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Nadia peers over her shoulder at me, huffing and wiping her sweaty forehead with the back of her mittened hand. “I don’t feel very sexy right now.”
Here I am, getting hot and bothered, watching my wife’s fine ass trekking up a path of dead foliage and icy birch trees toward the top of Honey Hill’s most popular trail in the boots I picked up for her yesterday. And I’ve never seen a woman’s ass look better in waterproof hiking pants.
“Let me preface this by saying that I’m not completely averse to the great outdoors, but I can admit that hiking trails, frostbite, and the occasional ax-wielding mountain man have never really been my jam.” She grabs my giant jug of workout mix from me and takes a swig. Unlike my whiny brothers, Nadia doesn’t even flinch at the taste. “Give me a courtroom and some stilettos though, and I’ll walk circles around some bitter and angry plaintiff any day.”
“Not that we have too many mountains in this part of the region, but for the record, I’m totally ready to wrestle a mountain lion for you.” I flex a bicep.
She gets close to me with her intoxicating buttercream scent, hooking her fingers around my bicep. “My real-life hero. Everything is better with you. And I do mean everything.” She smiles softly, but I can’t help but notice how her eyes don’t light up like they usually do.
“Is there something on your mind?” I question.
“I, um, I…Let’s talk about it when we get home.”
“Okay.”
I instantly start to feel nervous. But Nadia smiles again and brings her lips to my jaw for a kiss. Her kiss turns my brain to mush—like always. Now, I just want to push her up against the side of a tree and put my tongue in her mouth.
But my mother is here. So all the pushing-up-against-a-tree business will have to wait until some other time.
After the family get-together at Grammy’s house, Mom got a wee bit jealous that she didn’t get to spend time with Nadia. She was feeling left out. Spending time with my gorgeous wife is a hot commodity among my family right now, which makes me insanely proud. And I can tell that Nadia is honored to be folded into my big family so easily.
Anyway, in order to keep my mother happy, I promptly organized a little meet-up for us. The only downside? Her boyfriend, Troy, is here, too.
To put it bluntly, Troy is weird.
I’d mostly just like to enjoy the woods and the clean, mountain air while Nadia and my mother get to know each other. But this guy won’t stop running his mouth. Troy’s incessant rambling and gaslighting is growing annoying rather quickly.
The more he talks, the weirder he gets. He keeps complimenting my mother, which should be great, but every time he does, there’s a backdoor comment about Nadia thrown in, too.
I’m not trying to be a total cockblocker, but he’s definitely not what I would have expected for a kick ass woman like my mom.
But today isn’t about me, so I paste on a smile and nod at the pleasantries while we hike.
And hike and hike.
Mom and Nadia chat as we trek up the path. My mother seems quite interested in Nadia's job and her volunteering. Mom even asks how she can get involved in some of the local charities that my wife is a part of. I couldn’t be more proud to show my amazing woman off.
We finally reach the clearing at the top of the incline and Nadia looks down at the landscape in amazement. The lush trees, the dark sluggish water and the view of Sin Valley across the river. “Wow—this barely looked like a hill from the bottom in the trail’s parking lot. But now that we’re up at the top, it definitely feels like a mountain.”
Mom comes up beside her, huffing. “I’ll tell you—Ifeellike I climbed a mountain.” The women laugh together.
“Tell me about it. Me, hiking?Me?” Nadia chuckles. “My sister would fall out of her chair from shock if she could see me now.”
When we were planning this outing, we decided to bring snacks and have a cozy, little picnic. But now that we’re up here in the clearing, it’s way too cold to stick around for too long.
I’m in the best shape of my life. And while I’m just fine to keep moving, everyone around me is huffing and puffing and looking like they might pass out. I can tell that they definitely need a short break.
Nadia drops down on a fallen log while Troy unzips the jacket of his purple track suit. Yes, he’s wearing a bright purple track suit. Purple. He neatly lays it on a big rock for Mom to sit on. That should be sweet, I guess. But the way he does everything is so obnoxiously over the top. Like he’s just looking for attention. It’s quite strange behavior for a full-grown man.
When Nadia reaches a hand out to me, I stop grimacing at my mother’s boyfriend for long enough to sit beside my woman. She burrows her head against my shoulder. “Wrap those warm, mountain-lion-wrestling arms around me, Mr. Westbrook,” she whispers to me.
But even when she does, something still doesn’t seem right. What’s going on with her? I’ve been picking up on something in her body language since the start of our hike.
“Look at us!” Troy says to me, sweeping his arm out in a massively grand gesture. “We snatched up the most beautiful women in town. The smartest, too.” He waggles his brows.
“Uh-huh,” I say noncommittally.
“Now, if only they’d spend a little more time in the kitchen. Am I right?” He starts cackling and doing an annoying knee-slapping thing.
