Wild Ice (21 page)

She blamed
the peanut butter cookie disaster on the old oven in the cottage, but in reality, a white-breasted nuthatch had distracted her and she’d lost track of time. Marsh had signaled his disapproval of the burnt smell with a scrunch of his nose and an irritated flick of his tail. Marsh didn’t like most of what Lauren did and he especially disapproved of her stepping foot in the kitchen. So, Lauren hoped JD wouldn’t mind the simple meal reminiscent of a grade school lunchbox.

When
Lauren stepped out into the glaring sun, she was glad she’d put on her floppy hat out of habit. Big puffy clouds sailed lazily across the sky and soon blocked the sun to provide some much appreciated shade.

JD was already waiting in the clearing behind Teal Manor.
Lauren spotted him and lifted the picnic basket with a grin. “After the cobbler incident I’m surprised you agreed to this,” she said with a smirk.

He smiled and she liked how it brightened his features. The hardness around his mouth and eyes was replaced with smile lines.
He looked friendly and approachable and not at all like the man she’d met on the trail. He looked handsome and casual in jeans and a T-shirt and the change of mood looked good on him.

“I don’t know
,” he joked. “You make a pretty mean waffle.”

“It’s not the
meal, it’s the company, right?”

“Right.”

JD helped her spread out the blanket and then they sat down in the middle of the field. It was the perfect spot for a picnic with the tall grass surrounding them like a cocoon and the birds chirping their cheerful songs.

Mel clomped over the blanket and practically
lay down on top of the picnic basket. They laughed and JD pushed him aside.

JD had never been on a picnic before. Eating Sunday brunch at a sidewalk café was as close to nature as Darla
ever got. Lauren seemed to care more about experiences than decorum and that was fine by him. He stretched his long legs out in front of him and enjoyed the warm sunshine on his skin.

When the phone rang that morning, he almost didn’t answer it. Then he thought twice about it and
answered it anyway. He was glad he did.

“It’s not gourmet
,” Lauren pointed out as she unpacked the food. “You’re probably used to something fancier, but I think it’s best if I steer clear of the kitchen. Marsh hides under the bed whenever I even open the fridge. I tried to make cookies last night and let’s just say that’s all I’m going to say about that. Come to think of it, you might have liked them. They turned out like hockey pucks.”

She let the hockey reference hang in the air
. Between the weaver incident and not wanting to pry, she hadn’t had a chance to ask him about his skate. When he didn’t volunteer any information, she let the subject slide.

“Actually, I’ve been living off of
cereal and mac and cheese,” he confessed. “So this is a nice change.” He took a bite of the sandwich she offered him and made a sound of approval. “You can’t go wrong with PB&J.”

“I’m glad you approve.”

“Thanks for the hummingbird feeder,” he said, taking a swig of soda to wash down the sandwich.

She grinned. “What do you think
of it?”

“It’s great. My window is the hot spot for hummingbirds now.
”

“The hanging feeders are nice but the birds are easier to look at when they have a perch to sit on.”

“Yeah, those suckers move pretty fast.”

“Their wings beat up to ninety times per second
,” she replied.

“
Jeez. I saw a few of them in the first five minutes, but then again it could have been the same one. I wouldn’t know how to tell them apart.”

“We only have a couple of species around here
, but they can be difficult to identify.” She took the field guide out of her backpack and showed him the hummingbirds that were native to the area. “Aunt Cora has three hummingbird feeders hanging from the back porch. They see so much action I have to fill them up every other day.”

“Wow. What’s in that stuff
anyway?”

“Just water, sugar and food coloring.”

“Huh. I guess if I drank nothing but sugar water, I’d be buzzin’ around out of my head, too.”

She laughed and
JD thought he could spend all day out here with her. “They sure are playful little birds,” he remarked.

“They were probably fighting. They’re extremely territorial.”

“Really? I never thought of them as being violent.”

“Looks can be deceiving.”

“I was surprised to see that they lap up the nectar with their tongues,” he admitted.

“
How did you think they ate?”

“
I don’t know. I thought they sucked up their food like…through a straw or something,” he admitted.

She laughed and once again he let the delightful sound wash over him.

“Actually,” she told him, “They have very efficient long tongues that trap nectar by curling around it.” Lauren shifted uncomfortably when she realized she probably shouldn’t be talking about tongues. The kiss they shared was still fresh in her mind and she was eager to find out if it was a one-time occurrence.

JD studied her face and his eyes lingered on her lips. He hadn’t had thoughts of intimacy in a long time
, but Lauren had a way of shaking things up.

A plethora of emotions swirled between them. Besides sharing their first kiss, they’d witnessed the aftermath of carnage and found hope in the aftermath.

Mel scratched behind his ear and his collar jingled. Lauren shifted on the blanket and helped him scratch his itch. “So, how was your skate? I haven’t had a chance to ask you about it.”

The joy that flashed across
JD’s face was unmistakable. She knew the feeling. Her body responded the same way when she saw a bird she’d never seen before.

“It was long overdue
,” he answered, choosing his words carefully.

“So, you didn’t fall down?” she joked.

“Nah. It’s just like riding a bike.”

“I’m proud of you for taking that first step.
It’s not an easy thing to do.”

Emotion welled up and lodged in his throat. “You’re the reason I got back on the ice
, Lauren. If we hadn’t talked about it…”

She reached over and laced her fingers through his.

“I never would have gone through with it if it wasn’t for you,” he confessed.

She shrugged
the way she’d seen him do so many times before. “If I suddenly forgot the beauty of birding, I would hope someone would come along and shove a pair of binoculars at me and push me out onto the trail to remind me.”

