Lumbersexual (Novella) (8 page)

“No.  You’re not friend-zoned.”

“You chopping morning wood with Lumberman yet?”

My eyes widened.  “Ian!”

“Just asking.  Is it time for Netflix and chill?”

Not answering that.  None of his business.  If I was going to have a fling, I certainly wasn’t telling him first.  I sidestepped the question by saying, “We don’t have TV.”

“Bet he does.”

I didn’t know if I’d ever met anyone more exasperating.  “What does it matter to you?”

“I’m up for the chill part.”

“No, Ian.  Housemates.  Not going there.”  The look on his face eased up, and he gave me a smile that was less taunting, more rueful.  Maybe he really was disappointed, but I didn’t understand why.  He was cute.  He could get any girl he wanted.

Well, except me.

“Damn.  Okay, well, if you change your mind.”

“I won’t change my mind.”  Not gonna make him think otherwise.

“Then I’ll stay away when you guys go backpacking.”

“Why’s that?”

“If your tent’s a-rockin’, don’t come a-knockin’!”

He raised both eyebrows and ducked to miss the ball of socks I threw at him.  “Don’t get so defensive.”  And then he escaped before I could throw anything more substantial at him, like my hiking boots.  Or a piece of firewood.

Today, training complete, I was to begin work with my crew on a meadow in Wawona, near the campground.  We planned to cordon off the restoration area, remove invasive, nonnative plant species, and reroute foot traffic to avoid the delicate meadow.

I got up, retrieved my socks from where they’d landed across the room, finished getting dressed—feeling official in my still-new Park Service uniform—and grabbed my daypack to go to work.

After I closed the front door to go down to my car, I saw Yazmin sitting outside on an orange brocade cushion in a small cluster of trees.  Her legs crossed in the lotus yoga position, she appeared to be meditating.  My noise startled her, and she opened her eyes.

“You don’t have to be at work early?” I asked.

“I have a grove walk planned at ten, so I get the morning off.”

She reached up, stretched her arms over her head, and then got up, dusting herself off.  “I really felt like I needed to focus on my second chakra.”

What?  

Reading the puzzled look on my face, she pointed at her pelvic area.  “The second chakra is the center of sexuality and identity.  I was feeling like mine was wonky.”

All righty then.  “Uh.  Good.  Have fun with that.  I’m off to work.”  I was correct about Yazmin being a Class A flower child.  

A few minutes later, I pulled up at the ranger station and walked into the front, still feeling shy and new in my shiny, pressed uniform.  Open for business early, the door buzzer pinged when I opened it, announcing me, just like any other visitor.  Pamphlets lined the walls.  A small gift shop with stuffed animals, maps, magnets, and other Yosemite paraphernalia was set up on one side.  A scale model of the topography of the park occupied the middle of the room.

And Court leaned on the information counter with Amanda to his side.

I had a visceral reaction.

Court, of course, made my brain go fuzzy and my hands twitch (and maybe other parts of my body).  Spiffed up in his uniform, but with an edge from his hair being shaved on the sides, he looked like the forest ranger equivalent of a hot cop who was allowed to have tattoos and a creative haircut.  Kind of a punk rock ranger.

But Amanda was also standing too close to him.  

Goddammit.

She was going to drive me nuts all summer, I could tell.  He was mine.  I was claiming him.

At least for now.

“Maggie.”  His low voice, scratchy.  God, I
felt
it.

“Hi, Court.”

“You starting field work today?”

“Yes.  I can’t wait.”  I also couldn’t wait until I was able to talk to him without anyone—especially Amanda—being there.

I wanted to growl at her, but instead, I said, “I’m supposed to meet my crew in the back office and then we’re going to take a government vehicle to the restoration site.”

“Oh, that’s fantastic,” she said.  “Court told me all about what you were doing.”

Did he really?  

So she’s one of
those
.  Just trying to make me jealous.

Ugh!

He said there was nothing between them now, but was it true?  I didn’t know him well enough.  

I needed to figure out where she fit in his life, but I also had to leave.  I went through the back door, met my crew, and headed out into the early morning breeze of a sure-to-be hot day.

Thing was, although I was supposed to be taking photographs with the government-issued camera, mapping out areas, and pulling out invasive species, all I wanted to do was map out my own area around Court and pull out another invasive weed.

In the process I got eaten alive by mosquitoes.

By the end of the day, tired, dirty, and covered in bug bites, I made it back home.  I gratefully hopped in the shower, cleaned up, daubed my insect bites with calamine lotion, and put on comfy sweats and a t-shirt.  After a communal dinner, I lounged on the back patio, sipping a beer and munching on dessert Cheez-Its.

