breeze-borne spray on his face, Casey wasn’t even tempted to do anything so foolish. Just seeing this place was reward enough for the strenuous hike.
He turned to Natalie, who’d found a flat-topped boulder on which to rest. Her cheeks were red and she was still breathing a bit more quickly than usual, but she seemed to be rapidly recovering. She gazed at the falls with an expression that made him think she was seeing it both in the present and in her memories of earlier hikes with the late cousin she had obviously loved.
Sensing that he was looking at her, she met his eyes with a slight smile. “It didn’t take me as long to catch my breath when I came up here as a kid,” she admitted, wrinkling her nose in a way that he found very appealing. “And don’t think I haven’t noticed that you aren’t even breathing hard.”
He shrugged. “I’ve been doing a lot of manual labor lately.”
“Not to mention that you’re almost four years younger than I am,” she grumbled.
Laughing, he settled beside her on the boulder. “Like that’s enough to matter.”
She made a sound he couldn’t quite interpret, and then she swung her little backpack around in front of her and pulled out her water bottle again. “Are you hungry?”
“I could eat.”
She dug in the pack and started pulling out the food she’d brought along. They spent the next half hour eating in the damp, chilly air beside the cascades, enjoying the scenery and the companionship. Casey doubted that they’d have been lucky enough to have the site to themselves had it been a weekend, or a summer day. Which made him even more glad that he and Natalie had chosen a November Monday morning for their excursion. He liked being alone with her here.
They stuffed their trash into a plastic bag Natalie had brought for that purpose, then put that back into her backpack, making sure they left no trace of their visit behind. Fully rested now, Natalie took some pictures of the cascades and of Casey posed in front of them, and then he returned the favor, snapping several shots of her.
“That’s enough,” she said when he’d taken the third picture of her. “We’d probably better head back now.”
She started to move toward him, but her left foot slipped on a wet, mossy rock. She stumbled forward, then fell, landing solidly on her right hip.
Casey had tried to catch her, but he just hadn’t been fast enough. He reached her almost the moment she made contact with the ground. “Natalie? Are you okay?”
Looking thoroughly embarrassed, she nodded, reaching for her cap, which had fallen off in her tumble. “I’m fine. Just lost my footing. Stupid.”
“It could have been worse,” he said, his pulse rate still a bit too fast. “You could have fallen backward.”
She glanced at the falls behind them and made a face. “That would definitely have been worse.”
“Can you stand?”
“Of course. I’m fine, Casey, really.”
“Here, let me help you.” Setting the camera aside, he took her left arm and supported her while she rose unsteadily to her feet. The way she winced when she put weight on her right leg told him that she was hurt a bit worse than she wanted him to know, but a few tentative steps convinced him that nothing was broken or even sprained.
He kept his hand on her arm until she was on more even ground. She glanced up at him with an awkward smile. “I really am okay,” she assured him again. “I’m going to have a very colorful bruise, but that’s the extent of it.”
“Probably going to be sore, too.”
She shrugged. “That was already inevitable after the hike.”
She’d put her cap back on a bit crookedly. He reached up to straighten it, tucking her honey-blond hair away from her face. The gesture brought him closer to her and she tipped her head back to look at him from beneath the brim of her red cap. She stood very still as he traced a fingertip down her jawline, wiping a smudge of dirt from her chin.
“Bet you thought I’d be the one to wipe out today,” he teased quietly, hoping to make her smile again.
She did. “I guess we’re both a little accident-prone.”
He chuckled. “Maybe.”
“Of course, the hike isn’t over yet. You could still ‘wipe out.’”
“I do have a tendency to press my luck,” he admitted, his hand still touching her face. He spread his fingers until his palm cupped her cheek. “Gets me in trouble sometimes.”
She made a slight sound that might have been a swallowed laugh. “I can see that.”
“Sometimes it’s worth it,” he murmured, lowering his head. Holding her gaze with his own, he said, “You never answered my question earlier.”
“Which question?” she asked, tilting her head back a little more.
“Do you like it when I flirt with you? Because, you know, I’ll stop if you don’t.”
She gave a little shrug. “There’s no need to stop. I like it well enough.”
Amused by her nonchalant tone, he said, “Let me guess. I’m a pleasant diversion.”
“You could put it that way.”
Grinning, he spoke against her lips. “I’ve got no complaints about that.”
Chapter Six
Rationally, Natalie knew this was risky. The timing was terrible, and she wasn’t the vacation-fling type, anyway. But the truth was, kissing Casey felt too darned good. As she had suspected it would.
He lifted his head slowly, his gaze locked with hers. “Going to push me into the water now?”
She slid her hand around the back of his neck. “Maybe later,” she said and pulled his mouth to hers again.
He smiled for a moment against her lips, until the kiss deepened and amusement faded into something very different. Natalie felt her breathing start to quicken again, but this time she couldn’t blame it on exertion or altitude. This reaction was due totally to Casey.
The sound of voices mingled with the rush of water, seeping into her consciousness. Someone laughed, and she and Casey broke apart, staggering backward as if caught doing something they shouldn’t. Rubbing her sore thigh, she looked toward the trail just in time to see two couples in their late teens or early twenties climb into sight. They were chattering and laughing and roughhousing a little, and seemed to be having a great time. And not one of the fit-looking foursome appeared to be at all winded by the climb, Natalie noted with a frown.
The newcomers greeted Natalie and Casey with friendly nods, then moved to the side of the cascades to exclaim excitedly over the view. Natalie and Casey shared a glance, then moved in unspoken unison toward the trail.
The return drive to the cabin was quiet, but not uncomfortably so. Natalie sat back in her seat, watching the passing mountainsides,
