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They both turned to the little horse, who had walked to the edge of the stone outcropping and was standing there staring at them, as if he was ready to be relieved of his burdens.
“I’ll take care of him and get the tent set up,” Jubal offered. “If you want to wash up and get ready for bed, you can.”
“I’ll gather some firewood, too,” she told him, heading for the trees and the sound of water.
Sure enough, the water was sparkling, and it smelled clean. She stripped down quickly and washed up.
When she was finished, she decided not to put her dirty clothes back on, after all. They weren’t exactly going to run into other people here on top of a mountain on Center property.
She slipped her feet into her shoes and wandered the trees for a few minutes, using her dirty clothing as a makeshift bag for the driest branches she could find.
Jubal would still probably need help with the tent when she got back, but if they had what they needed for a fire, the set-up would go faster.
After a few minutes, soft music began to waft through the trees.
It was a peaceful, warm sound - strings without drums or vocals. She found herself following it out into the grass again.
The first thing she noticed was an enormous tent set up by the big stone. A roaring fire was going inside a circle of stones between the tent and the rest of the meadow.
Jubal sat between the tent and the fire, playing an acoustic guitar.
As she drew closer, she could hear that he was singing softly. His rasp was sweet and low compared to his speaking voice.
She set the wood beside the tent and then lowered herself onto the patchwork quilt beside him to listen.
The music washed over her, sending a shiver down her spine with its beauty. He had a true gift.
His eyes met hers and he winked at her.
She blushed and gazed down at his strong fingers stroking the strings, coaxing such beautiful sounds from them.
The words of the song described ascending a mountain. She smiled when she heard the familiar phrase they had quoted to each other this morning as the chorus to the song.
When the last verse and chorus were sung, the final notes hung in the air for a moment before the silence of the mountain fell over them again.
“That was so beautiful,” she told him softly. “I can see why you’re passionate about music. You should never, ever give it up.”
He looked at her for a moment and then let his head tilt back as he let out a true belly laugh.
She smiled at him, glad he was happy.
“You really don’t know,” he said. “And you know what? I’m glad.”
“Why?” she asked.
It was starting to occur to her that maybe he really did have a career as a musician.
“Because you’ve been really nice to me,” he said simply. “Everyone is nice to Jubal Ash. But you weren’t being nice to Jubal Ash. You were being nice to plain old Jubal from East Cityside. Not a lot of people are nice to Jubal from East Cityside.”
“Jubal from East Cityside is a really nice guy,” she told him sincerely. “It’s a pleasure to hang out with him.”
He smiled at her until his eyes crinkled.
Then his eyes began to rove over her bare breasts.
“So, you got the whole campsite set up,” she said, her mind already in the tent with him as naked as she was.
“I did,” he said. “I might not know much about hiking, but I definitely pitched a ton of tents in Nana’s backyard.”
