As soon as she opened the door, she was rocked by a cold wind. “Oh, this is fun.”
She thought she’d muttered it under her breath, but on the other side of the truck, Nick laughed. “You were warned.”
He pulled out a big bundle that she’d noticed in the back seat earlier. It was held closed by a bungee cord, and she’d just assumed it was something for work.
“Okay, let’s find our spot,” he said, and after pulling up the hood of her sweater, grabbing their almost empty coffee tumblers and the thermos with more coffee, she followed him.
Lucy had no idea where they were or what direction they were facing, but she had faith that Nick knew in which direction the sun would appear. Plus, as she looked around, she realized most of the other visitors who’d already picked a spot were facing the same direction. There was one guy who was facing the opposite way, but there was a possibility he was sleeping against a boulder.
“This is good,” Nick said, standing next to a flat slab of rock.
Lucy was pretty sure her butt wasn’t going to appreciate that, and it also looked very cold, but she kept her mouth shut. This was something Nick had always wanted to experience, and if she ended up with an aching, hypothermic butt, so be it.
After taking off the cord, Nick unrolled the bundle. He put down what looked like a blanket made of aluminum foil. Then a flannel-backed blanket. She laughed when she realized the next thing he unrolled was a cushion from one of their patio loungers. And then he spread a heavy blanket over that.
“Okay,” he said. “Get comfortable.”
He’d chosen the rock well because it sloped in the front, so she wasn’t forced to cross her legs. And after she’d settled on the cushion with the coffee supplies in front of her, he sat next to her. The last step was a wool blanket he draped over their shoulders.
“You warm enough?”
“It’s perfect,” she said, and it was true. She would have told him she was warm enough regardless, but with the layers she was wearing and the wool cocoon they were wrapped in, she was toasty.
“Look at that sky.”
The awe in his voice made her throat tight with emotion as she looked around. Even though the sun wouldn’t break the horizon for a while yet, the shifting colors in the dark sky were stunning.
After a few minutes, he poured the coffee from the thermos into the tumblers and handed one to her. It was surprisingly warm, and she wrapped her hands around it.
“Should I set up my phone to video it or take pictures or anything?” she asked after taking a sip.
“No.” He turned his head to look at her, his smile gleaming in the darkness. “I just want to experience it with you.”
Lucy would gladly get up in the middle of the night anytime to see that look on his face. It was so worth it.
* * *
Nick watched the sun glimmer on the horizon and knew this moment was rare. As the dawn broke, Lucy was snuggled against his side with his arm and the blanket wrapped around her. They were quiet, watching the day begin together, and he hoped there would never come a time in his life he couldn’t remember the way this moment felt.
They sat there even after others began moving, packing up things or exploring the top of the mountain. Some of them would be hiking, others were already starting their cars to move on to the next item on their vacation list.
“Was it everything you hoped it would be?” Lucy asked after he’d pointed out things they could see now. The ocean. Islands. It was going to be a gorgeous day.
“It was.” He squeezed her shoulders. “Thank you for helping me make the time to do this. I maybe could have just gone the rest of my life thinking this was a thing I’d really like to do someday.”
She laughed and it carried in the crisp air. “You might be onto something with making lists, you know.”
“Now, the big challenge. Can I get up?”
“So is now a good time to tell you Ireallyhave to pee? That was a lot of coffee.”
“Follow that crowd of women over there and get in line. I’ll put all this away.”
“Why isn’t there a crowd of men?”
Nick gestured around the mountain. “So many trees.”
“Gross.”