Caching In (24 page)

“I told her to go ahead and take your car, and I would drive you home. She didn't want to go, but I explained that you and I need to talk. You’ll be locked in a car with me for two hours, so we’ll be forced discuss this.”

“You could have called instead of driving all this way.”

“Yes, but I wanted to talk in person. I care about you, Ally.” He approached me, and for some reason, I stepped back so I stood back in the bathroom. “Don’t you care about me, too?”

More than you know
, I wanted to yell at the top of my lungs.
But I’m tired of being screwed over! I can’t trust anyone. I’m so sorry for what you went through, and my issues are petty compared to yours, but they’re there. I’m afraid of losing you, so it’s best we aren’t together.
I couldn’t say those words, though. All I managed to say, was, “Yes.”

He reached for my hand with his, intertwined our fingers, and guided me into the small living room where we both sat down on the couch, so close to each other our knees almost touched. “I want a future with you.”

“You do?”

His lips parted slightly as his eyes widened. “Of course, I do. Since I met you, well, that’s the most fun I’ve had in a long time.” His hand moved to my thigh. “I care about you and enjoy our time together.”

Just because we liked to hang out didn’t rubber stamp us as soul mates. Even though Alyssa told me about their daughter, Seth still refused to open up to me. Relationships required honesty, truth, and candidness. “I kissed my ex-fiance.”

“What?” His hand leapt off my leg as he jumped to his feet, raking his fingers through his hair in a panic. “When? Why? How?” My eyes burned as I tried to keep up with his frantic pace. “Wait. I know how.” He knelt beside me. “Why?”

“It happened a few weeks ago. It didn’t mean anything.”

“Then why did it happen?”

“Why does anything happen, Seth?” My turn came to stand and start pace the room. “He stopped over one night out of the blue. I felt lost, confused and he was, I don’t know,
comfortable
and
familiar
. He went in for the kiss, and I didn’t push him away.”

Seth took his time raising to his feet. “Did you … I mean …” his voice cracked.

I shook my head. “No. I told him he was still an asshole and kicked him out.”

A grin spread across Seth’s face and I realized as dumb as it was to kiss Josh, there were worse things I could have done.

“While we’re talking truths, I suppose I should tell you about the geocache I shut Mike up about when he mentioned it.” He pretended his mouth was a zipper and moved his finger across them. “I talked to Alyssa before Chelsea even called me. Okay, more than talked. We argued, and cried. And I realized there isn’t a reason to hide this from you.” He clasped his hands together and held them to his heart. “The whole geocaching community knows my loss. All those who found it are a part of it.” He approached me again, reaching for me and I obliged. We stood there, staring at each other, and he held my face between his palms. I stood on my tip toes until our lips almost touched. “You’re the one person I want part of my life the most, and the one I’m keeping it from.” His lips pressed against mine, and my heart sped up, realizing
this
was the comfortable and familiar feeling I needed and wanted. “It’s time I show you.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Before we headed out geocaching, Seth recommended I get a full meal in my stomach. He assured me once I had food inside me, I'd feel much better. To make certain I got my fill, he treated me to the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet at Paul Bunyan's Cook Shanty, a tourist favorite ever since John Candy downed the Old 96’er in
The Great Outdoors
. I ate my share, eating three pancakes, a serving of scrambled eggs, two pieces of toast, bacon and a cup of chocolate milk. By the end of the meal, my body was re-energized, and I could think straight without a knife slashing through my brain.

“So where is this cache? Is it in the Dells?” I adjusted myself on the hard bench beneath my butt. While the restaurant did a great job of living up to its name, the seating left my ass feeling as though I just crashed onto concrete falling from roller skates.

“Nope.” Seth spoke through chewing. “On our way back.” He stabbed his fork into his pancakes, swirling them around in syrup.

“I did some geocaching of my own when I got back from my brother’s.”

“Really? You’re a veteran now, huh?” He winked at me.

“Hardly.” I touched my knife still sitting on the napkin, moving the handle back and forth between my fingers. “I actually placed one.”

The chewing stopped and Seth looked at me. “You? Where? What?”

The nerves about telling him left me. I rubbed my hands together as I let out a slightly evil laugh. “Ah, the tables are turned now. See? It piques curiosity.”

“Well, I’m showing you now. So, you can show me.”

I reached my foot under the table and touched his shoe, raising my foot up the side of his leg. “Oh, is this a case of I’ll show you mine if you show me yours?” His Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed. Good. He liked what I was doing. Maybe, if luck leaned my way, more than my foot would be touching him later.

Pushing his plate away, he ignored my question, and I caught him blushing. "Do you want to explore the Dells before we go? Take in some attractions or anything?”

We planned on coming back after our geocaching trip since I paid for the hotel room the entire weekend. If things went my way, though, we wouldn’t leave the room until check out time. Anxiousness overcame me and I wanted to get going, but wanted to enjoy some time doing couple things. Not that geocaching didn’t qualify as a couple thing to do, but this trip revolved around another purpose besides fun. While here, still, and the crowds not too big, we might as well take advantage of it. “Let's take a Ducks tour." I had never been on the tour before, and the Dells were known for their trucks made from tankers from World War II, which easily coasted from land to water, and vice versa.

“Quack, quack,” Seth joked as he reached across the table to grab my hand and plant a kiss on it.

I adored this man.

----------

The early birds we were that morning, we got onto the first tour of the day. However, even for the first Duck out, the locomotive didn’t have an empty seat. The tour swung us all over the Dells, explaining the city's unique history and myths. The most interesting part showed us where a road collapsed and Lake Delton emptied in 2008, homes collapsing and washing away. Such devastation. The experience included its somber moments (and wet ones as we switched from land to water), our guide was hilarious and kept everyone awake with her jabs. Seth and I sat next to each other, and I often leaned over him to get a better look at things.

