Pause

She blinks as she steps out of forest shadow into full blazing sunlight, a meadow opening at her feet rampant with crimson fireweed, lavender lupine, and delicate yellow glacier lilies nodding at the edge of a melting snow patch. A stream meanders from under the snow, braiding over the lush, soggy grass—a rainbow carpet shimmering under the incandescent alpine-blue sky.

“Ah!” The intensity of light pierces her heart, breaks it open to gratefulness. Tears sting her eyes.

“Hey.” A soft voice behind her. “You okay?”

She didn’t hear Damon stepping closer on the moist dirt of the trail. She ducks her head, brushes at her eyes, and nods.

He squeezes her shoulder briefly. “Sometimes it’s hard to take, this beauty, eh?” His voice has taken on the slow native cadences, so different from his pace in town. “Almost to the overlook. We can have our lunch there. Take your time.”

He moves around her, up the trail, not pushing her to respond. Again she’s taken by surprise by him. She takes a deep breath, breathing in the shimmering light and color, the pure cleansing air. She smiles, sending out an incoherent Thank you—to what or whom she isn’t sure. Her feet are light on the path as she moves on, higher, deeper, into overarching blue.

Damon’s waiting on the granite knob of the Goat Mountain overlook, shirtless and sprawled out on his back, eyes closed, smiling. Lindsey is smiling, too, as she rounds the last switchback and crosses a lingering snowbank in the alpine meadow. Somehow she’s been released into the joy of the day. She steps forward into a nearly three-sixty panorama of jagged snowy peaks cutting a razor-sharp border into the ultraviolet sky.

“Wow.” She drops her knapsack and stretches.

Vibrant light pulsates over the glaciers and mountain lake almost close enough to touch across the steep valley, a glimpse of the river glittering far below. The intensity of light throbs in her eyes. Shimmers over Damon’s brown skin, a startling contrast of warm, vulnerable flesh against the starkness of black rock, white snow, blue sky.

He opens his eyes, blinks, and sits up. “Man, this is where it’s at.” His white teeth flash as he opens his arms to the view.

Which, for Lindsey, includes his beautiful presence. His long black braid falls over one shoulder, bare torso nearly hairless and smoothly muscular. “Let me take a shot of you, here,” she says.

He looks surprised, then shrugs and hands her the camera sitting beside him. Lindsey moves the knapsacks out of the way, backs up and crouches, sighting into the viewfinder. She angles around, backs up some more, and finds the best spot to catch him sitting crosslegged on the weathered dark rock, its upward thrust launching him into mountains and sky. “Got it! This is the one you should put in that hiking column.”

She sits beside him as he purses his lips, scans the shot, and laughs. “No way! I look like the fucking shaman on the mountaintop.”

“I want a copy, at least.”

“Okay, but you have to promise not to show it around.”

“Why?” She tilts her head and studies him. “Don’t go all fake modest on me. You’d make a terrific scenic trailside attraction.” She waves a hand as he laughs. “But it’s more, right there in that picture. Like you’re rooted here. Why do you want to hide that?”

He shakes his head. “Lindsey, you just put it right out there, don’t you?”

She bites her lip. “It’s just lately. I mean—” She laughs at herself then. “I don’t know, it’s not the way I used to be. But now it… doesn’t seem worth it to dance around things anymore.”

He turns to face her, wincing a bit in the glare of sunlight off stone, and reaches to pull off her shades. He looks into her eyes. “You have the most amazing eyes, Lindsey. The color of growing things.”

He touches her face, leans in to brush his lips over hers. She starts to stiffen, pull back, but then it feels right to see what this is. He returns with a slow, lingering exploration, drawing her out, drawing her in, and it’s suddenly very clear what those earlier sparks were promising. He has a gift of sensual touch, not rushing or pushing, just savoring, and Lindsey joins him in a warm uprush of delight. Along with the deep stirring of arousal.

Finally she pulls away, lightheaded. “Oh.” She lies back on the warm rock, closing her eyes to feel sunlight pouring over her, penetrating.

“Mmm,” he breathes, and lies down on the rock next to her, taking her hand and slowly running his thumb over her open palm. “I knew that was going to be good.”

She chuckles, still lying eyes closed. “I guess I knew it, too. But, Damon, I have to warn you. I’m sort of… a loose cannon these days. Since my divorce.” She squeezes his hand and releases it.

He blows out a slow breath, pulls his arms up to cradle his head. “Yeah. And the boyfriend?” His voice sounds unruffled.

She shakes her head, still with her eyes closed. “Don’t know if I’d call him that, it’s still really new. And pretty confusing. If he wants to pursue it or not.” Somehow it feels perfectly comfortable to be talking this way with Damon.

“I figured it was something like that. But there’s something else going on here. We had to at least get a taste of it. And man, oh man, it would be really sweet with us, Lindsey.”

At that, she sits up, looks over at him. He’s lying there smiling up at her, for a second pure Raven Trickster, and she has to laugh. She puts her face in her hands and shakes it. “Too crazy.”

“Kind of like life, eh?” Then he sits up, reaches over for his knapsack. “Hey, let’s eat!” He winks at her. “Just keep it in mind. You never know.”