Sit...Stay...Beg(87)
“This is the first place they’ll look for us,” she said.
“So? We’re repeating history, right?”
She smiled up at him, her eyes bright in the moonlight. “I have a better idea.”
She had an idea? For his big moment? She didn’t know it was his big moment, but still, where was she taking him?
“To the creek?” he asked as she led him toward a familiar route.
“Past that.”
“The mud path?” He frowned, pulling out his phone to use the flashlight and make it safe for them.
“No, but don’t give our location away.”
Laughing, he held her hand as they ran down the hill. “You should have been on Shane’s team if winning means so much to you.”
“It’s not only about winning,” she said. “I want to come…here.” She reached the edge of the lake and, still holding his hand, walked him farther and farther back until they were under a massive sugar maple tree.
“Here?” he asked.
She stopped and looked up at the blackness of the branches overhead, the big tree looming in the dark. “Where were you when you fell?”
“When I…” Suddenly, he understood. “With Moses, my French bulldog?”
“The French bulldog who saved you. Who wouldn’t leave you alone, even though you wanted him to.”
He let out a breath. “You remember that story? The very first thing I told you?”
“I love that story,” she said. “While you were telling me, I was watching you drive. Your hands, your face, your whole body was so…I don’t know. I guess I was falling so hard in love with you that I wanted to sit on you like Moses.”
He smiled down at her. “Any time, any place. But I really wanted to take you into the kennels tonight.”
She flicked her hand. “So seventeen years ago.” She looked up at the tree. “Let’s make a new memory.”
“I’m ready,” he said, itching to say the words. “Jessie—”
“I’ll go first.”#p#分页标题#e#
He drew back. “What?”
“I’ll climb first. That’s a climbing tree, and no one is going to find us if we’re up there. If we stand here and discuss it much longer, I can guarantee you Shane will find us. In fact, I wouldn’t put it past him to go get Lola from the house to sniff us out.”
He choked softly. “I didn’t come out here to play a game.”
“You want to feel me up again, right?”
“Yes. Among other things.”
She laughed, then gasped softly. “Listen. I hear them at the top of the hill. Come on. Up the tree, Garrett, or we’re totally going to be out.”
She scrambled to the trunk, placing a sneaker on the first notch of wood, then pulling herself up to the branches. And he followed, fairly certain he hadn’t climbed this tree since the day he broke his leg.
Moving along the thickest branch a good fifteen feet off the ground, she made room for him and put her finger to her lips when Shane’s voice drifted toward them.
“Shhh. Let them go right by down to the creek,” she whispered. “We’ve got this.”
Shane’s words grew louder, followed by Darcy’s laughter.
“I know you’re down here, Garrett!” Shane called.
Up in the tree, they got closer together, quiet.
“They went down to the mud path,” Darcy said. “Let’s go!”
Their footsteps and voices grew distant, and soon, the only sounds were the hoot of an owl and the soft rustle of trees in the breeze.
Garrett pulled her closer. “The last time I was in this tree, I had pretty much the worst day of my life. The second-worst day.” He pressed his lips on her forehead. “The night you walked out of my house was the worst day.”
She drew back. “I hate that we have that memory.”
“It’s gone.” All the explanations and apologies had been made on a street in Brooklyn with tears and kisses and promises. “It happened and, like the day I fell out of this tree, it made me love you more.”
“So, I’m like fat Moses, the bowling ball you couldn’t get rid of.”
He laughed. “Yeah. Just.”
She elbowed him. “Kiss me, Kilcannon. It’s not a game of Manhunt without some sneaky boob feels.”
“You really do want to fall and break your leg.”
“No.” She leaned against him. “I like to kiss you.”
He pressed his lips to hers, the sweet taste something he never tired of. “It’s a precarious position in this tree,” he said. “I can tell you from experience that one wrong move and you’re broken.”