After the tour, we wandered around some of the shops, holding hands, as though nothing had changed. We visited an art gallery, browsed homemade jewelry shops, and stopped at a t-shirt store with over the top sayings and not always appropriate pictures on them. The whole morning and into the early afternoon everything seemed perfect - just us, as a couple. The time together reminded me of before things went awry between us, and I wished that back.

By two, Seth thought we should head out to find the cache, and after we could stop for dinner before going back to the hotel. The entire ride, my leg bounced up and down, nervous of things to come. I was thankful we talked the whole time, barely stopping to rest our voices. The importance of this cache to him, though, didn’t leave my mind. It was a huge part of his life. Did our relationship hinge on my reaction? If I didn’t react in a way he deemed acceptable, would that crush us and ruin any chance we had? I couldn’t think about it. Ally Couper took on challenges and this is exactly what it was. I was ready.

----------

"Obviously I know exactly where the cache is," Seth started as he swung his backpack on. "So, I want you to find it."

Enough suspense. If he couldn't just tell me, why couldn’t he at least lead me right there, point it out, and I could open it? This way the whole thing would go faster and we’d be headed back to the hotel, knowing everything we needed to about each other’s lives. "Fine. Why the backpack? Is it hidden deep in the woods and you need items for survival in case I get us lost?"

He locked his car door and placed his keys in the pouch of the backpack. We found parking on a side street, but had to fill a meter. "Funny." He plugged a few coins in. "It's not in the woods. I do have some snacks in here, though, and some other things. I rarely go geocaching without my backpack. You never know what you'll need."

My mind wandered to us making love in the woods, sprawled out on a blanket, grass in our hair as we rolled around. I had to admit a romp in the grass crossed my mind more than a couple times with Josh (he was too chicken to do anything in public) and Harry Styles (yeah, like
that
would ever happen). The thought of Seth and I doing it under the bright blue sky, the sun beating down on our bare skin, sent tingles through my entire body.

The crowded street filled with people reminded me much of the previous night when I searched the block for a bar. People from all walks of life shuffled past us, pointing in the store windows, arguing over which restaurant to try, or their faces glued to their phone screens, narrowly missing Seth and me as they tore down the sidewalk. We were in a small town outside of Madison; I hadn’t even caught the name as we drove in.

I didn't have even a guess as to where we were headed as I hadn’t even taken my cell out yet. He still didn’t give me the name of the cache, or his geocaching name, but I assumed we were somewhat close. We continued down the road, crossing a few streets, passing an ice cream shop and as we moved further down, the distance between shops increased and we began to approach a more rural space. Seth led me over a bridge leading into a wooded area. I wanted to stop and enjoy the peaceful water flowing underneath the bridge, but I got the feeling Seth wanted to get to wherever he was taking me.

We stopped where the end of the bridge met the dirt into the woods. Seth took my hand to his lips, planting a kiss on my skin, and then crossing his other hand on top of mine. “Okay, Ally. If you're ready, this is where I stop.”

I twirled around, observing the trees and ground around me. Nothing stood out or seemed like a place anything would be hidden. I even kicked the dirt up from under my feet. “What's going on? Is it right over here somewhere?” I took a few steps forward as though I knew what to search for.

“No, it's not. I took you this far. If you take out your phone, you can see you’re close. I want
you
to find it.”

“You're not coming with me?” I asked, disappointed and confused.

He pulled the straps on the bottom of his backpack. “I want you to do this on your own. You’ll be fine.”

“Why on my own?”

He placed his hands on the sides of my head and smoothed down my hair. “I’m confident you can do this, Ally. Give me some time. I’ll join you.”

“Time for what?” I thought I spent enough time being patient. He showed up at Chris's doorstep, sent my best friend home, and made it sound like he wanted to do this
with
me. Now, he turned me around, shoved me forward and said, ‘No, you go. I don't want any part of this.’

“This is my first time back since I hid the cache.” I put my hands on his arms as he spoke. “I follow the log online and am glad so many found it. But I haven’t been able to come back yet. I need a few minutes to myself before I catch up.”

“Fine,” I grumbled. My choices were either forge ahead on my own, find the cache, and prove to Seth I was fully capable, and then we could start moving forward together, or, tell Seth forget it and walk away. My curiosity started to fade, with all of these games, but I didn’t walk away from challenges. “After I find this, promise no more secrets or treasure hunts.”

“I promise,” he agreed as he leaned in and kissed my cheek. “Now go already, and find it so we can enjoy our evening together. The cache you’re looking for is called Sweet Lullaby.”

I took a deep breath and fetched my phone out of my pocket. Swiping the lock screen off, I contemplated the possibilities of what I could find. Or even if I found anything at all. I opened up the app and the little marker showed up on my screen. Only one cache existed close to the area - Seth's. Approximately two-hundred feet put me in the cache’s vicinity. I didn't glance behind me before I took my first step because if I was aware Seth watched me my nerves would go into overdrive. Swatting a couple bugs away, I cursed him for not offering bug spray. He probably stashed some in his handy little backpack. Not only was he teaching me about his past, but I guessed also about being a Boy Scout and that I should always be prepared. The ground crunched beneath my feet with every step I made. A couple walked by holding hands and I nodded at them. They couldn't have been more than seventeen years old. At seventeen, I was two years away from meeting Josh, six from our engagement, and nine and a half from our separation. I don't think I would've done anything differently, because I learned from everything we went through. I was sure they were headed off somewhere to go make out. I know that's what I would've been doing that age.