“I’m sorry about the
weavers,” he said softly.

She sniffed and squeezed his hand.
“Me too.” She knew it was just a part of nature, but she’d grown attached to them and it was still difficult. “I had no right to be upset over a coupla
birds
. You’ve lost more than I could ever imagine.”

“Lauren, don’t. They meant a lot to you.”

“I know, but it’s not the same. You can’t compare it to losing a
person
.”

He sighed.
“Let’s just agree that we’ve both suffered losses.”

She was quiet for a moment and then said,
“I’m glad you came here, JD. I owe Mel big time for going and getting help and bringing you to me that day I fell.”

JD squeezed her hand. He didn’t want to know how his life would have turned out if he never met Lauren.

“I have to ask…how
did
Mel get you to come down the trail that day?”

JD laughed. “He used brute force, that’s how. All of a sudden he came barging through the dog door and
then he clamped down on my pant leg and pulled me outside. I didn’t know what had gotten in to him. I’ve never seen him like that before in my life. He was frantic. He literally pulled me down the trail until I agreed to follow him.”

“And then you found me.”

“Yeah. Imagine my surprise at finding you out here in the middle of nowhere.”

“And here we are hanging out with a bunch of birds.”

They finished their lunch and after a while Lauren asked, “What does JD stand for?”

“Jarrett David.”

“My middle name is Elise.” Sharing her middle name with him felt intimate. She only ever used it on legal forms and sharing it with JD seemed like a special secret.

“Lauren Elise,” he murmured. “It’s very beautiful.”

They lay on their backs and looked up at the clouds and tried to find shapes in them. The wind picked up, pushing the clouds in a hurry across the sky.

It would be the perfect spot to take a nap if
JD’s senses weren’t on alert from having Lauren close by. On one hand he felt relaxed and at ease around her and on the other hand he felt anxious and jittery. He never knew what she was going to say next and sometimes she didn’t say anything at all.

Lauren
rolled over onto her stomach, rested on her elbows, and looked over at JD. Instead of looking up at the sky, he was looking at her. With his arms stretched over his head, his shirt had pulled up to reveal a patch of skin above the waistband of his jeans. She let her eyes travel down to his zipper and back up to his skin. A narrow trail of hair disappeared behind the button on his jeans. His T-shirt stretched tight across his broad chest and her eyes continued over to the arm folded behind his head. His bicep muscles were defined and she wondered how he kept in such good shape all alone in that house of his. That kind of definition took a lot more than a treadmill to achieve. Her eyes continued their perusal over to his neck and up to the stubble on his chin and jaw. And then over to the curve of his ear and across his nose and lips.

She wanted to kiss him again. Holding hands wasn’t enough. She wanted to feel his arms around her and his skin pressed against hers.
Just as she was about to lean over, a raindrop landed on her nose.

The only predictable thing about the weather in
Red Valley and the surrounding area was how unpredictable it was. Thunderstorms in the middle of summer weren’t so unusual. Without warning, dark clouds rolled in and the sun disappeared for good behind a curtain of gray sky. Sure, it rained in Red Valley, but there was something about the wide open space of the refuge that made the weather seem more intense in Hayley’s Point.

A
nother fat rain drop landed on Lauren’s cheek, followed by several more on her nose.

It didn’t take long for Mel to get nervous. He
trotted off toward the house with his tail between his legs. Lauren and JD laughed at his hasty retreat. Mel had never liked stormy weather and a doozy of a storm was about to roll in.

JD looked up at the heavy clouds and squinted. “I guess that’s it for our picnic.”

“This wasn’t in the forecast,” Lauren complained.

They gathered up what was left of the
ir picnic and Lauren shoved the damp picnic basket into her backpack. Together they hurried off in the direction of the manor.

About halfway there,
Lauren realized she didn’t want to go inside. She stopped dead in her tracks and dropped the backpack to the ground. “Wait,” she told JD. “Why are we in such a hurry to get out of the rain?”

JD stopped and turned to face her
and watched as she tilted her face up to the sky and let the rain caress her face.

“Isn’
t it wonderful?” She held her arms out, palms up and let the rain splatter her skin. Her hair stuck to her head and droplets ran down her forehead.

T
he rain soaked through her blouse as it clung to her breasts. JD took a step toward her and brushed the wet hair away from her face. Her skin was chilled. Rain ran down her face and dripped from her chin. He touched her cheek and leaned in to kiss her.

J
D’s mouth came down on hers and his hand cupped the side of her face before tracing his thumb around the shell of her ear. She tasted like rain, freedom, and everything he’d been searching for. His hand snaked into her hair, holding her face in place. Not that she was going to go anywhere.

When the surprise wore off,
Lauren kissed him back and tasted the rain on his lips. She parted her lips and their tongues met. When his tongue tangled around hers, she pressed her body against his. Her breasts squished against his chest and she could feel his arousal. The power of his need made her shiver, but he must have thought she was cold because he pulled away and took her hand. “We should go inside.”

“No,” she breathed. She didn’t
want to explain, but she needed their first time together to be out here in the field. Out in the open with only the trees and birds and jackrabbits as witnesses. She needed to experience this with him outside of the confining walls of Teal Manor.

JD realized then that he’d wanted
Lauren ever since the first time he saw her in the field wearing that ridiculous hat. There was no mystery why Mel was so taken with her. She was amazing. She didn’t take the little things in life for granted. Things in nature were constantly amazing her. Not only was he fascinated by her adventurous spirit, but he admired her kind heart. And she cared about him. She cared enough not to give up on him when he already had.