Page 115 of Sunkissed Colorado

I brought her hand up to kiss her knuckles. “The cooking lesson would’ve made a good first date. Butgoodisn’t enough for me. I’m going for best ever.”

“It’s wise you don’t set your expectations too high for yourself.”

“I know. I would hate to be disappointed, but it hasn’t happened yet.”

The truck bumped along as we drove down a dirt road. The sun was setting, so we would have some ideal colors while I was setting things up.

We were really out in the middle of nowhere now. I pulled onto an even tinier road, past a bunch of no trespassing signs.

“You do have permission to be here, right?” she asked.

“I’m not that reckless. This land is owned by one of the other guys who volunteers for SRFD. I cleared it with him, so we’ll have about five acres all to ourselves.”

The road wound through grassy fields and stands of aspens overlooking the foothills. When I got to an open space, I pulled my truck to the side and parked.

Zandra looked around, the soft sound of her inhale filling the quiet. “This is… Callum, it’s beautiful.”

We were in a meadow full of wild sunflowers. Thousands upon thousands of them. Stems and leaves tangled, yellow petals adding splashes of color everywhere we looked.

“I’ve been here a few times in past summers. You’re my Sunflower, so I thought this would be the perfect spot for you.”

She looked up at me, those dark eyes so full of emotion that she usually didn’t let people see. Sometimes not even me.

Yeah, I was pretty sure she liked it.

“I’ll grab our things, and then we can get this party started.” I got out of the truck and opened the tailgate, climbing up to grab a plastic container that held most of what I needed. Plus an insulated bag from the backseat.

There was a clearing in the meadow where someone had built a fire pit years ago. Logs surrounded the fire area for seating, weathered but still solid. I carried the plastic container onto the cleared area of dirt and knelt to unpack it. “I thought we’d have a campfire. The full Silver Ridge experience. Supplies for lighting the fire, check. Plus a fire extinguisher and fire blanket in case any issues arise, because…” I pointed to myself.

“Firefighter. Right. Good to know it’s safety first around here.”

“Always. Then we have our plaid wool blanket in case it gets chilly, check. In our insulated bag, s’mores supplies and a thermos of spiked cocoa. Check.”

“You thought of everything.”

“Tried to.” I stood up, closing the distance between us and holding on to her shoulders. “I wanted to check in with you though. This isn’t the same place we held the bonfire party back in high school. But if this brings up anything negative for you, thinking about that night, we can do something else.”

I’d known it could be a risk bringing Zandra here if it triggered bad memories, but at the same time, it had just seemed right. Almost like this was something we needed to do.

She put her hands on my chest, smoothing them down my T-shirt. “No, this will be nice. Let’s do it.”

Zandra and I collected kindling, and I grabbed a few pieces of firewood and got started setting up the pit. Within fifteen minutes or so, we had the start of a decent blaze.

I grabbed the insulated bag and sat with her on one of the logs, draping the plaid blanket around us.

As the sunset filled the sky with pink and orange, the flames rose higher, and the sunflowers danced with an evening breeze.

I poured some spiked cocoa in a single cup, sharing sips between us. The sugar and chocolate went down smooth, and the bourbon added just enough of a burn to keep things interesting. Just like Z.

“It’s an excellent first date,” she murmured. I had my arm around her beneath the blanket as we both stared out at the landscape.

“I’m still going for best. I’ll see what I can do.”

S’mores were next. We cleaned off some sticks, then stuck marshmallows on them to roast. We both laughed as I fed her, then licked sticky marshmallow and melting chocolate from my fingers. Which led to us kissing. Sharing that sweet flavor and enjoying the fact that we had nowhere else to be.

It was just us out here for acres and acres. Nothing to intrude on our privacy. We snuggled up again and just watched the fire crackle for a while in comfortable silence.

I wasn’t usually the type to stay quiet for long, but with Zandra, I really didn’t mind it. It was just peaceful. Nice.