“I’m sure that’s what you think you do,” Kate said, hiding her grin under the sheet.

“Now I take it back, little crip.”

“That’s more like it.”

He made her a lunch of toast with peanut butter and half a protein shake. She gagged on the shake but didn’t voice a complaint. Not after standing him up the night before.

“I think I’m ready to do some hiking,” she said, moving out of bed and into the soft chair by the doors.

“That moose should be gone by now.” Andrew washed their plates and glasses, a towel tossed over one shoulder.

“What moose?”

“I heard a big sucker in the woods by the house this morning. Remind me not to go out for pre-dawn runs.”

With all of the time Kate had spent looking out the doors at the woods and lake, she was surprised she hadn’t seen a moose yet. Supposedly they were everywhere out here in the boonies. “Did you see it?”

“Hell no. I hauled ass into the house.”

“You didn’t at least look out the window?”

A curious look came over his face. “No, I didn’t. I was so beat up from my run, I just kinda collapsed onto the floor.”

“I’m sure that won’t be the last moose to come snooping around. I found this moose tour online last night over in New Hampshire. It’s just thirty minutes away. They take tour buses to popular moose spots at night.”

“That sounds cool.” Andrew stretched, his shirt riding up his stomach. She noticed the bit of a pot belly that had grown since their arrival. There were a growing number of empty beer cans in the recycling bin. Maybe she was weird, but she liked the extra meat on her husband. It made her excited, which then led to wondering when her body would allow her to enjoy him properly. Right now, the thought of even the gentlest sex was exhausting.

As much as she wanted to be intimate with Andrew, the pain and pills and constant battering of her will made it almost impossible to get in the mood. A part of her, of the old, vibrant Kate, cried out to tear off their clothes and fuse skin to skin.

“Why don’t you take me out for a drive?” she said. It paled in comparison to reliving their days as newlyweds in their dream house, but it was all she could muster at the moment.

He perked up at the suggestion. “You want a tour of the town?”

“Yes. And I want to see what’s playing at the drive-in.”

“Your wish is, like, the thing I gotta do,” he said, taking on a wise-guy voice.