beau and wondered if that would ever be me, us. It seemed impossible. Then I reminded myself not to compare my relationship with Grant to anyone else’s.

A large bird caught my eye, soaring across my field of vision, a paintbrush on canvas. “Do you ever wish you could fly?”

“All the time,” he replied.