“It is, but I don’t even care. You’re here and safe. Woody’s safe…well, he would be if he didn’t head off into Drug Cartel Land to rescue his girlfriend and her brother.
“I guess what I’m trying to say is that if I can trust you with my feelings, you can trust me with yours. I don’t expect you to tell me any details that’ll make Uncle Sam come after you and lock you away for years and years. But if you need space, you’ve got it. If you need to talk, I’m here to listen. If you need to come out here into the woods and just be silent, we can do that too.”
Reese let out a small surprised noise when Gus yanked her against him. But she recovered instantly and wrapped her arms around him when he hugged her tightly.
“I’m not used to talking about the shit in my head, but if it becomes too much…I’ll let you know.”
Reese melted against him. She could hear birds overhead, the wind rustling the leaves in the trees, and the beat of Gus’s heart. If she could spend the rest of her life right here, in his arms, with the peacefulness of the world surrounding them, she would.
He pulled back, kissed her lightly, then grabbed her hand. “Come on, we’ve still got a mile or so to go.”
“How do you know where the heck we are and where we’re going?” she asked when they started walking again.
He shrugged. “I just do.”
“My sense of direction sucks,” she informed him. “I can drive the hell out of anything with wheels. Cars, trucks, go-carts, motorcycles. But knowing which way to go is a bit trickier for me.”
Gus laughed.
“Before cars were made with GPS in them, I was always hopelessly getting lost.”
“Close your eyes,” Gus said.
Reese immediately did as he asked without a second thought.
He stopped and spun them in a few circles. “Now, open your eyes and tell me which way we were just heading.”
Reese laughed as she looked around her. All the trees looked the same. And she couldn’t see any kind of trail where they’d just walked either. “I have no idea.”
“Seriously. Take a breath and look around. Look for clues. Where did we just come from?”
“Seriously yourself, Gus. I really have no idea. Every leaf and branch looks the same. I don’t know.”
He frowned. “That isn’t good,” he said, more to himself than to her. “The Refuge is at the edge of thousands of acres of woods. I need to teach you how to use a compass and how to track a little bit.”
“You can try,” she said without conviction. “But Woody’s attempted more than once to teach me some of that stuff. I’m hopeless.”
“You aren’t hopeless,” he said without thought.
Warmth spread throughout Reese. It was such a small thing, yet she couldn’t help but love how he stood up for her. “Okay, smart guy. Your turn. Close your eyes so I can spin you, and you can tell me which way we come from.”
He shut his eyes with a small smile and let her spin him around. When he opened his eyes, it took about two seconds for him to get his bearings and point to the left. “That’s where we walked. I can see the scuffs in the dirt. And that way is north,” he pointed in front of them, “and that way is Los Alamos.” He pointed in a different direction.
“No one likes a smart aleck,” Reese said.
“You do,” he countered.
He had her there. “Whatever,” she muttered.
Gus laughed and grabbed her behind the head and leaned in to give her another kiss. She had to admit, she liked how free he was with his kisses. No, she loved it.
“Are you hungry? Do you need a snack? Maybe some water?”
“No, I’m good.”
“All right. We’ll have a picnic when we get there. Come on, it’s not too much farther.”
“Okay, great human compass, lead the way.”
“One day I’m gonna make you lead us out to the spot I’m going to show you,” he said as they started walking again.
“Is that a threat?” she asked with a smile.
“Nope. Not at all. I just really want you to be able to find your way around here. The thought of you being lost in the forest makes me feel physically sick.”
She squeezed his hand once more. “Don’t worry. I like hiking and being out in nature, but I have no intention of ever wandering around on my own. I’ll stick to established paths or with you.”
“But I could get hurt. And you might have to go back to The Refuge to get help.”
Reese shook her head. “Nope. Not happening. And we need to stop talking about you being hurt.”
“Okay. But you’ll humor me and try to learn about navigating, right?”
Reese sighed. “Of course. But don’t get your hopes up. I’m really not good at directions. Just ask Woody. He’ll tell you.”
Gus squeezed her hand and they continued on their way.
“So…I haven’t asked…and if you don’t want to tell me, it’s okay. But how did you get your nickname?” Reese asked.
Gus smiled. “You know most of us get our nicknames from basic training, right?”
“Yup. Except for Woody. He’s been Woody his entire life. His friends in elementary school started calling him that because of his last name, and it stuck. Everyone calls him that, even our parents.”
“Right. Well, when I was in basic, one of the DI’s—drill instructors—decided to do something different for PT one morning. He brought us to the sand pits and set up a net. We played volleyball for two hours straight. And trust me, that shit is just as hard as doing pushups and sit-ups. Anyway, they put me in front and time after time, I spiked the ball, earning our team points. And points were very important because whoever lost each game had to run laps, do jumping jacks, and other physical shit.” He shrugged. “After a while, everyone started calling me Spike because of how good I was at spiking the volleyball.”
Reese stopped walking again and stared at him in disbelief.
“What? What’s wrong?”
“That’s the story behind your nickname?”
“Yeah, why?”
“It’s not what I expected,” Reese said with a small chuckle.
It was Gus’s turn to laugh now. “What did you expect? Killer? Bubbles? Flat?”
“Flat?” she asked.
“Flatulence.”
“Oh, Lord, no. Please tell me that isn’t a real name someone was given.”
“Of course it is. So is Bubbles. You can see why I was all right with Spike.”
“Yeah. But I like calling you Gus.”
“I like it too,” he said with a small smile.
He was looking at her with such intensity and tenderness, it was all Reese could do not to yank him against her and force him to his back on the ground right then and there. “I just…it felt weird to call you Spike when I wasn’t a part of your team. When Woody first told me about his teammates, I decided there was no way I could call anyone by their nickname.”
“You can call me whatever you want,” Gus told her. “Now, come on, if we stand out here in the forest all day, we’ll never get there.”
They walked in a comfortable silence for another ten minutes. Then Gus said quietly, “We’re getting close. I’m going to need you to stay here while I go ahead and check things out to make sure everything’s safe.”