“Why?”
“The storm. We’ll be outside and might get wet. Besides, there might be lightning.”
“It’s not raining yet. How far is it?”
“Up the creek about a mile.”
“And I’ve never been there before?”
“Not when it was like this.”
She thought for a second while she looked around. When she spoke, her voice was determined.
“Then we’ll go. I don’t care if it rains.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
He looked at the clouds again, noting their approach. “Then we’d better go now,” he said. “Can I bring that in for you?”
She nodded, handing her bag to him, and he jogged to the house and brought it inside, where he placed it on a chair in the living room. Then he grabbed some bread and put it in a bag, bringing it with him as he left the house.
They walked to the canoe, Allie beside him. A little closer than yesterday.
“What exactly is this place?”
“You’ll see.”
“You’re not even going to give me a hint?”
“Well,” he said, “do you remember when we took the canoe out and watched the sun come up?”
“I thought about it this morning. I remember it made me cry.”
“What you’re going to see today makes what you saw then seem ordinary.”
“I guess I should feel special.”
He took a few steps before responding.
“You are special,” he finally said, and the way he said it made her wonder if he wanted to add something else. But he didn’t, and Allie smiled a little before glancing away. As she did, she felt the wind in her face and noticed it had picked up since the morning.
They reached the dock a moment later. After tossing the bag in the canoe, Noah quickly checked to make sure he hadn’t missed anything, then slid the canoe to the water.
“Can I do anything?”
“No, just get in.”
After she climbed in, he pushed the canoe farther into the water, close to the dock. Then he gracefully stepped off the dock into the canoe, placing his feet carefully to prevent the canoe from capsizing. Allie was impressed by his agility, knowing that what he had done so quickly and easily was harder than it looked.
Allie sat at the front of the canoe, facing backward. He had said something about missing the view when he started to paddle, but she’d shaken her head, saying she was fine the way she was.
And it was true.
She could see everything she really wanted to see if she turned her head, but most of all she wanted to watch Noah. It was him she’d come to see, not the creek. His shirt was unbuttoned at the top, and she could see his chest muscles flex with every stroke. His sleeves were rolled up, too, and she could see the muscles in his arms bulging slightly. His muscles were well developed there from paddling every morning.
Artistic, she thought. There’s something almost artistic about him when he does this. Something natural, as if being on the water were beyond his control, part of a gene passed on to him from some obscure hereditary pool. When she watched him, she was reminded of how the early explorers must have looked when they’d first discovered this area.
She couldn’t think of anyone else who remotely resembled him. He was complicated, almost contradictory in so many ways, yet simple, a strangely erotic combination. On the surface he was a country boy, home from war, and he probably saw himself in those terms. Yet there was so much more to him. Perhaps it was the poetry that made him different, or perhaps it was the values his father had instilled in him, growing up. Either way, he seemed to savor life more fully than others appeared to, and that was what had first attracted her to him.
“What are you thinking?”
She felt her insides jump just a bit as Noah’s voice brought her back to the present. She realized she hadn’t said much since they’d started, and she appreciated the silence he had allowed her. He’d always been considerate like that.
“Good things,” she answered quietly, and she saw in his eyes that he knew she was thinking about him. She liked the fact that he knew it, and she hoped he had been thinking about her as well.
She understood then that something was stirring within her, as it had so many years ago. Watching him, watching his body move, made her feel it. And as their eyes lingered for a second, she felt the heat in her neck and breasts, and she flushed, turning away before he noticed.
“How much farther?” she asked.
“Another half mile or so. Not any more than that.”