Chapter 6
Chapter six
“What are we looking for again?” Darwin asked Katrina as they wandered around the back of the resort, slipping in and out of the nearest row of grape trellises. “Somewhere around searching the golf cart barn and the valet stand, I forgot.”
“A small potted plant with red leaves,” Katrina said with a sigh as she used the flashlight on her cell phone to refer to the clue list they’d been given at the start of the scavenger hunt.
That was an hour ago, back when this evening still had the potential to be fun.
But whoever came up with this list of clues must be laughing because they’d barely found anything.
“The clue is pretty much worthless, though. Look for the plant where it should be, but where you’ll never think to look. ”
Darwin made a face. “What the heck does any of that even mean? Maybe we should skip this one and look for the next thing on the list.”
“I have no idea what it means.” Katrina studied the list again, counting the check marks she’d placed beside the items they’d already located and taken pictures of, depressed by how few there were.
“As far as skipping this one and moving to the next, I don’t think they’ll be any easier to find.
And honestly, I’m not sure I want to try that hard. ”
“What, you’re not eager to win that all-expense paid weekend at your family’s resort?” he asked with a chuckle, taking her hand and starting to walk again.
Katrina laughed, leading him off the walkway toward a wooden bench positioned with a view of the rolling hills filled with grape trellises.
Well, it would have had a view, if it wasn’t so dark out tonight.
“I wouldn’t have minded winning because if we did, I thought we could give the prize to Talia and Lennox.
Mostly, I figured we’d have some fun hanging out. ”
Darwin took a seat on the bench beside her, one arm coming up to gently wrap around her shoulders. “Hanging out sounds good to me.”
Katrina snuggled a little deeper into his embrace, enjoying the warmth of his body heat as they sat there in the cool evening air.
“When you said we’d be spending the whole week taking part in organized fun and games, I thought you were joking, but after the vineyard tour this morning and the scavenger hunt tonight, I guess you weren’t,” he said softly, leaning back on the bench and gazing at the moon where it was just starting to peek out over the tops of the rolling hills.
“It makes me wonder if this is how you see your wedding someday.”
“Definitely not,” she said, part of her wondering if Darwin was asking because he was collecting information for a later date. “I’ve always wanted a small wedding with family and friends.”
He was quiet as he considered that. “Beverly might take a page out of Maria’s book and want you to get married at Legoland.”
“Probably,” Katrina laughed. “You okay with having a wedding at Legoland?”
She didn’t realize what she’d said until the words were out of her mouth. Did she just imply it was a given they were getting married?
But Darwin didn’t even bat an eye. “For sure. Who wouldn’t want to get married there? By the way, was that you proposing?”
Katrina sat there with her jaw hanging open, knowing she looked foolish, but absolutely unable to do anything about it.
“Um,” she finally managed, not helping herself at all.
The way Darwin was looking at her made her think he was genuinely waiting for her to announce she wanted to marry him.
“I’m just messing with you.” Darwin flashed her a sexy grin.
“I know this is technically only our second date and that any talk about marriage is more than a little premature. But just so you know, I’m not as terrified as your typical bachelor at the idea of getting married.
And I’m not scared to see where this is going with you. ”
Katrina felt herself relax against him, more thrilled than she probably should have been at the idea that he’d given thought to a future with her. Like he said, this was only their second date.
She smiled. “I guess I’ve learned something new about you tonight.”
“Then this scavenger hunt wasn’t a complete waste of an evening,” Darwin murmured, tipping his head down to kiss her.
Katrina kissed him back, her tongue slipping out to taste him. She moaned in delight, wondering if they could just make out here on this bench for the next hour or so until the scavenger hunt was over.
Darwin must have read her mind, because the next thing she knew, he’d urged her off the bench and onto his lap, so she was straddling his thighs in the most delicious way possible. The skirt she wore fluttered around her legs, making it easy to feel his arousal through his jeans.
It was almost scary how turned on she was, and if they weren’t in the middle of her family’s vineyards, clothes would almost certainly be coming off. But they were in a very public place, and anyone taking part in the scavenger hunt could happen upon them at any moment.
