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“City boys,” Matt said. “The only moose they’ve seen have been on the internet.”
“There’s no substitution for the real thing,” Dakota said, pointing out a heron flying low over the water a few yards away. “Nature is best experienced live and in person.”
Which got him thinking about Leah. Again.
She couldn’t have meant she only stayed indoors. Could she? No one in Vermont stayed indoors. Not with so much to enjoy outdoors. God, most of the time Dakota spent the entire day outside. On many occasions, he’d spent the night out there too. Was her comment meant only to shut him down? And if so, why had she wanted to shut him down? What was wrong with him?
Nothing.He had to be patient as Heidi had advised. Maybe with Leah being from New York City, she needed time to adjust to the landscape change. She’d eventually want to explore. He hoped she’d want to explore with him. He was a little concerned about how much he hoped for that. Typically, Dakota didn’t get hung up on a woman. He dated. He enjoyed a woman’s company. He wasn’t looking for anything serious or profoundly meaningful though. He’d grown up watching how much in love his parents were, but he didn’t expect to find that kind of relationship himself. He loved Mother Nature and that had been enough.
Except he couldn’t forget how blue Leah’s eyes were, how she smelled faintly of lavender when the breeze had blown her scent his way, how those crazy shoes she’d worn hinted at something fun he wanted to get to know better. Luke had said she was awesome and Dakota wanted to find out why.
But a week had gone by with no call or email from her. He’d even asked Krista to let him pick up Luke on Wednesday from school so he’d have an opportunity to maybe bump into Leah.
“She has pick-up duty on Tuesdays,” Luke had informed him after he buckled himself into the back seat of Dakota’s truck. “On Wednesdays, she runs an after-school club so she still has kids in her room.”
“Who?”
“Dakota. C’mon. I’m a kid, not an idiot. Miss Greenstead. You like her, don’t you?”
“Well, sure, but I wasn’t—”
Luke had waved a hand from the back seat. “Yeah, yeah. So why’d you pick me up then?”
“What, I can’t pick up my little buddy from school just because I want to?” Dakota had put a hand to his chest as if he were truly wounded by the boy’s question. He should have known, however, that Luke would see right through him. The kid was like his mother, sharp and… nosey.
“If you take me for ice cream, I won’t tell Miss Greenstead that you can’t stop thinking about her.” Luke had giggled when Dakota dropped his mouth open.
“Why, you little…” Dakota had started up his truck. “Fine. Ice cream and our secret stays safe.”
“For now.” Luke had laughed as Dakota shook a fist at him and drove to Scoopers two streets over from Maplehaven Elementary. He’d shut the kid up with a double chocolate fudge sundae, but he kept thinking perhaps he could use Luke’s help in getting Leah’s interest.
No. The day I need a nine-year-old’s help is the day I call it quits.He was slicker than this. He’d get Leah’s attention on his own. Somehow.
Dakota guided the Jacksons along the banks of Brenton Lake and soon they arrived at the ziplining area. He gave them some instructions, and Sherri’s banshee yell echoed through the woods as she went first on the zipline.
“Is she okay?” Dakota asked. Sometimes the height and speed were more than people had expected.
Matt nodded. “She loves this stuff. She’s been skydiving and bungee jumping. This trip was actually her idea.”
“Score.”
“I know.” Matt smiled at his wife throwing devil horns in the air as she whizzed down the line. “We actually met in the crowd at a grunge rock festival. She was headbanging as if her life depended on it, and I was pulled to her like a magnet. Sherri’s fearless and reminds the rest of us to be too.”
Dakota admired the respect and love Matt had for his wife. Tim and Mark seemed as if they were thrilled to be on vacation with their parents too, an odd situation for a couple of teenage boys. This family was doing something right.
His own parents had done a great deal right as well. Dakota had grown up in a home most kids would have envied, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to replicate such a family. Was he even capable of it?
And why the hell were his thoughts on that today anyway? God, he was all over the map since meeting Leah. He had to get back to his normally carefree existence. He couldn’t let a woman screw things up.
When everyone was at the other end of the zipline—and pumped over the ride—Dakota led the Jacksons on a hike back toward the canoes. They had a short picnic lunch on the shore of the lake then rowed back to Birch Peak Adventures.
“That was awesome!” Tim high-fived Dakota. “You get to do this every day?”
“Yup. Not a bad career choice, huh?”
“Not at all,” Sherri said. “I wish I had thought of it.”
“But then who would put out all the fires back home?” Mark slid his arm around his mother’s shoulders. “Mom is a firefighter.”
