Chapter Three
Birdie had looked all over this place, but still, there was no Ava. She checked the sign-up sheet for horseback riding, but she didn’t see Ava, or Brock, or Lance’s name on there. Rats.
Oh, well, it wasn’t the right time was all. She would meet Ava when the time was perfect. She just felt it.
Oddly, she felt more disappointment about Lance’s name being absent from the sign-up sheet. He would’ve been fun on this adventure. So far, it was just her and Debbie Downer sitting on the porch of the lodge waiting for the shuttle to pick them up.
Her dang zipper was messing up again, and she couldn’t get it fastened up all the way. She tried again to no success. Lance was annoyingly right. She really had packed a lot of purple and did sort of look like a grape soda threw up on her. Even her eye shadow was shimmery purple.
Why had she let her ex affect her so much? Packing based on his least favorite color? Really? She was going to go into town later and get some stuff she liked. Maybe treat herself to a little shopping spree.
This place really did feel like it was good for her. Just getting out of her small town and seeing a new place was fun and not nearly as anxiety riddled as she’d thought it would be.
The familiar roar of an engine sounded, and she looked up to find Lance’s truck pulling into the parking lot. She waved as he got out. A big wave. She waved and waved and waved until Debbie Downer told her, “That’s more than enough, you are making my eyes hurt.”
Oh. Birdie let her hand drop to her side as he slid his way to her across the icy sidewalk, two coffees in his hand.
“That’s a lot of caffeine, Sir,” she quipped as he made it to her.
Lanced looked so hot today in a brown Carhartt jacket and a beanie, jeans, and thick-soled boots. His eyes were really green against the snowy backdrop.
Without a word, he handed her both coffees, took his glove off with his teeth and zipped her jacket up obnoxiously easily. He shoved his mitten into his coat pocket and nodded to one of the guys who was staying in Lodge 3.
“I didn’t know you were coming,” she said, handing his coffees back.
“That’s for you,” he said, leaving her with one. “It has some hazelnut flavor or something. I don’t know. I just told them to make it girly.”
She laughed and sipped at the hot coffee. It was actually delicious. “Okay, ready for the first one?” he asked, pulling his phone out of his back pocket.
“First what?” she asked.
“First thriving picture to post.”
“Oh, yeah!” She fiddled with her bangs.
“Sunglasses off.”
Birdie glanced over at Debbie Downer, who was watching them. “Don’t judge me.”
She pulled her sunglasses away from her face and clipped them into the neck of her jacket.
“Why would I judge you?” Debbie Downer asked. “Your eyes are literally the only cool thing about you.”
“Oddly, I still feel judged.” She smiled for the camera, her coffee cupped in her purple mitten clad hands.
After Lance took the picture, he handed her his phone. “Text it to yourself.”
“Is this your sneaky way of getting my phone number?” she asked.
“Yep.”
“Wait, so you didn’t look up my registration then,” she murmured. “The phone numbers are listed on it.”
“Brock told me not to. He said it was his regret with Ava, so I resisted the urge. Put me out of my misery though and give me hints today, please.”
“Or what?”
“Or I’m taking more custody of our golden penis.”
“You guys are weird,” Debbie Downer said, walking between them on her way to the shuttle that was pulling up in front of the lodge.
“I really think I’m growing on her,” Birdie said, watching her walk away.
Lance laughed and took her coffee as she typed in her number and texted the picture to herself.
On further inspection of said picture, she noticed Lance’s name was written across the front of her coffee cup.
Ha. She saw what he was doing. If her ex didn’t notice, his dumb friends would tell him.
There weren’t a lot of shifters to date around her town, and since the pickin’s were a little slim, exes sometimes had a hard time moving on. It was the shifter way.
She snapped a picture of him coming down the stairs, looking like a freaking model, looking off to the side, chiseled jaw line on point, coffee steaming in his hand, log lodge behind him. She was kind of good at this. She sent it to him as soon as they settled into the shuttle.
Horseback riding was a blast! Other than her horse was really a large donkey while the outfit had placed Lance on a handsome buckskin steed.
She laughed a lot, and he took a ton of goofy pictures of her, and she took model pictures of him, and she hadn’t honestly laughed this much in as long as she could remember.
At the end of the ride, Debbie Downer had almost been nice to them.
She said, “You look weird together,” and offered to take their picture so they could see how strange they looked with her being roughly the size of a butternut squash and him being over six feet tall, but whatever.
Secretly, to Birdie, she thought they looked kind of cute and she’d caught Debbie Downer almost smile when she’d thanked her for taking the picture. It was probably just a grimace though.
When they loaded back up onto the shuttle to head back to the Woodpecker Inn, Lance gestured for her to sit in the seat right beside him in the very back.
Halfway back to the Woodpecker Inn, he dug into his pocket and pulled out the fool’s gold and handed it to her.
“It’s your custody time with Gary now. I want him back tomorrow morning. ”
“Well, tomorrow is UnValentine’s Day,” she pointed out. “I’ll have to check my schedule. I might be sleeping in or stuffing my face with copious amounts of Gran’s biscuits and gravy or perhaps taking a long hike off a short cliff.”
Lance chuckled and placed it in her hand. “Either way, I’ll make sure to see you tomorrow.”
And that was that.
UnValentine’s Day date set with a man she was really starting to enjoy being around.
She smiled and nodded. “Okay.”
“Yeah?”
She nodded again and he pulled her hand to the inner crook of his elbow. The affection released the butterflies that had been held hostage all this time in her middle.
Slowly, testing, she laid her cheek against his muscular arm, and Lance allowed it.
He reached over and touched underneath her chin so gently, and she looked up at him. His eyes were bright green in the muted light of the shuttle. Slowly, he leaned down and kissed her lips.
Birdie was stunned into stillness as warmth enveloped her body. His fingertips touched her cheek as he kissed her, and just as gently as it had begun, he eased out of it with this soft smile on his lips.
“It’s been a long damn time,” he murmured.
“Oh yeah? Like six weeks?” she teased.
He laughed and draped his arm around her shoulders and dragged her against the warmth of his ribs, then rested his chin on top of her head as he looked out the window. “Like one week.” His voice danced with teasing.
She smacked him playfully. “Well then don’t kiss me anymore, man-ho. I’m holding out for the one.”
His chuckle reverberated through him and he hugged her closer. “I’m going to kiss you again, Birdie. That was just the beginning.”
His tone dripped with confidence, and Birdie couldn’t stop smiling.
She touched her lips and looked out at the snowy woods that were blurring by as her heart raced.
His kiss had been short and gentle but that had been, hands-down, her favorite kiss ever.
Birdie hadn’t felt this normal or this happy in a very long time.