The drive to the hot springs took almost two hours and included a stop around the halfway mark at the little general store, perched by its lonesome on the side of the road in an area that made River’s Sigh look like the heart of city life.
The shop’s quaint storefront and rustic post and beam covered porch made Jase feel like he’d fallen back in time or accidentally ended up in some sepia-toned photo. Inside, however, its wares were surprisingly eclectic and upscale, with a special predilection for things that appealed to that most modern of personalities: the foodie. Authentic dim sum and Chinese dumplings imported from Vancouver filled a massive freezer at the back, and the packed shelves carried spices and sauces for any taste, no matter how diverse.
Aisha, Mo and Colton had ice-cream. Jase had elk pepperoni, seaweed snacks, and a big bag of salt and vinegar kettle chips. Then he shared Aisha’s ice-cream when she insisted. She’d chosen “Old-fashioned Apple Crumble” and as Jase sampled it, he imagined the warmth of her mouth, suddenly ice-cream cold and tasting of vanilla and cinnamon. It made him embarrassed, but was also . . . well, kind of delicious to think about.
Mo was already asking if they could stop at the store again on the return trip as they piled back into Aisha’s car.
Jase didn’t often feel small—or not size-wise at least—but this place dwarfed him. The dense forest and unending spread of trees on one side of the roadway, the vast fields of nothing but lava rock as far as the eye could see stretching out in the other direction. . . .
But overwhelming all of it was Aisha. Aisha. Aisha. Before hitting the road, he’d worried that his preoccupation with how the puppies were faring would ruin the outing, but he should’ve known better. In Aisha’s company, his darkest thoughts lightened, and his keenest worries lost their edge. Plus, Mo’s sweet silliness and exuberance made it impossible not to see that even though painful things existed, pure good did too. He even appreciated Colton’s attempts to be funny because of how he triggered Aisha’s laughter. If he could just listen to her laugh all day, every day, he really wouldn’t need a lot more out of life. The realization filled him with such a warm glow that he could almost ignore the wistfulness that followed on its heels. Aisha had—and was—everything he wanted for himself. But he understood why she didn’t want them to be anything more than friends. He came from nothing and had nothing to offer her. But still, it was hard not to wish . . .
Aisha pulled to the side of the road and killed the engine, cutting off Bob Marley’s crooning voice. “We’re here!”
Jase and Colton looked out the window at the exact same time, then both shot Aisha identical questioning looks.
Mo answered for her. “It’s that trail!”
Jase craned his neck in the direction Mo pointed and saw a shadow that might indicate a break in the foliage. That was a trail?
“Are you kidding me?” Colton harrumphed as he undid his seatbelt. “I thought we were getting a break from extreme nature.”
“Why would we want a break from nature?” Mo was genuinely confused.
Aisha laughed. “Exactly.” She slid out of the car and fetched their backpacks from the trunk.
It wasn’t a long walk in, maybe fifteen minutes or so, and very easy as the hidden path turned out to be a series of well-built, sturdily connected boardwalks. The beauty surrounding him almost bowled Jase over. It was surreal, with ferns almost as tall as he was and cedar trees so massive that three men his size could link hands and still not be able to reach all the way around them.
Colton interrupted his reverie with a grouchy, “Gross, what stinks?”
He wasn’t entirely out to lunch. Jase had become aware of an unpleasant scent, metallic and eggy, growing steadily stronger the further they walked.
Mo giggled. “Uncle Brian says the water smells like egg farts.”
“Mo,” Aisha said reprovingly. “It’s just sulfur. Lots of minerals have odd odors when heated.”
Mo shrugged agreeably. “I know. And the minerals make the water so healthy. They detoxi-fly you.”
“Detoxify—that’s right.”
Colton made an exaggerated gagging sound. “I think Uncle Brian was more on point.”
Mo tsked, then added, “That’s rude,” like she wasn’t the one who brought up Brian in the first place.
Jase paused and stretched his arms above his head. They weren’t even in the water yet, but he felt so good. It was like in some weird way the four of them fit together, were almost a family or something, like the way Aisha was with Jo and Sam, silly and bantering and often chatting about trivial things—but genuinely close.
“Look, there’s a lizard!” It was Colton again, but he’d dropped his carefully honed nonchalance and sounded thrilled.
“It’s a salamander, actually. Salamanders are amphibians. Lizards are reptiles,” Mo corrected. “Lots of people make that mistake though. Aren’t they the cutest?”
“Totally.” Colton laughed with delight, and he and Mo took off ahead, apparently on an amphibian hunt.
Jase snuck a look at Aisha who was gazing after them. Unaware of his eyes on her, her features were unguarded. The soft-eyed affection and warmth in her expression made him suck in a breath.
After a moment, she turned to him. “So you’re a poet and I didn’t know it, hey?”
Shit. Double shit. Colton.
Her eyes sparkled with light and mirth. If he wasn’t so preoccupied with how cute she was, he’d be totally humiliated.
She stopped walking and leaned back against the railing of the boardwalk, almost provocatively. But then again, he found every movement she made provocative. “Will you write a poem for me?”
“You’re assuming I haven’t already.”
She inhaled sharply, like his quick—for once—response had stroked something in her. Shyness compelled him to look away, but he forced himself to hold her gaze. Damn—it was as powerful as sex almost. She visibly swallowed, and he knew she felt it too.
Like it was mutually discussed, they commenced walking again, matching each other’s rhythm and striding hip to thigh—him so much taller than her, yet somehow a perfect match, regardless—close and in sync.
And then they arrived. Three pools lay before them. Two of them were like Japanese-styled soaker tubs, gorgeous deep bowls with cedar plank sides. The third was more natural, what some might call rough—just a large wood-framed rectangle with a silty gravel bottom.
Colton and Mo had already stripped down to the bathing suits they had on under their clothing and were wading into the more rustic pool.
Aisha peeled off her vintage Billy Idol sweatshirt and lace-trimmed leopard print jeans. And there she stood in all her glory.
It was a strange, archaic way to think of her, but he couldn’t help it. “Glory” fit perfectly. Not that she was naked. In fact, her bathing suit was conservative by modern standards, but it didn’t matter. Her candy apple red boy shorts and halter top threw him into thirteen-year-old-male high alert. Did she know how gorgeous she was? If, yes—that was super hot. If not—dang, that was super hot, too. Either way, he was doomed.
He averted his eyes because it was the only decent and responsible thing to do—but, damn it, he noticed Colton noticing her too. Jase stripped down to his shorts in a confusing state of mingled possessiveness and arousal, which, oh-gawwwd, he hoped wasn’t showing through his shorts—which were loose and came to his knees, thank you very much.
He crossed the slightly slippery deck, surveyed the greyish water, and gingerly climbed in, unsure what to expect—and was immediately seduced. The temperature was . . . amazing. Settling on his butt, he stretched out until nothing but his head was above the water and let out an involuntary groan of pleasure. Aisha plopped down beside him and laughed. “I know, right? It’s crazy heaven.”
It was. It really was. Until it wasn’t.