A Date for the Fair (The Dating 8) - Page 13

“Hey,” I say breathlessly.

Jude grins as if he knows what I was just thinking. “Ready to go? We picked the perfect day to go hiking.”

I flourish a hand toward the picnic basket on the kitchen table. “And we’ll have the perfect picnic with all our favorites.”

He takes in a deep breath. “Did you make cookies?”

“Yep. Along with our turkey sandwiches, pickles, and chips. Your sandwich has extra mayo.”

Jude stares at me, his expression shocked. “Wow. I didn’t think you’d remember that.”

“I remember everything.” It saddens me to remember some of it since I let it all go for nothing. I’m just glad to have it back. “All right, let’s go. I’m ready to get some exercise in before I devour these cookies.”

Chuckling, Jude walks past me to grab the basket off the table. “You better save some for me.”

I wink. “I’ll think about it.” We walk down the stairs and out to his black Jeep he’s had since he turned eighteen. It was a present from his parents for going away to college.

Jude sets the basket in the backseat and smiles. “Think about it my ass. I’m stronger than you. I’ll get them one way or another.”

“I remember,” I laugh. “You tackled me to the ground to get the last cookie on one of our picnics.”

His grin widens. “That was a good day.” Yes, it was. We get in the Jeep and head on our way. There was a time when Jude used to take me everywhere. We’d drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway for hours with the top off and go hiking at all the different trails.

“Talk about nostalgia right now,” I say as we turn onto the parkway.

Jude nods and shifts his Jeep into a higher gear as he speeds up. “Yeah, I’ll never forget trying to teach you how to drive a stick and you putting us in a ditch.”

I smack his arm. “I can’t help that I’m not a good stick driver.”

He shuts my door. “That’s for damn sure.”

I flip him off. “Leave me alone.” He bursts out laughing and it feels so good to play around with him again. My ex-husband wasn’t very good at joking around. My mother used to call him an ole stick in the mud.

Leaning against the headrest, I look out at the mountains. The top is off, and the weather is perfect, not a cloud in the sky. There are several fire towers in the area, but Jude and I know how to get to one that not many people know how to get to. Maybe they do now, but back when we were in college, there was never a time we were on the trail with other people.

When we get to the parking area, which is hidden down a side road off the parkway, there isn’t a single car there. Jude grabs the basket and I tighten up my shoelaces. It’s been a long time since I’ve been hiking. Shawn wasn’t an outdoorsy man. I’ve missed being able to hike and go white water rafting, things that Jude and I used to do all the time.

“Do you want to eat first and then do the hike like we used to?” Jude asks.

My stomach growls. “Heck yeah. I gotta be able to burn off all the cookies I eat.”

Jude chuckles. “You seriously haven’t changed a bit.”

The more I’m around him, the more I seem to find the girl I used to be. “What can I say?” I tell him as we start toward our favorite picnic spot, “I’ve missed this place.”

We have to walk a little way through the forest to get to our spot. I can see the clearing through the trees. What I love about our spot is that it has a magical feel to it. It’s an open field, but it’s also at the top of a hill. It’s not high, but you can see houses that are atop the mountains around us. It all looks picturesque, like paintings.

Jude sets our basket down and I open it. I hand him his sandwich and pull out mine, along with a bottle of water. “You missed Anna today. She left before you showed up.”

Jude shakes his head and smiles. “I saw her pulling out. She looks so grown up now.”

“Yes, she does, but we definitely don’t act alike. She was brought up in a different time.”

He snorts. “Don’t I know it. I’m a professor, remember?”

I sit down and take a bite of my sandwich. “I don’t know how you do it.”

“It’s not all bad,” he says, sitting down beside me. “I have some students who want to learn, but then I have some that goof off and flunk out. It sucks when it happens, but that’s how it goes.”

It was hard our first year at Appalachian, but I kept up with my classes and made good grades. I had Jude to thank for that. For the most part, he was the angel on my shoulder, but he had his devil moments too.

Tags: Heidi McLaughlin The Dating Romance
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