Mason stepped out of the car, taking in a breath of the cool, morning breeze as he looked up at the magnificent waterfall before them. He’d hiked the waterfall trail before, but it didn’t take away from his amazement now.
The sound of a car door shutting pulled him from his gaze. “So, what do you think?” he asked.
“It’s just…” Jocelyn shook her head, not looking at him, but taking in the sight of the six-hundred-foot waterfall. “The pictures don’t do it justice, and right now I feel like a fool for never having seen it in person. Thank you,” she said, turning to look at him with big doe eyes and a small smile.
Mason turned back to the waterfall, proud of himself for making this pretty woman so happy with such a little gesture. It was moments like this that fed his need to have more with her. To be the only man she looked at like that; to be the only man who could make her feel this way. He would never put down what she had with her late husband, and a piece of him knew that Cliff never saw the woman with him today.
Mason grabbed his pack out of the car, shut the door, and locked it. “Ready to go?” he asked.
“Yes!” she said, walking around to the front of the car to meet him. “How long do you think it will take us to get to the top?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “It’s just a little over two miles to the top. But I imagine with that camera in your hand we’ll be stopping a lot. Maybe an hour or so up, and the same coming back down.” Mason paused before pointing to the restaurant that looked more like a cottage at the base of the falls. “Afterward, we could go to lunch at the restaurant they have here, if you want.”
He watched as Jocelyn considered the idea. “Maybe.”
Mason silently followed an eager Jocelyn up the path to the top of the falls. The clean air was helping to subside what was left of a small hangover. He’d drank more than anticipated last night, trying to prove to his friends that he hadn’t changed just because he’d bailed on them a few times. Or maybe he was trying to prove it to himself?
The quiet time as they started up the trail didn’t have a feeling of awkwardness but laid-back. In the serenity of the surroundings he took the time to figure out what exactly it was he wanted, and try to figure out the why of it all. Questions he had been avoiding, just wanting to follow his intuition. But if he was going to convince Joss that he was the man for her, he was going to need a rock-solid foundation.
At first he thought the age difference might make it easy for them to have a platonic relationship, but it was stupid on his part to think that he could just be friends with a woman. He’d never been that guy. There was more than his overwhelming attraction to Jocelyn. They were a perfect blend of opposites attract to having enough in common. That was exactly why they needed to be more. The idea of not having her in his life or watching her date another man was out of the question. That must be how you know she’s the one.
There was one obstacle that he now had to acknowledge. To him it was a non-issue, but he had a feeling that Jocelyn was right, and the world wasn’t going to see it that way. But if he pretended long enough that it wasn’t an issue, maybe it wouldn’t be? Thirteen years in the big scheme of things was nothing. Besides, they were both consenting adults. How was he going to make her see past this? I can surely get her there somehow, right? He sighed at the thought.
“You okay, Mason?” Jocelyn asked. “We can go back if you want?” Her question was genuine.
“I’m having a great time,” he assured her. “I’m just watching you do your thing. Wait a sec. There’s a picture I need to take.” Mason smiled when she furrowed her brow at him. He looked around. “Here, come here.”
He led her slightly off the path, turning their backs toward the waterfall, ignoring the baffled look on Jocelyn’s face.
Mason pulled his cellphone out of his pocket. “It’s time we have a picture of us,” he said, wrapping his arm around her waist, pulling her close.
“Oh.” Jocelyn yelped. “Ah…um…” she mumbled nervously, wrapping an arm around his shoulder.
“Ready?” he asked, turning the phone’s camera front facing.
He smiled at the reflection looking back at him. Damn, we look good together. Quickly, he snapped a picture.
“We’re gonna take a couple of these,” Mason said when Jocelyn tried to wiggle away. “How about you give me a little kiss on the cheek?”
“Mason!” she scolded with a giggle.
“Come on,” he encouraged. “I need a picture of the hottest woman I know giving me a little kiss, even if it is on the cheek.”
Jocelyn rolled her eyes, not saying a word, but caving into his request. Soft lips gently pressed, holding a kiss on his cheek. He’d contemplated turning quickly to steal a kiss, but he didn’t want to trick one out of her. He wanted her lips on his because she wanted it. Mason snapped the picture.