She’d barely slipped off Darwin’s lap and settled back onto the bench beside him when Upton appeared out of the darkness.
Ugh. How the heck did he always know where they were?
“There you two are!” Upton said, looking way too excited. “I’ve already finished the scavenger hunt and wanted to know if you needed any help. This thing is a blast, isn’t it?”
Katrina gave him a small smile even as Darwin let out a soft grumble of displeasure. “Thanks, but Darwin and I are doing fine on our own. We’re just taking a breather. And yes, we’ve been having a lot of fun, too.”
Not because of the scavenger hunt, of course, but he didn’t need to know that.
Upton looked disappointed, and for a moment, she thought he was going to plop himself down on the bench beside her like he had during the vineyard tour. But then he took a step back and held up his hands.
“Okay, I get it. I know when two people want to be alone,” he said. “Just remember that the scavenger hunt ends in about forty minutes, so unless you want everyone to think you were just goofing off out here, you need to finish up your list.”
“We’ll do that,” Darwin promised as Upton turned to head back toward the resort again, actually humming as he walked away. “Well, that went better than I thought. For a minute there, I was afraid we’d be stuck with him for the rest of the night.”
“Thank goodness for small miracles,” Katrina agreed. “Do you want to head back inside now and admit defeat, or should we wander around some more and see if we stumble over anything else on our list?”
“Let’s walk around some more,” Darwin said, getting to his feet and holding out his hand. “I hate the idea of being worse at this scavenger hunt thing than your ex-boyfriend.”
“He’s not my ex-boyfriend! Upton was just a friend I used to hang out with in school,” she said as she took his hand. “Now, where to? Before taking our break, we were heading into the fields. Want to keep going?”
“Why not? That’s the way Upton came from, so maybe he found something out there,” he said as he led her into the deep shadows of the trellises.
The sweet, fruity scent of grapes enveloped them, and she inhaled appreciatively.
She’d missed that fragrance. This far out, she couldn’t even see the lights of the resort anymore.
Normally, being out here at night would have been a little scary, but as they walked hand-in-hand through the vineyard in the dark, Darwin made her feel safe.
“Do you ever get nervous when you’re out on a mission?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“I know walking through the vineyard isn’t like being in a dangerous combat situation,” she said softly, realizing how silly the question probably was to him. He was a SEAL. “But being out here in the dark made me think about you being out there somewhere in the world, by yourself and in danger.”
Darwin didn’t answer right away, and Katrina thought that this might be one of those things he might not be able to talk about. She was disappointed, but kind of understood.
“First off, we’re never alone,” Darwin finally said. “SEALs are always sent out as a Team. Usually, there are four to six of us, but never less than two. So, you always have someone to depend on.”
She blinked. Four to six people weren’t enough as far as she was concerned. And a two-person team was just silly.
“But as for your question,” Darwin continued, “when you’re downrange, you don’t have a chance to think about being nervous or scared.
You’re so locked in on what you’re there to do that you don’t think about what might happen.
Instead, you focus on what you’ve been trained to do, being where you need to be when you need to be there.
When you’re doing that, there’s no room for nerves or fear. ”
“There’s no room?” Katrina repeated, shaking her head in the darkness. “It seems hard to believe that you can ignore all of that.”
“It’s why we train so much,” he said as if that explained everything.
“We do something over and over until it’s muscle memory, so we don’t have to think in a crisis.
It’s no different than what law enforcement, firefighters, or even emergency room doctors do.
You train, train, and then train some more until your body responds without having to remember what to do.
When you’re in that zone, you aren’t scared. ”
Katrina thought that sounded all kinds of crazy. To imagine that a person could train to the point where they didn’t have to think was mind-boggling.
“Of course, afterward, well, that’s a completely different story,” he added softly a couple seconds later, his gaze turning distant.
“When everything’s over, and the shooting and explosions have stopped, that’s when you get the chance to relive every second you’ve stuffed in the back of your mind and ignored.
That’s when you get to think about how close you came to something bad happening.
And yeah, in those moments, you can’t help but think a little. ”