Gabe #2
“You did all this.” She spun around to face me. “For social media.”
“Yeah,” I said, too fast and too loud. I shoved my hands in my pockets and exhaled. Why the hell did this feel so emotional? “Just needed a few fixes. No big deal.” I took a step closer to the wall of pictures. “I used to boil sap with my grandparents here.”
Her face softened. I both loved and hated her reaction. This moment was bigger than I could have imagined. It was a wooden shack in the woods. Four walls and a roof. But my chest was tight, bursting with pride and nostalgia.
“And you fixed it up yourself?”
I nodded, focus fixed on the floor. “A little at time. I don’t want the history to disappear.”
When she didn’t respond, I looked up and found her watching me. Like she understood that this was about more than maple syrup. It was about this town, this state, this way of life.
And whatever was happening between us.
I had to break this spell, this tension, whatever it was.
“This is the evaporator,” I explained, shaking my head to clear it.
“Most important piece of equipment.” I sounded strange, like I had switched into tour guide mode, but I wasn’t completely in control of my emotions at the moment, so I didn’t fight it.
“We feed the wood here into the firebox. The most important part of this process is keeping it really hot all night long.”
She watched me silently, wearing a thoughtful look.
I swallowed. It was difficult, the lump in my throat getting bigger.
Somehow I had the wherewithal to walk her through the filtering and storage, answering her questions as I went.
“So it just boils down.”
“For hours,” I said. “It takes forty gallons of sap to make a single gallon of syrup.”
She nodded, biting her bottom lip. The move was sexy and vulnerable, and even though there was no fire burning, the shack felt impossibly hot.
“It’s a twenty-four-hour process,” I said as she stepped closer to me. “We spend all day gathering the sap, and all night boiling it.”
“What an inefficient process,” she said with a smirk.
“Magic isn’t efficient,” I told her, my voice suddenly raspy. “Nature doesn’t care about optimization.”
Her cheeks were flushed, and under the dim lights, her skin glowed.
This day had been strange, challenging, and exhilarating. We’d spent the last couple of hours together, yet I wanted more time with her.
Without my permission, my body moved toward her, my hands reaching out.
She didn’t back up or speak. She just held my gaze.
And as I cupped her cheek, I knew I had to kiss her.
I stepped in, and she tilted her head up, those eyes burning with heat.
God, she was beautiful. And frustrating. And completely wrong for me in every way.
But none of that mattered as I lowered my lips to hers. As she looped her arms around my neck, pulling me closer.
The world outside of this shack ceased to exist as I lost myself in the feel of her lips. The taste of her, the scent of her, and the way her body fit against mine.
This kiss was slow and deep. Our night together had been frenzied and aggressive, but this was an exploration of something I couldn’t even begin to define.
Clutching her hip, I pulled her in until our bodies were flush.
She opened her mouth, giving me more access, and my brain went haywire. I tangled a hand in her hair and deepened the connection, exploring with my tongue.
With a gasp, she met me with the same amount of fervor, clutching my nape and moaning.
Damn, I could spend hours like this, wrapped around this woman, holding her tight to my body.
“Sabrina,” a staticky voice shouted.
Heart lurching, I jumped back. Sabrina did the same. We looked at one another, chests heaving as the radio on the wooden worktable crackled and Harper’s voice carried through the small room.
“Where are you?” she asked. “The bear is on the maple cam. This is gold. I need the GoPro.”
Sabrina stumbled for the radio, and with a shaky hand, she brought it closer to her face.
“Harper,” she said as we headed toward the door.
“We’ve got Betsy,” the teenager said. “Get over there with the GoPro and get me some shots. Bear shenanigans are genius.”
We took off, trudging up the path toward the edge of the trees, where we’d left the ATV and a lot of expensive camera equipment.
Sure enough, as we crested the hill, a banging noise echoed through the woods and we found Betsy Ross with her snout in a metal bucket, licking sap. Heart thundering, I pushed Sabrina behind me.
Dammit. The GoPro on the helmet was over by the ATV, as were the other cameras.
I grabbed my phone out of my pocket and used two fingers on the screen to zoom in on the menace.
“It’s a bear,” Sabrina whispered, her voice shaking and hands clutching my vest.
“It’s just Betsy,” I said, willing my hands not to tremble. “You can tell because she’s only got one eye, and she’s on the small side.”
“I thought bears hibernated.”
“They do,” I told her. “But it’s shoulder season, and when we get thaws, they come out. It’s normal for her.”
“So she’s the one who ruined my shoe,” she growled, stepping out from behind me.
I held an arm out, stopping her. “Easy. Don’t spook her. Just because she’s used to people doesn’t mean you should fight her. And regardless of her size, she’s dangerous.”
“I should sue her. Those shoes are irreplaceable.”
Biting back a chuckle, I shook my head. “You can’t sue a bear. She’s a wild animal.”
“She should face consequences for her actions.” She huffed.
“Just wait.” I tracked Betsy with my phone’s camera, waiting until she moved on.
When she was a safe distance away, I sprinted for the ATV and pulled out the good camera.
By the time I’d turned it on and zoomed in on her, she was still happily inspecting sap buckets and rubbing her back against the tree bark.
Sabrina followed, donning the GoPro again, then tiptoed away, getting footage from other angles. We didn’t speak, just signaled to one another as Betsy got bored and headed back down the hill.
“Your wildlife has no boundaries,” she said when Betsy was gone, exhaling deeply and leaning against the ATV.
“She’s very community oriented,” I said with a laugh. “Probably felt left out of the festivities.”
Sabrina rolled her eyes. “I hate this state.”
I pinned her with a glare, the memory of how she tasted flaring in my mind. “No you don’t. You’re adapting.” I smiled slowly. “Admit it, you’re starting to like us.”
She stared at me, lips pursed, then sighed.
“Maplewood is growing on me,” she said firmly. “The people?” She shrugged. “Jury’s out.”
“The people?” I asked. “Or me?”
We assessed one another, the forest around us silent but for the cracking of twigs and the dripping of sap.
“You,” she finally whispered.
But there was no conviction behind the word. She was as undone as I was.
I took a step toward her and peered up at one of the maple cams. “Probably for the best,” I whispered.
“What is?”
“That you’re undecided. Because if I kissed you out here, Harper would turn the footage into a promotional campaign.”
Her face reddened and she let out an offended scoff. “Bold of you to assume I’d let you kiss me again.”
I bit my lip, turned on by the defiance in her eyes. “You’re still standing here,” I whispered. “Haven’t punched me yet.”
She looked me up and down, her scrutiny making my heart speed up. The odds that she was thinking about kissing me were as likely as the odds that she was seriously considering hitting me, and frankly, I’d enjoy either.
“Tell me you got Betsy with her face in the syrup bucket,” Harper groaned.
With two big steps back, Sabrina held up the radio.
“We got the bear footage,” she said dryly. “We almost died.”
“Even better,” Harper said. “Come back to base. We can start editing.”
She lowered the radio, looking almost disappointed. “We better get back.”
But she didn’t move. She only continued to stare at me. Finally, needing to do something before I gave in and dragged her back to the maple shack, then stripped her naked, I trudged to the ATV.
We packed up in silence, securing the camera equipment, my tools, and the sap. Then we loaded up, and she wrapped her arms around me without hesitation.
When I started the engine, she leaned into my back, and a fire ignited inside me. Damn, her touch felt way better than it should.
Shaking that thought free, I hit the throttle and navigated back to the real world.