Chapter Fourteen
Beckett
I’d gone to this corn maze pretty much every year since I could walk. Most of the time, it had been with the entire Hartley clan, but other times I’d weaved through the maze with friends.
Today, I was happy to visit it with a date.
A beautiful, talented date who looked incredible in black leggings and a flowy jacket in fall colors.
She’d braided that long red hair too, with soft curls framing her face, and I immediately imagined unwinding her hair and spreading it out all around her.
And, yeah, we were naked in that scenario.
I’d thought about getting my hands on Sadie in the hours that had passed between her leaving Hartley’s Nest after our tour and me arriving on her doorstep at Hank’s cabin.
Those thoughts only exploded when she’d answered my knock looking like a Celtic goddess.
We stood at the mouth of the corn maze now and, to be honest, this was one time where I didn’t care how fast we made it through.
Normally when I came here with my family or with friends, we made it a competition to see who could find the way out in the shortest amount of time.
Free beer was usually on the line and I often was the victor of that contest.
Today? Well, today, I wanted to get lost somewhere in the center of it with Sadie.
I wanted the tall corn stalks to shield us so the rest of the world faded away.
I wanted us to fall into another dimension in this cornfield where just the two of us existed and the only thing we had to accomplish was to make each other feel fantastic.
“Ready?” Sadie asked me when I’d stood at the start of the maze for far too long, daydreaming.
“Yes. Let’s do this.”
I let Sadie take the lead, but she slowed so we were walking side by side instead.
“Have you ever gotten trapped in this maze?” She fingered one of the browned, papery leaves of a stalk.
I shook my head. “You can’t get trapped. There are little emergency exits that lead directly to where we started.”
“Oh, that’s a relief.” She arched an eyebrow. “Although the prospect of getting trapped in this maze with you doesn’t seem so bad.”
“I love that you’re thinking exactly what I’m thinking.” I nudged her arm with my elbow. “You don’t have corn mazes where you lived before coming to Greenridge?”
“No.”
I waited a beat to see if she’d say more about where she’d come from, but she focused on looking around a bend in the path ahead.
I tried again. “Does corn not grow where you used to live?”
Sadie considered whether to go right or left then paused to read the clue on a little wooden board and turned toward the right. Perhaps she hadn’t heard my follow-up question.
“We grow corn,” she finally said, “but no one is as creative as this in my country. We grow corn to eat it and that’s it.”
More of an answer but still not very revealing.
Be patient. I didn’t need to know everything about Sadie right now. I’d learned other things by spending time with her recently that were enough to keep me interested. Hopefully, in time, she’d feel comfortable with sharing more with me.
She hadn’t shied away from being open about her vision for her business. Steering the conversation in that direction would no doubt stir up more conversation.
“Did you look at the bookings from today?” I asked.
At that question, Sadie twirled to face me, a huge smile stretching across her incredible mouth. “I did and I made plans for them and I’m so thrilled to be able to do this work.”
“What made you get into this mindful stuff?”
She looked down to the boots she wore and I feared she’d shut down on the sharing, but she drew in a deep breath and met my gaze. A hollowness in her green eyes replaced the joy that sparkled there but a moment ago.
“I had an older sister,” she began. “A sickness overtook her and she passed. Mindful work helped me deal with that loss.”
I took a few steps to put me directly in front of her. “I’m so sorry, Sadie.”
“Thanks.”
I hadn’t meant to plunge this date into a deep well of sadness for her. I’d only been trying to get to know her better.
“She was a wonderful sister,” Sadie said. “I wanted to be just like her.”
“I’m sure she’d be proud of you and what you’re doing.”
A small smile dispelled some of the sadness. “I think she would too.”
“That’s something I try to remember when I’m missing my dad,” I admitted.
Sadie pressed a hand to my chest. “I’m certain he’s proud of you, Beckett. Of the work you do. Of the help you give animals.” She rubbed a small circle near my heart. “Of the help you give people.”
