“This is the cabin,” Hunter said as he motioned over his shoulder before winding his way through some trees to a small clearing where a weathered looking structure sat. It was just a foundation made of stone and a few logs that had been placed on top of each other to form a large rectangular space. Roman could tell the logs themselves had been taken straight from the land because they looked rustic and natural, not artificial.
“Did you and he work on this together?” Roman asked as he trailed his fingers along the bark free wood.
Hunter nodded. “We started on it about a month before he died.”
“What happened to him?”
Hunter came to a stop in the center of the space. “It took us all weekend just to get these logs in place. It was Memorial Day weekend so I didn’t have school that Monday so I begged him to stay one more night. I knew my dad would be pissed because he had this barbecue planned in the town square and I was supposed to be there to serve food to people but Pops talked him into it. We spent the rest of the day fishing and Gran came out and we ate the fish we’d caught. Gran didn’t like camping so she went home and Pops and I put our sleeping bags here,” Hunter said as he motioned to the floor. “He was so excited to be spending the first night in his and Gran’s new cabin. He talked for hours about how he was going to build a room for me and maybe when I was older we’d build a place for me and my family to stay in when we came for a visit. Next morning, I couldn’t wake him up. I…I had to tell Gran he was gone.”
“How old were you?” Roman asked gently.
“Fifteen.”
“I’m sorry, Hunter.”
Hunter shook his head. “I think he knew.”
“Knew what?”
“That I wasn’t normal.”
Roman wanted to tell Hunter he was normal but he kept his mouth shut so Hunter would continue.
“Pops never used the words girl or wife when he was talking to me about stuff. It was always, ‘Hunter, you meet someone special yet?’ or ‘When you meet someone at school, you be sure to bring them home so your Gran and I can make sure they’re good enough for you, okay?’ Someone, they, them,” Hunter said softly.
His eyes finally lifted to meet Roman’s and Roman didn’t miss the spark of hope he saw there. “You think maybe that was his way of telling me he knew? That he was okay with it?”
“Yeah, Hunter, I do.”
Hunter nodded his head slightly and then looked around the cabin once more before he straightened and seemed to shake free of the moment. “If you want, we can keep going around the lake or we can double-back and hike up the mountain a bit. There’s a nice hot springs up there.”
“Hot springs,” Roman said as he followed Hunter back towards the lake. He glanced up to see that Frank the eagle was still sitting protectively near his mate who was picking at the fish. Next time he’d have to remember to bring binoculars so he could see the birds up close.
“Did you keep coming here after you lost your grandfather?” Roman asked as he caught up to Hunter.
“Yeah.”
“By yourself?”
Hunter hesitated. “My dad and I would come up here once in a while to go hunting but he gave up on it after a while. Said I took all the fun out of it ‘cause I always cried like a girl every time he shot something.”
“And after?”
Hunter’s eyes shot to him and he could see the indecision there. Finally, he nodded. “I tried working on the cabin at first but I didn’t really know what I was doing without Pops.”
“What about your grandmother? Friends?”
“Gran hasn’t really been back here since Pops died. Maybe that’s why she’s looking to sell. Friends? I knew they’d turn it into a place to party or get high.”
“Wasn’t there anyone you wanted to share it with?” Roman hedged.
A small smile tugged at Hunter’s lips. “Is that your way of asking if I had a girlfriend?”
Roman chuckled. “I suppose it was.”
“There were girls who were friends but nothing ever serious.”
Hunter didn’t expound on the subject and Roman didn’t press because it wasn’t any of his business. But if Hunter’s inexperienced kiss was anything to go by, he doubted Hunter’s situation in the girlfriend department had changed much over the years.
“Why resorts?” Hunter suddenly asked as they reached the spot where the trail split.
It was on the tip of Roman’s tongue to brush Hunter off with some flippant response about money but then he remembered the look in Hunter’s eyes when he’d asked about whether or not Roman thought his grandfather might have known about his issues with his sexuality.