I kissed the corner of her mouth.
“Please tell me—”
I kissed the other side.
“We do not need—”
Then the other.
“To invite Jack into our bedroom so you can hear him—”
I stopped her right there, kissing her straight on the mouth. She melted against me, and I forgot what we were talking about. Every moment with Autumn was better than the one before.
“You putting that image in my head makes me feel a little bit violated,” I teased.
She kissed my jaw. “Leave it on a comment card.”
It was unspoken that we spend as much time together as possible during this days-long casual hookup of ours. She told me last night that my body would need some decent stretching if I was going to bring my A-game today, but it was probably because she knew how important my routine was to me, and we’d already skipped yoga yesterday.
It was easier to leave the shower building than I’d thought it would be. No one seemed to be up for a shower at five in the morning.
She did surprisingly well during yoga—only falling twice, which was an improvement.
When we arrived for early morning bird-watching, I nearly lost it. Jack had a comical bucket hat on his head, binoculars around his neck, and a neckerchief tied under his beige polo shirt. He looked like a Boy Scout who was also pushing thirty and could grace the cover of a men’s health magazine. Autumn dramatically rolled her eyes, which pleased him, clearly eager to play the part. He probably needed the distraction after everything with Gia.
“He acts like this is a costume, but he loves bird-watching day,” she whispered. “He’s such a nerd.”
“I heard that,” Jack spoke under his breath without looking at her before turning to the crowd. “Hello, friends, and welcome to bird-watching.” He was practically bouncing in his hiking boots. I tried to remember the last time I was that excited about anything. “Do we have any fellow bird-watching enthusiasts?”
A couple of people raised their hands, and he looked thrilled.
“That’s wonderful. There are binoculars in the bin over there.” He pointed. “Make sure to grab a pair because much of this can’t be seen by the naked eye. They don’t usually just fly up to us unless we’re really lucky. I feel good about today, though. Let’s go.”
I tried to ignore the fact that the wordnakedonly made me think of Autumn with water cascading down her body. She seemed perfectly normal next to me. I guessed only one of us was a horndog.
“We’ve got a bit of a hike to get to one of my favorite viewpoints,” Jack started. “It looks like everyone took a Birds of the Pacific Northwest guide. If you see something, you can askme or look through your book and venture a guess at what you’re seeing.”
The group took off en masse, and I bent down to tie my shoe. “You go ahead of me,” I told her. “I’ll catch up.”
“If you think I’m going to let you use those binoculars to watch my ass, you’ve got another thing coming.” She was too smart for my own good.
“Don’t ruin this for me.”
Autumn playfully bumped her hip into me, nearly knocking me over.
It took about twenty minutes for us to reach the point Jack was looking for, and he stood on the solitary bench telling us to spread out. It was a majestic overlook, a perfect view of trees, the mountain, and the sky. I reveled in the feeling of being a speck in this natural landscape. There was nothing like this in the city.
We all spread out across the vista, with Jack being the farthest away from us.
She pulled something out of her pocket and showed me, whispering, “He just got this thing. He was so excited.”
“Then why do you have it?” I already knew the answer.
“I stole it.”
I looked at the bird call, a wooden cylinder with a brass tip that twisted. “Autumn Gardner. Are you secretly a dick?”
“It’s no secret,” she deadpanned. That wit always got me. Trying to be as covert as possible, she put the binoculars to her eyes, speaking out of the corner of her mouth. “Stop looking at me. Use those binoculars.”