“Jesus.”
Sean grins. “You sure? Is He listening?”
I roll my eyes. “You’re killing me.”
“Why the turn of phrase? Does death scare you?”
“Stop playing on my words,” I swat at his chest.
He chuckles, then shrugs while unscrewing his water bottle. “You asked. Just relaying a message.”
“That whole spiel wasn’t yours?”
He takes a healthy swig and then recaps it, darting his eyes away. “No. Not mine. Just another quack.”
“But this is what you believe?”
His eyes meet mine, his gaze intent. “It’s the one that makes sense to me. Rang true for me. It’s how I live.” He leans in. He’s close, so close. “Or maybe,” he pushes the sweat-matted hair away from my forehead and widens his eyes before giving me a blinding smile, “I’m just another quack.”
“Probably,” I say softly. “And you do obey the clock because you have to be on time for work,” I point out.
“Got me there. But my free time is mine. I’m not a slave to time. And if I’m honest, my work time is mine, too.”
“How so?”
He nudges me forward with his hand on my back. “Almost there.”
“You aren’t going to answer me?”
“No.”
“You’re unbelievable,” I grumble. This man is absolutely nothing like I expected, and yet I can’t get over what comes out of his mouth or the fact that I know he means and believes what he says. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone so confident in their skin, so sure of their place. My eyes glide over the perfection that is Alfred Sean Roberts as he walks in contemplative silence beside me.
“So, what’s your superpower?” I ask, a little breathlessly while keeping his pace.
“I’m good at reading people. Anticipating what they want. Yours?”
I spend a few seconds thinking about it. “I don’t know if it’s necessarily a superpower, but most mornings, I can remember my dreams…vividly. And sometimes, if I wake abruptly, I can resume them. Other times I will myself back into them.”
“Pick up where you left off?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s cool, I sleep so hard, I never really remember mine.”
“Sometimes they hurt,” I admit, “so much so that it can ruin a day of my life just from the feelings they evoke. So, it’s not always good.”
He nods, his eyes scouring the trees before looking over at me. “Every superpower has a price, I guess.”
We’ve been off the beaten path of the specified trails at the mouth of the mountain for what seems like forever. Once we clear the next set of rocks, I marvel at our surroundings and my new back yard. I’ve spent weeks driving around the narrow roads and steep inclines of the mountains and not once thought about breaching the trees to see what’s inside. Fully submerged, I never expected to be so enamored by the tranquility, the cool air, the organic smell, or the sweat covering my skin. I look over to Sean with fresh eyes.
“You’ll make a mountain hippie out of me yet.”
“Let’s hope so.”
Somewhere between the time I saw him standing at his car this morning and the few hours we’ve spent on our hike, I’ve let a part of me I’ve kept locked away for years, my romantic heart, begin to hope. Sean’s made it far too easy to give it a reason to peek around the corner of the bitterness I’ve buried it behind. With every look, every touch, every easy exchange of words I feel that beckoning, letting me know it might be safe to come out and take a look around.
But we haven’t been in this long, whatever this is blooming between us. Even if Sean declared time our enemy, I’m all too aware that trust is fragile and can shatter in an instant. Time has told me it only takes seconds to be made a fool. In my short experience with men, I’ve been cheated on, lied to, and humiliated, and I have no intention of letting that happen again if I can help it. I don’t at all have a good track record with trusting my instincts when it comes to men. And after my last disaster, I promised myself I would be more cautious. The next man who wins my heart, my affection, will have to do a lot more to deserve it than offering pretty words and petty promises. Yet that promise I made to myself and my new determination for a temporary jailbreak don’t mesh well. Sean is one tempting apple in my celibate new garden. Physically, I want him. And it’s clear the feeling’s mutual. Maybe I shouldn’t think past that.