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“Maybe that’s for the best; they’re absolutely heart wrenching.” I glance back down to my feet, making sure not to trip on a root. “I wish I could do more or give more money to the shelters, but since I can’t, I go twice a week for a couple hours.”
“That’s awfully kind of you.”
I smile at the compliment then focus on the trail ahead of me. “Have you ever thought about getting a dog?” I glance around at the trees, the open air. “This place would be a dog’s heaven.”
“No, it’s never crossed my mind.”
“Well, maybe it should cross your mind.” I step over a root sticking out of the ground then cross over some mud. “You have the means to give a dog a really great life.”
“Do you have a dog?” he asks.
“I wish,” I reply. “There’s this Alaskan shepherd, Draco, at the shelter right now that I would make mine in a second if I could.”
“Then why don’t you?”
I glance back at him and gesture. “He needs this kind of life. I can’t give him that.” I start walking again. “Which is why he has trouble finding a home. L.A. is not the place for him, sadly. The couple that adopted him had him flown in. It’s a shame, really.”
“What will happen to him?”
I don’t even want to think about it. “Hopefully someone really active comes in and falls in love with him. He needs to run. He needs to go to the dog park every day. And hopefully, he finds that.” I draw in a deep breath then move along. “Back to you, though. If you did get a dog, I have the perfect name.”
“Oh, really,” he says dryly. “What shall I name this dog that I don’t want?”
“Muskoka.”
His gaze become curious, head cocks. “Why Muskoka?”
“So whenever you’re home in L.A., you’ll always have a little Muskoka with you.”
He stops, staring at me. Intently. Deeply. And it’s in that moment, a rock decides to embarrass me. As I begin to fall, he catches me. “Easy now,” he murmurs.
I shiver at the power of his arms, the sheer strength in his voice. “Stupid rock. Thanks,” I manage, righting myself.
He winks. “The rocks are known to be deadly in these parts.”
His joke breaks the intensity that’d been there between us. Regardless, I keep my eyes on the ground now, feeling the tingle of my skin where he’d touched.
Silence stays between us when we climb another group of boulders, obviously moving up to a higher elevation. And soon, where the forest thins, we step out onto a large rock that gives an open view of the lake.
“Wow,” I breathe, taking in the lake, the endless trees, the untouched beauty.
His voice is soft behind me. “There’s no better view of this lake than right here.” I glance over my shoulder, and he gestures at the flat rock.
Once we sit, I stare out at a canoe off in the distance, and my mind circles back to that emotion I picked up in his voice earlier, when we canoed. “Did your mother bring you here as a child?” I ask gently, hoping not to upset him with painful memories.
He leans back on his hands, legs stretched out in front of him. “What made you ask that?”
“Just a guess.” I shrug.
“It’s a good one,” he says, glancing out at the treetops. “My grandmother was Canadian, so my mother spent her summers here in Muskoka. When I came along, the tradition continued.”
“You spent every summer here?”
He nods and smiles. “Up until I became too cool to spend so much time with my grandparents and mom.”
“Ah, the good ole teenage years.” A hawk soars overhead, and I shade my eyes with my hand watching as the bird swoops down, obviously catching its breakfast. “How often do you come up here now? I mean, it’s a four-hour flight and a good two-and-a-half-hour drive from the airport.”
“Sadly, not as much as I’d like.” He turns that powerful stare on me again. “I try and come up a few weeks out of the summer. A couple more weeks both in the spring and the fall.”
