Autumn Adventure (Summer Unplugged #6) by Amy Sparling Read Free Book Online Page A

only ever heard of beef jerky, it was so not my thing.
    We sit on the blanket, legs stretched out in front of us as we watch the sun hover around the horizon, making everything glow pinkish-orange. The canyon is without a doubt, the single most beautiful thing I have seen in my life.
    I spread out the brochures I had taken from the airport kiosk and read some facts aloud to Jace. “So apparently the canyon is about six million years old, but that’s considered pretty young, according to this paper.”
    “How the hell is that young?” Jace says with a snort.
    I keep reading. “Well, the Colorado River has been flowing for seventy million years so I guess the canyon is a little baby in comparison.”
    “Crazy,” Jace says with a shake of his head. “People travel all over the country to come stare at a massive piece of land that would swallow them whole if they fell in…and it’s only a baby in Mother Nature years.”
    “We are so tiny and meaningless on the whole scale of things.” I squint my eyes, trying to look as far into the distance as I can, but even with my excellent vision, I can’t see the end of the canyon. “Makes you wonder why humans even bother looking at something so massive that all it does is remind us of our insignificance.”
    “I disagree.” He leans back on his hands, letting his head lean over and rest on top of mine. “I think that being reminded of how small we are can help us to truly appreciate everything we have, and the people we love and share it with in this world.” He kisses the top of my head and I lean back against his chest.
    “I’m happy I share this world with you,” I say.
    He squeezes me closer. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
     
    Hours later, when the sun has set and we’ve made it back to our rental car, we’re flipping through the GPS, looking for food. “Have you noticed that pretty much all we do when we’re together is hang out and eat?” I ask.
    Jace gives me a look from the corner of his eye. “We do another thing, too, ya know.”
    “You know what I mean,” I say, sticking out my tongue. “Sorry we’re so boring.”
    “Nah, you can’t think of it like that. One day soon we’ll be chasing around a baby all day. I like to just sit back and enjoy my time with you now, while I have it. We have the rest of our lives to be un-boring.”
    “And then when our kid is grown up and we’re retired, we’ll go back to being boring,” I say, eyes wide with pretend excitement.
    He grabs my knee and squeezes it. “Can’t wait.”
     
    Back at our hotel, we hit up the onsite bowling alley and my new husband gets the luxury of watching my terrible bowling skills. First, I choose a ball from the rack simply because it’s a sparkly pink and looks gorgeous under the spinning disco lights.
    It has the number sixteen engraved on it next to the bowling alley’s logo, and the three holes are so big, I could have fit my big toe inside of them. I hold the heavy ass ball with both of my hands in front of my chest. “Uh, how am I supposed to bowl with this thing?” I ask, watching the lanes next to us to see how the more experienced people do it.
    Jace slips his fingers into the ball he chose, which is blue and also has the number sixteen on it. “You should probably get one that’s not an extra-large hole size, for starters.”
    I glance down at the ball again, noticing the XL for the first time. “Hmph,” I mutter, walking it back to the rack. Jace steps up to the lane to bowl, doing that little swooshy bowler walk thing, tossing the ball with precision like he’s some kind of professional bowler. I stand still near the rack of balls, waiting to see where his ball lands.
    Directly in the center of the lane, of course. All but one of the pins fall down with an epic crashing noise and Jace turns around, giving me a lip smirk that means not bad.
    It figures that he would be good at bowling. He’s good at everything.
    I try out the large, medium, and