Crimson Highway by David Wickenhauser (i can read with my eyes shut txt) 📕

Hugh decided on the pistachio crusted trout, and Jenny said she thought the stuffed halibut looked good. Then she held her hand up to her mouth, and whispered, “Oh, my, the price.”

“Please don’t insult me, honey,” Hugh admonished her with mock seriousness. “I’ve told you, I’ve got nothing else to spend money on other than the occasional pleasure. And this date with you is definitely a pleasure for me,” he added.

“For me to,” she said, looking directly into Hugh’s eyes.

Hugh’s heart skipped a beat at her direct gaze. Was he ever going to get used to her beauty? He hoped not.

“This isn’t a truck stop diner, that’s for sure,” he said, which caused him to become reflective.

“We sure have been through it, haven’t we?” he said. “I think we have both changed a lot since we first met. You are hardly the same dirty, smelly vagrant that I picked up barely two weeks ago.”

Hugh saw the expression on her face. “Whoops, I guess that didn’t come out the way I meant,” he said.

“Don’t worry, Hugh. I know what I put you through back then, and how much trouble I have caused you.”

Hugh reached across the table to take her by the hand.

“Sweetheart, those days are past us, now. I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

The waiter brought their appetizers, and then took their order. They continued to make small talk while eating their clams and crab cakes.

As Hugh had promised, the gathering twilight brought out the magical lighting effects of this extraordinary place. The effect that the soft lighting gave to Jenny’s appearance almost took Hugh’s breath away. No one could paint a picture, or make a photo, that could reproduce what Hugh was seeing in front of him right now.

“Jenny, I …” Hugh had started to say, but the moment was spoiled by the appearance of the waiter bringing their dinners.

After they finished eating, and were enjoying their coffee, Hugh took Jenny’s cell phone out of his pocket and showed it to her. “When we get back, I want you to put this someplace safe. I uninstalled the tracking app, so it should be OK to use.”

“Why would I need this, when I’ll be with you?” Jenny asked.

Her question caught Hugh off guard. “You never know, we might get separated … maybe at a truck stop or something. It will just be good to have,” he said, thinking quickly. He hated himself for being so duplicitous with her, when he was well-aware that she was being totally honest with him these days.

Hugh paid the tab, and left a generous tip, then ordered up their car.

On the way home, Hugh told Jenny about the moose that Buck had alerted him to on the forested ridge above the ranch.

“The thing about those critters is that they are almost impossible to see at night,” he told her. “It’s something about their hair. It’s dull, and doesn’t reflect light. You have to be real careful driving on these roads in the dark.”

“That reminds me,” Jenny said. “What’s the true story about Old Grouch? And don’t tell me another joke.”

“It’s a long story. You sure you want to hear it?” Hugh asked her.

“Sure, take as long as you want. I’ve got the rest of my life to hear it,” she said.

That “rest of my life” part was not lost on Hugh.

As if on cue to save him from having to respond, Hugh barely had a split second to see the moose that suddenly and without warning loomed up right in front of them. It was all but invisible in the darkness, even when it was finally illuminated by the headlights.

He swerved violently to avoid the large animal, barely missing it by its whiskers.

“That’s one animal that you don’t want to hit,” he said. “They’ll total a car and, what’s worse, their long legs have them so far off the road, they tend to go right through a windshield. I’ve seen pictures. It’s not pretty.”

“We sure don’t have that problem in Bakersfield,” Jenny remarked, a little shaken by the moose encounter.

Hugh parked the car in the garage, and he and Jenny walked to the house.

He walked Jenny up the stairs to her room.

At Jenny’s door, she turned to face him.

Hugh hated awkward moments, so he solved that problem by bringing Jenny close to him, lifting her chin again like last time and giving her a good, long kiss on the lips. He started to pull away, but her hands were now behind him, one on his back, and one behind his neck. He settled in for another long kiss, which was growing in intensity, and putting him in dangerous territory, temptation-wise.

Jenny finally released him, and stepped back half a step. “Would you like to come in?” she asked breathlessly.

“Jenny, please believe that I would love to, more than you will ever know, but I won’t, can’t. I hope you understand.”

“I don’t know. I’ll try, Hugh. This is brand new territory for me.”

“Then trust me,” Hugh told her.

Hugh opened Jenny’s door for her, and guided her gently toward it. “Good night, sweetheart. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Good night, Hugh. And thanks for the wonderful evening. All of it.”

Then she disappeared into her room.

Hugh stealthily backtracked one door, and whispered through the crack where Mary’s door was slightly ajar, “You get back into bed, you little stinker.”

He heard a rustle of nightgown, and the sound of somebody settling into bed. That scamp, he thought. She’s going to be a handful for some guy, some day.

Hugh walked into his own room. When he spotted himself in his dresser mirror, he hated what he saw.

I’m blowing it. All I hope is that she doesn’t hate me too bad in the morning when she finds I have left. I