Page 44 of Making It Up

I like that far more than I should.

I lean my shoulder against the door jamb. “You’re not out here hunting? Spotlighting deer? “

She gives me a mock surprised look. “Spotlighting deer is illegal. And it’s not even deer season anyway.”

“That’s true. Which is why I was called when someone thought that’s what the pickup with the bright lights that isn’t supposed to be here was doing.”

“I needed the brights to see my way across the field.”

“The field that belongs to the person who called to turn you in.”

“Hmmm. How interesting.”

“This isn’t a treehouse in your backyard. You can’t just come out here and hang out.”

She smiles and looks around again. “It's kind of a treehouse though. And the view out that window is amazing.” She points to the window that faces the river.

It is. “It’s also on someone else’s land.”

“Oh. That seems like a waste. It’s beautiful out here. Whoever it is should share this.”

“I’ll give Judy Turner the message.”

“Oh, it’s Judy Turner’s?”

She clearly knows this land and deer blind are Judy’s. Mia Hansen is a terrible liar. I find that…also adorable. “So, what are you doing out here, in the woods, at night, in camo—I’m shocked you have camo, by the way—with cheese, crackers, fruit, and wine, Mia?”

“Can you keep a secret?”

“Very well, actually.”

“This guy that I’m interested in told me that we have to sneak around and that I have to come up with ways for us to see each other without anyone else knowing. He’s this big, rugged, outdoorsy guy who works for Game and Parks. So I looked up ways to get him to come to me.” She grins. “Turns out hunting off-season and spotlighting deer are two ways.”

I don’t know if it’s her description of me being ‘big and rugged’, or that she got me out here on purpose this way, or that little grin, but my heart kicks hard in my chest.

I can picture her at the library on one of the computers looking up ways to get turned into Game and Parks. Of course, in my imagined scenario she’s in a cardigan and her hair is in a bun.

And of course, she didn’t just say ‘meet me two towns over for coffee’. No, it had to be more interesting than that. My little librarian found a way for us to see each other that no one will know about exactly the way I challenged her to.

I think I really like this woman.

I clear my throat. I can’t say that. So I ask, “You had camo?”

“Nope. I had to order it. Which is why it took a week for me to set something up.”

That explains that. “I was wondering.”

She smiles at that. “Were you?”

I probably shouldn’t have admitted that.

This wasn’t at all what I was expecting when I told her she was in charge of ways for us to see one another without her dad finding out, but it’s a little brilliant.

“And why are you driving Charlie’s truck?”

She wraps her arms around her knees. “So no one would recognize my car. Because a car out in a field by a deer blind isn’t quite as convincing as a truck.”

“So you were trying to convince someone you were out here hunting off season so they would call me and I would come out?”