I slid my arms to her hips and she didn’t resist when I pulled her in closer for a hug. She fit up against me as if she were made to be right there, her arms coming around my back and her head resting on my shoulder.
I searched my mind for something else to say, but when we backed up out of the embrace, only one thing came to mind to do.
I lowered my head and brushed my lips against Sadie’s right there in that cornfield.
She slid her hands up my chest, hooking them on my shoulders, while one of my hands came up to cup her cheek and the other snaked around her waist to bring her closer again. I’d meant for the kiss to be simple, comforting, over in a second’s time.
But now that our lips were connected, instinct took over, and we deepened the contact instead.
Sadie tasted like lemongrass and spearmint and I vaguely recalled her saying something about experimenting with making her own lip balm when we’d been viewing the herb garden at Hartley’s Nest. Her lips were supple and soft, yet demanding, and when a small moan escaped from her into the kiss, my reaction was to trace the seam of her lips with my tongue.
She opened for me and before I knew what was happening, we were engaged in what could only be labeled An Epic Kiss. Our tongues stroked, explored, learned the shape of each other for long, savoring moments. If other maze visitors walked around us, I wasn’t aware of them.
I was only tuned in to all things Sadie. And I loved all those things.
We lingered here, locked in a kiss that tethered us to each other, that branded us, that promised so much more.
Then a clanging bell made Sadie jump away from me, her lips puffy and red and her cheeks blissfully pink.
“What was that?” she asked, but I couldn’t tell if she meant the sound or the kiss.
“The sound was a bell on a platform ahead,” I said. And the kiss? Well, I didn’t have the words for that. “The kids get a kick out of ringing it.”
“I see.” She licked her lips then peeked at me. “I thought perhaps that was a warning bell.”
“A warning bell?”
“Yes.” She touched her lips. “Warning that you and I were about to start a fire in this dry cornfield.”
It brought me infinite satisfaction to know she’d been as affected as I had by that kiss.
Was I finally finding the connection I’d been searching for in my dating attempts?
Cyber Mates definitely hadn’t had anyone like Sadie on it.
I never would have found her through online dating.
Someone who was genuine and real and didn’t lie in her profile.
Though I couldn’t imagine what Sadie would have to lie about. She was gorgeous, kind, smart, and eager to help people. No need to invent a persona. She was exactly what I’d been searching for in a potential partner.
And I’d found her lying in a field.
“Fields seem to be our thing.” I led her through a concrete tunnel to the platform with the clanging bell.
“What do you mean?” she asked as she climbed a set of wooden steps with me.
We cleared the stairs and I tugged her to a lookout area where an amazing view of autumn-painted mountains stretched out in every direction.
Standing behind her so she was sandwiched between me and the railing of the platform, I said, “I found you lying in a field. We just had our first kiss in a field.” I pressed a kiss to the rim of her ear then whispered, “I wonder what else we could do in a field.”
She angled her ass out a bit to rub against my front and I had to bite my lips to keep from groaning aloud.
I didn’t want to make a scene, especially because little kids were also on the platform, tousling with each other over who could ring the bell.
Finally, a man came over who I assumed was their dad.
“You both can ring it,” he said, scooping a kid up in each arm and toting them over to the bell. What followed was a cacophony of bell ringing that made Sadie giggle, especially when I put my hands over her ears to shield them from the clamor.
“I’m so sorry,” the dad said to Sadie and me. “You’re trying to have a romantic moment and we’re completely destroying it.”
“Not at all,” Sadie said. “Their enthusiasm is adorable.”
“Yeah, not so much at night when they still have this level of energy,” he said. “They never get tired. Never. It’s always chaos with twins.” He snagged one of them around the waist, picking him up as he pursued the second one, a little girl, who proved harder to catch.
Sadie stepped into the girl’s path at the right moment to stop her safely. “Show me how to ring the bell.”
The girl’s eyes glittered with excitement.
