Page 46 of Making It Up

“How about a bow and arrow?” I ask.

“I’ve only shot one once. My dad’s not as into bow hunting. Do you want to teach me that?”

I want to teach her a bunch of things. None of which have anything to do with hunting or weapons.

I shift on the floor. “We can talk about that. How about fishing?”

“I’ve fished,” she says. Then shakes her head. “Also risking admitting to you that I don’t love fishing. I do like sitting on the dock or in a boat on the water. Not so crazy about the fishing part.”

“Okay. So boating would be more something you’d be into.”

She’s quiet for a moment and I look up from scraping a cracker through the cheese. “What?” I ask her when I find her watching me.

“I think I’d be up for trying anything with you.”

Her words slam into me. I have no idea if she has any idea how they sound.

Then, directly on the heels of that thought, I think maybe she knows exactly how it sounds. I have read her fanfiction.

“Okay, well then I’m going to admit something to you,” I say.

It’s on the tip of my tongue to admit that I know about her fanfiction and have read it, but instead I say, “I’m not that into hunting and fishing either.”

She gasps, then lowers her voice. “Can you get fired from your job for that?”

I chuckle. “I like it. I’ve done a lot of it. I completely understand the appeal. And I love helping other people do all of those things safely. But they aren’t my choices of weekend outdoor activities.”

She rests her elbows on her knees. “What’s your choice for a fun weekend activity?”

Again, I have to bite back my initial answer. Naked in bed, getting up only for food and water is not the right answer here.

“Four wheelers and dirt bikes,” I tell her.

“Of course. You guys have all been into that from the time you were little, right?”

Everyone knows that my brothers and I have always been regulars at the dirt bike track.

“We have. We learned to ride dirt bikes when we spent summers here in Sapphire Falls before our dad died.” God, those summers seem like a lifetime ago. I clear my throat and smile. “I’ve always liked to go fast and hard and get dirty.”

And that’s true whether we’re talking about dirt bikes…or something else.

She smiles slowly. “Now that I would love to have you teach me.”

I’d fucking love to. “To ride?”

I freeze for a second. Every fucking thing sounds sexual to me tonight and I have to knock it off.

But she nods. “I definitely don’t go fast or hard enough, and I hardly ever get dirty.”

I groan inwardly. But then, screw it—yes, even my internal thoughts are full of innuendo—and I say, “Well, it’s definitely better when you have someone who knows what they’re doing showing you.”

And honestly, that’s also true if we’re talking about dirt bikes…or something else.

“I would really like to be the one that shows you,” I add. “In fact, I think it would bother me a lot if anyone else did.”

She swallows. “I don’t want anyone else to teach me, David.”

Good. That’s very good.