Katie came outside to join me.  Now that a week had passed, her hair was not the same vibrant blue as it was last week, but it still wasn’t a hair color found in nature.  At least not for humans.  Peacocks, maybe.

She had a beer in one hand and a sketchbook in the other.  “Mind if I join you?”

“Please.”

She took a sip of her beer, pulled out a few colored pencils, and started drawing, and after a few lines set down on the page, I realized what—or who—she was drawing.  “Hey!  That’s me!”

“Do you mind?”

“Not really, no.”

“You’ve just got the most unusual coloring.”

I was used to hearing this, though hearing it from an artist made it feel more special than it usually did.  “So I’ve heard.”  I paused and sipped my drink.  “Other people can check a single box.  Not me.  Guess I’m just trying to find my box.”

“Aren’t we all?  But you’re Maggie, plain and simple.”  She paused, set down her pencil, and took a sip of her beer. “It’s always easier for people on the outside to tell you who you are.  It’s harder to tell who you are from the inside because you have to decide for yourself.”

“Yeah, that’s true.  I haven’t decided yet.”

“I’d love to paint you, though,” she said.  “Your hair looks black when you’re inside, but when it’s in the sun it’s dark brown.  Your skin is so lovely and your eyes are spectacular.  I’ve never seen such an unusual green-brown mix.”

“That’s from my mom.  She’s French and Sioux and something else.  My dad’s black.”

She shook her head.  “No wonder all the guys are after you.”

I stared at her and bit a cracker.  “What are you talking about?”

“Court, Ian.  Every guy who looks at you wants you.”

“Thanks for the compliment, but that’s not been my experience.  Normally they just want me to give them a ride to the grocery store.”

Shaking her head, Katie laughed as she kept sketching.  “You just don’t see it, do you?”

“I wish you were right.  But you’re not.”

The next evening, Court knocked on the door after dinner.  “You busy?”

He had to be kidding.  With no electronic distractions, all I had to do was talk with my roommates, which I was starting to really love.  “Not too busy.”

“I want to show you something.  Quick hike.  We should be back before dark.”

“A surprise?”

“A secret spot.”

This could be fun.

“Get your hiking boots on.”

I nodded, went to my room, pulled on my shoes, and put my hair up in a ponytail.  Matt was hanging out in the living room with Ian, and I told them I’d be back after a hike.  I could tell Ian had a snarky comment, but he held his tongue.

As I took off, I realized that I just left the house, carrying nothing.  No keys.  No wallet.  We never locked the house because there were just too many of us and the house was so remote.  Usually someone was home anyway, given our staggered work schedules.  So different than how I lived elsewhere, in fear that someone would take all my stuff away from me.  Yet another reason why I just felt comfortable here.  I already had a network of friends watching out for me, and someone would watch over my home.  I trusted this community in the middle of the forest.

Expecting to get in his truck, he surprised me by taking off walking up the street, then veering to a path I’d never noticed before.  He turned to me.  “We’re going to my favorite spot in the park.  Not many people know to go here, but I go here all the time.  This is a deer trail.”

He grabbed my hand.

After kindergarten, I didn’t hold hands very much with anyone.  But I loved holding his hand.  Warm, strong, and big.  But it also felt like he was supporting me, with more than just his body.  Reaching out and holding on.

“How are you liking your first weeks?”

“It’s indescribably amazing.  I feel like I’m doing something that matters.  I’m making the park better.”  He nodded.  “Meadows are so sensitive.  They really get affected by too much use.  There are these old pictures of people parking in them in the 1960s and having love-ins.  And really, you do that and the meadow dies.  You just need to leave them alone.”

We got to an area that had some small rocks to climb up, and he let go of my hand, but then turned to pull me up.  As we headed up the path, I noticed another hot spot on my feet.  Dammit.  I was always getting blisters.  But I didn’t want to stop and fix it, so I ignored it.  We continued on until the path got narrow and we had to break apart, but he still stayed right behind me, talking the whole way.

Fifteen minutes later, we huffed up to the top of a ridge, with truck-sized boulders.  Together, we scrambled to the top of one.  It was wide enough for ten people to sit on it, but Court went to the edge, sat down, and hung his feet over.  I followed him, not liking being so high up.

But then I took a look.

A panoramic vista of Wawona lay below us, anchored by the Wawona Dome off to the side.  The Q-Tip tops of pine and fir trees poked up everywhere, and we could hear the rush of the South Fork and see the granite rocks it passed.