“Okay! It’s so easy!” She bounded over to the bell, which looked as if someone had put the Liberty Bell in a clothes dryer and shrunk it.
The girl picked up a mallet. “You hold this thing like this.” She choked up on it as if it was a baseball bat.
“Then you smash the bell.” The girl let loose and Sadie clapped.
“Wonderful demonstration,” Sadie said. “May I try?”
The girl immediately surrendered the mallet and the dad—with the boy still wiggling in his hold—moved in to take her hand so she couldn’t run off again though she showed no signs of doing that. She clearly wanted to see if her student could master the bell ringing.
“Am I holding it right?” Sadie asked.
I was puzzled at first because this wasn’t all that different than playing the singing bowls except that you could use more force. Then I realized Sadie knew how to ring the bell. Asking the girl for help had been a way to slow her and calm her down.
Genius.
“Yes, that’s perfect,” the girl said.
Sadie gave the bell a few solid rings and the twins cheered.
“You did it!” the girl said. “Daddy, I taught her how to ring the bell!”
“And you did a great job.” The dad let the boy slide down to stand on his own feet, but he had a tight grip on both children’s hands. “Well done to you too, miss,” he said to Sadie. “And thank you.”
Sadie gave him a little wink. “It can be hard to catch sprites.”
The dad tugged the children back onto the maze path by bribing them with caramel corn if they found their way out of the maze.
Sadie strolled back over to me. “They were cute.”
“You’re cute, and you have a way with kids,” I said. “Maybe Kalm Kingdom can branch out to mindful programs at schools.”
“Teaching children to be mindful is a wonderful idea, Beckett.” She gently tapped my forehead with her index finger. “Is this incredible brain always on business?”
I shook my head. “Not always. For instance, right now, it’s on only one thing.” I let my gaze drift down to her lips.
Sadie lifted on her toes and captured my mouth with hers. The fact that she’d initiated this kiss confirmed we were both into what was happening between us. This wasn’t a one-way thing. Attraction was flowing in both directions.
This kiss was shorter because the voices of a group of maze visitors wafted up to the platform.
“To be continued,” I said against Sadie’s mouth, giving her one more quick peck before stepping back.
“I should hope so.” Sadie took my hand and we descended the platform to return to the maze path.
We enjoyed the afternoon, wandering through the corn maze and eventually finding our way out.
I insisted Sadie try an apple cider donut and a cider slushie from the farm store where apples, pumpkins, pies, and other autumn treats were sold.
Hearing her little noises as she enjoyed the donut and slushie was far more fun than consuming them.
Seeing the pure bliss on her face made me hope I could create that look again. Later. When we were alone. I intended to try my best to accomplish that task.
“This was so much fun, Beckett.” She licked some cinnamon sugar off her bottom lip and my cock twitched in my pants. Everything she did right now turned me on. “Thank you for taking me here.”
“You’re welcome,” I said after a sip of my cider slushie to cool myself the hell down. “There are other fall things we can do like hayrides and apple picking and pumpkin carving.”
“I want to do all of those!” She had the glee of the little girl ringing the bell.
“I guess we have our future autumn dates planned then,” I said.
Sadie smiled, such warmth in her eyes as she looked at me. “I guess we do.”
“But we have more to do on this one first.” I threw away our napkins and empty cups. “We can either go out to eat for dinner or head back to Hartley’s Nest. My mom and Jimmy were planning to grill tonight because the weather is still so nice and anyone who was around was invited to join.”
“Do you have a preference?” Sadie asked.
I shook my head.
“I’d love to have dinner at Hartley’s Nest then,” Sadie said. “I like being there.”
“Your aura feels good there?” I teased.
Sadie gave me a playful push as we walked toward my SUV. “As a matter of fact, it does.”
I opened the passenger side door for her and she climbed in. Before I shut the door, I said, “My aura feels good around you.”
In truth, my everything felt good around Sadie.