“We could wait and see. Or we could buy a pregnancy test.”
“At the convenient store?” he asked with a wide-eyed innocence, hiding a playful smile.
“Yes. At the convenience store.” An excited, but uneasy feeling inched through her. “Are you sure? I mean, I’ve had a lifetime to plan how I would love you. This is all pretty much a shock to you.”
Reno held her shoulder, looking her full in the face. “The only way I could regret this is if you weren’t coming with me. I would not want to leave a child of mine behind.”
She could hear the certainty in his voice. “I understand completely.” Journey was grateful that wouldn’t be a choice they’d have to make.
…Despite the late hour, Journey wasn’t shocked to see a crowd of people at the Slab. Cars were parked up and down the narrow road on either side of the slow-moving waterway. Reno, however, was flabbergasted.
“Where did all these people come from?”
“All over.” She loved this place and so did a lot of other people. The Slab was a huge outcropping of granite that provided a playground for the Llano River. “Folks come from miles around to enjoy the swimming and wading holes. There aren’t many places in central Texas that has sandy beaches like these or huge, smooth rocks perfect for sunbathing to get a tan.”
“A what?” Journey noticed him noticing a beautiful woman in a very small pink bikini. She was wearing sunglasses, stretched out on one of the pink slabs of granite “What cha looking at?”
Reno didn’t miss a beat. “A woman who’s not worthy to walk in your shadow, my love.”
“Oh, you’re good.” She pulled on the hem of the shirt he wore unbuttoned over his bottoms.
“What was she doing lying out like an offering to the gods?”
“Well, I’d say she was trying to get a tan on her skin, but the sun is a little low in the sky for that to work.” She giggled in a scoffing manner. “I think she just wants some attention.”
“Tanning hide is how you make leather. Why would she want to do that?”
Journey, who’d never been an advocate of wasting her time trying to get a tan felt vindicated. “Exactly. People ruin their skin trying to get a tan. Especially with a tanning bed.” When she saw his narrowed gaze, she shook her head. “Getting a tan is letting your skin get darker.”
Reno was trying to follow her line of thought. “Where I’m from, women protect their skin. They consider a tan, as you call it, to be a sign of low class.”
Journey saw the women turn her head to stare at Reno through her sunglasses. She didn’t appear happy. “It’s pretty common knowledge now that too much exposure to the sun’s damaging ultraviolet waves causes cancer.”
“Cancer.” He repeated the word. “I’ve heard Domino use that word. Terrible disease, isn’t it?”
“You’re right about that.” Nodding ahead of them, she announced, “See, the crowd is thinning out the further away from the road we go.” She could see a few people fishing and a couple taking a full-body dip in one of the deeper areas. “There’s a miniature waterfall up ahead. If that spot is unoccupied, it’s my favorite.”
Reno walked along beside her, trying to see anything that looked familiar. “This place has changed. Shallower. The rapids are almost non-existent.”
“Just depends on the amount of rainfall. A guy died when his truck was swept off the road and into the river a year or two ago. I think Apple almost suffered the same fate here, come to think of it. Benjen saved her.”
When he didn’t comment, Journey touched his arm. “What’s wrong?”
They came to a stop next to the waterfall. There was no one about, so they stripped down to their suits and Reno held her hand as they stepped into the knee-deep water. “You look very alluring, Sojourner Stanton.” He ran the tip of a finger from just under her breast to just over her femininity. “There’s not much material to this little outfit.”
“Hey, it’s a one-piece, very modest.”
“The one-piece has a lot of openings in it. Most of your front is uncovered.” He spun her around. “As is most of your back.”
“Do you want me to put my cover up back on?”
He looked around. “No, not at all.” Pulling her close for a kiss, he took advantage of their solitude.
Journey kissed him back wholeheartedly, but she could feel that something wasn’t right. “You didn’t answer my question back there. What’s wrong?”
He waved his hand around. “I’ve always loved this place. I lived here for four years. But now, all I can see is this granite. What if…” He paused, unable to go on.
Journey finished for him. “What if somebody disappears?”
“Yea. What if I disappear? Where will I end up? When will I end up?” He pointed at the people he could see farther upstream. “Has it happened before? How often?” Reno knelt in the water, placing his hands on a slab of granite. “Never in my life have I felt so…temporary. And I’m not talking about dying. After I came through, I know now how easily you can…”
“Vanish?”
“Yea.”
She came close and hugged him from behind, laying her cheek on his back. “I’ll hold you. Keep you from going anywhere.”
Reno laughed lightly. “Silly, isn’t it?”
“After what you’ve experienced, you know what’s possible.” She held him for long moments, rubbing the smooth muscles of his back. “Let’s try not to think about it today. Let’s just be.”
With a sudden movement, he swung around to pick her up. His demeanor completely changed. “I like how you think.”
Together they
