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We went to sleep under a blanket of stars that night.
Just like old times.
16
Charlie Marsh
Waking up in Austin’s arms deserved a star on the Hollywood walk of fame. It didn’t matter that tourists and locals alike would stop and ask why the hell there was a star about waking up in someone’s arms. They could go off and assume it was an obscure movie they’d missed out on or some new street art trend they weren’t aware of. Besides, there were plenty of other things to question on a short stroll down Hollywood Boulevard.
I just knew that this morning gave me a feeling that needed to be commemorated, remembered, honored.
Fine, I might have been leaning into the dramatics, but fuck, I’d never woken up happier, at least not from what I could remember.
The picturesque morning went on to a picturesque afternoon. The cabin had windows all throughout, so it didn’t matter if we were eating (or hooking up) in the kitchen or if we were lounging (and definitely hooking up) in the living room, we could always look out and see the emerald-green mountain ranges that seemed to encompass us like a massive cocoon.
Which honestly didn’t sound so bad. Getting safely cocooned together with the man of my dreams sounded much better than going back home and trying to figure out who the hell wanted to murder me.
And that just so happened to be the current topic of conversation on our hike. “Gene Halpert,” I said, ducking under a low-hanging branch. “He’s always been weird around me.”
“Isn’t he the high school History teacher?”
I nodded. “Yeah, and he’s also an expert at archery. Wasn’t it you who told me that it’s usually the ones you least expect? Case in point: Gene, the high school assassin.”
Austin laughed and jumped over a fallen log. The trail we had decided on wasn’t the most used, meaning some of the path was either blocked by trees or not very well marked. A wall of red maples and mountain pines surrounded us on either side as the trail rose in elevation up the mountain. Somewhere to our left, we could hear the babble of a pebble-filled river.
“I’ll add him to the list,” Austin said, and I could tell he meant the very bottom of the list.
“Whatever, whatever.” I shook my hands in the air, trying to clear some of that nasty energy. “Let’s put the case on pause for now. I want to enjoy this hike.”
“Yeah, leave the case to me, Char. I’ve already spoken to a contact to Domino. He said he thinks he knows where he can find Hank. He’s going to call me back in a little bit.”
There he goes again, calling me Char.
I smiled. Not because Austin seemed to have everything handled, but because of that damn nickname. It did something to me every time he called me that. It felt like such a shift from when we first bumped into each other at the pet store. I could feel the tension and anger in him then, even though I couldn’t understand where it was all coming from.
There wasn’t any of that today. Sunshine beamed through the canopy and made Austin’s smiles even brighter, shining on him like a personal spotlight. He wore a teeny-tiny pair of gray shorts that reminded me of that damn doll-house chair he had in his office, except these shorts looked so fucking good on him. I found myself trailing behind just to get a peek at that behind, along with those tree-trunk legs of his. He had socks up past his ankles and a clean pair of black hiking shoes, matching the black T-shirt and cap.
Overall, a snack.
Nah, fuck that. Austin Romero wasn’t a snack—he was an entree plus dessert. He was a thousand-dollar prix fixe menu. Austin was an entire buffet stacked with the most mouthwatering foods made by the most decorated Michelin-star chefs.
He deserved a slap on the ass for being so fucking perfect, and that’s exactly what I gave him. “Delicious,” I said when he turned around, grinning at me and winking.
“Is that why you went in for thirds this morning?”
“I just couldn’t get enough,” I said, feeling a spark of electricity at the reminder of my sausage-and-eggs breakfast.
Austin laughed and said, “You were always a morning person.”
“I never changed.” I puffed my chest out proudly.
“Oh, you’ve changed. For the better, but you’ve definitely changed.”
I wasn’t going to argue with that. “Was I really that big of a dick?”
“Massive,” Austin said, sounding like a half-joke mixed with half-truth. “Good thing you’ve got a massive dick to balance it all out.”
“Is that how it works? Two big dicks cancel each other out?”
Austin nodded, chuckling as he effortlessly climbed up a small incline, requiring a handhold on a couple of unsteady rocks.
“Seriously, though,” I said as we reached level ground. “I don’t remember being a dick-ish kid, but maybe that all changed during the years I’m missing.”