“Thanks, Joss.” Mason shot her a wink as she pulled away. He enjoyed the blush creeping across her face. “Let’s see how they turned out.”
Mason pulled the pictures back up, Jocelyn at his side as he swiped through them.
“Oh, those turned out cute,” she said with a surprised tone. “Will you send them to me?”
“Sure.” Mason nodded, happy that she liked the pictures enough to want to have them. He wondered if her friends were as curious about him as his friends were about her.
He considered posting a picture on his Facebook page, but he wasn’t much for putting his life out on social media.
“Are you on Facebook?” he asked.
“I have a Facebook account, but I’m never on it.” Jocelyn shrugged. “My friend Taylin made me get one.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah. Well, she can be kind of pushy. But I think that’s what I love about her.”
“You should post your photographs on there. You’re super talented. You could use it to establish yourself as an artist,” Mason encouraged.
“Maybe.” Jocelyn paused. “You think we’re almost to the top?” she asked.
Mason didn’t mind her changing the subject. She was far too modest about her talent; all great artist were.
“Yeah, it’s not too much further. I can’t wait for you to see the view!”
He nodded up the trail, and they began walking toward the summit.
“So, you haven’t really told me about your family,” Mason said, not wanting to waste a perfect opportunity to learn more about her.
“My family? Okay. Well, I’m an only child. My parents had me when they were in their late thirties. That might be why they didn’t have more. My mom passed about five years ago now, but Dad’s still around, too ornery to die.” She giggled.
“Sounds like my kind of guy. Does he live local?”
“Yeah. In a retirement community that he loves. It keeps him social, which I love.” She smiled. “What about your family?”
“I’m the middle of three kids, all boys. My poor mom,” he teased. “We grew up in Eastern Oregon, and my folks still live there. My younger brother lives on the coast, and the older one is in the military, so he moves around a lot.” Mason shrugged. “That’s pretty much me.”
“That can’t be it. Did you play sports in high school? How’d you make the move out to Portland?”
“I wasn’t much for sports.” Mason laughed. “I did, however, spend some time in the 4-H club. It was kind of a hick town. I raised a pig.” He wiggled his eyebrows at her. “It even got first place at the fair.”
“Woah, impressive,” she teased. “I bet that made all the girls go wild.”
He scoffed with humor, “You’re not exactly wrong. Small town.” He winked.
“And Portland?” she asked.
“I followed my buddy Preston out here. We both got accepted to Portland State University, business majors. Now you?”
“Me what?” Jocelyn asked with a catch in her step. “I told you about my family.”
“Oh no, not all of it. I wanna hear it all. High school? Sports? How’d you meet your husband?”
She took a deep breath, blowing out hard before she spoke. “In high school I was on the swim team, and took art classes, nothing as special as first place at the fair,” she teased, pumping her hip against him.
“Funny.”
“And as for Cliff… Oh gosh.”
She giggled, and when a blush hit her cheeks Mason almost regretted asking the question. Did he really want to know the intimate details of the man who shared almost twenty years of his life with this woman? Lucky bastard.
“This is going to sound awful, but I was working in the same building as him, not for him per se, but the front desk of the glamourous, fifteen-story building as a receptionist. One day he started bringing me flowers and trying to woo me in his own way, and after that things moved fast—dating, engaged within six months, married a year later. My new life as a wife took up enough of my day that I left my job.”
“Interesting,” Mason said, staring off into the distance, trying to process the information. There wasn’t anything scandalous about their life, only that it sounded rather mundane. A kept woman for all those years, it was no wonder why she was now looking for a life of more adventure.
“It’s not. But I can’t change the past, although I am hoping the future holds a bit more for me.”
“Hell yeah, it does.” Mason reached his hand out, taking hers and linking their fingers together. “Now, let’s get to the top of this waterfall. It’s going to blow you away.”
It wasn’t hard to miss the hitch in her breath, and a moment of paleness on her face as their hands connected.
“I’m ready.” She sighed with a half-smile and bright eyes.
I hope so.