“It’s not your fault. I forced myself on you tonight.” I heard what I’d just said and blushed as I snuggled back down into my sleeping bag. “You know what I mean.”
“Still, I shouldn’t have let you come with me. I know The Marmot can get wild on weekends, and I should have thought about the gate being locked.”
“That’s a lot of shoulds.” The velvety night sky above us twinkled with stars. Thousands of them. More than that. Millions of stars. It took my breath away. “Wow. Look at that.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty amazing out here at night. Gigi and I call it nature’s show.”
“I think I just saw a shooting star!” I pointed like an excited child, renewed energy surging through me. “I’ve never seen one in real life before.”
“Really?”
“That was my first.”
“Should I tell you they’re actually meteoroids, not stars? They’re pieces of asteroids that collided with each other. When they hit earth’s atmosphere, they vaporize, and that’s what you’re seeing.”
“Huh…I can see why they renamed it. Vaporized meteoroids don’t sound as sexy as shooting stars.”
Matthew chuckled and tucked his hands behind his head. “No, I guess not.”
A truly chilling thought flashed through my mind. “The cows aren’t out here, are they?”
“Nope,” he said. “They’re in for the night.”
I sighed with relief before tensing again. “What about other animals like marmots and pronghorns?”
As if on cue, howling echoed in the distance.
“Oh my God,” I whispered. “Werewolves.”
Matthew belly laughed until I thought he was going to cry. “Those werewolves are actually regular coyotes, nothing paranormal about them. They’re not looking to hurt us, I promise.” I loved how patient he always was with people. Even with a bar fight brewing, he’d kept calm and tried to defuse the situation.
I wriggled my body to inch my sleeping bag a little closer to his. “They didn’t sound harmless.”
“Remember that pronghorn on the road? We’re much more dangerous to the animals out here than they are to us. Keep out of their way and nine out of ten times they’ll keep out of yours.”
“Nine out of ten?” I squeaked. “What happens the tenth time?”
“I knew as soon as the words were out of my mouth that you were gonna say that.”
I rolled onto my stomach and fake-screamed into my makeshift pillow. “Just keep the flashlight on tonight. Then no animals will accidentally step on us, at least.”
“They’ll know we’re here,” he said. “They have much stronger senses than we do.”
“This conversation isn’t very reassuring. Do you camp under the stars like this often?”
He was lying on top of his sleeping bag, looking as comfortable as could be. Meanwhile, I had my bag zipped up to my chin to ward off the chill of the evening. Unless I was hot flashing, I was always cold.
“Not as often as I’d like,” he said. “I wish I could travel more, but the summer is high season here at the ranch and then there’s a lot that needs to get done in the winter.”
“Does the winter get lonely?”
“It gives new meaning to the word lonely. I’m not totally alone, though. Walt stays to tend the horses, and Tyler was here last winter, helping me out with projects.”
“Just the dudes.”
He turned his head to look at me. “Yep.”
I rolled onto my side in my sleeping bag, tucked my hands under my cheek, and stared back at him. For a few moments, neither of us said anything. We just gazed into each other’s eyes. I knew in that moment there was no kidding myself that this crush of mine was unreciprocated. There was as much heat in his eyes as there was in mine. Parts of me that had been dormant and gathering metaphorical dust for so long were coming back to life. I wanted something to happen. I needed it to happen.
