“Wonder how many miles he logged,” Frank said. “He’s been gone almost a month, ain’t he?”
Maggie sat up in her chair, feet off the rail. She leaned forward and squinted. Could it be? She stood and the hiker waved.
“Reckon I’m gonna be cooking my own dinner tonight,” Sully said.
Maggie put her beer on the table and went down the porch steps. She walked toward him, at first thinking it might not be him. He was barely recognizable. She walked a little faster. He dropped his stick and shrugged off his backpack, letting it fall to the ground, and she broke into a run. So now all those guys on the porch knew everything, knew that he meant so much to her, knew she’d been missing him madly. When she reached him she threw her arms around his neck and almost knocked him over.
He kissed her as he lifted her off the ground.
“Damn, you feel good,” he said. “Miss me?”
“I was so busy I hardly noticed you were gone.”
He laughed. “I’m going to need a ride to Leadville to pick up my truck.”
She pulled away from him just a little bit. “It’s not there,” she said. “I looked and I—”
He grinned. “It’s there.”
“Why didn’t you just get it on your way?” she asked.
“I didn’t want to get off the trail when this was closer. Besides, I knew you’d give me a ride. And it has to be soon—there’s nothing clean in my pack.”
“You’re pretty ripe,” she noted, wrinkling her nose. “Good hike?”
“I’ll tell you all about it,” he said. “But can I have a beer first?”
“Sure.”
He grabbed her hand and his backpack, letting her have the walking stick. “Come on, then. I bet I can clear the porch without hardly trying.”
“You gave up shaving,” she said, leaning into him a little bit.
“Just for a week or ten days. Once I started south, I didn’t bother.”
“How far did you go?”
“Not so far. Couple of weeks north with a stop or two, ten days south, no stops. Twenty-six days since I left. I was into Wyoming.”
“Did you run into wildlife?” she asked.
“Here and there. Lots of cows and deer. I heard wildlife. Coyotes, for sure. And wolves. I wanted to go farther north to see what was up there, but I couldn’t.”
“Oh? Why not?”
“You were here,” he said. “It was time to get back.”
“Hmm. I wondered if maybe I’d just get a postcard. If that...”
“You’ve been let down a lot, I think. Well, join the club. Let’s get that beer and I’ll treat the boys on the porch to some high-test body odor.”
“Really, you’ve been working on it for a while. I think I’ll borrow Sully’s truck to go to Leadville. I like the way the inside of my car smells.”
“You looked for my truck in Leadville, did you?”
“Not really,” she said. “I might’ve glanced around. I was working on changing my life while you were gone. I have big plans. I’m thinking of joining a hospital ship, doing surgery for those in need and without resources, having a long, magnificent affair with a brilliant, hot Australian doctor.”
“Is that so? You haven’t gone back to work, I take it,” he said.
“That’s a matter of opinion. I’ve been working my tail off.”
“Ah, that’s what I saw when I got here,” he said. “That was you working.”
*
Maggie allowed him only one beer, though he snatched a second while following her to the house. She raided Sully’s closet and found sweatpants, a T-shirt and pair of socks for him, and he had a pair of rubber shower sandals in his pack, something he put on his feet when he got out of his hiking boots at the end of every day on the trail. She pushed him into the shower and said, “We’ll talk about the truck tomorrow. Want me to throw your dirty clothes in the wash?”
“They might have to be burned,” he said. “God, these thru-hikers must be evil smelling by the time they make the Canada border.”
“Are you going to shave?” she asked.
“That depends. How sexy do you find the beard?”
“I’ll get you a new razor and some shaving cream,” she said. “I’ll meet you back at the store. Sully said he’d throw some burgers on the grill for you.”
*
Maggie was sitting at the bar, waiting for him. She smiled, pleased with the improvement. “Better,” she said. “Hungry?”
“For real food, you bet.” He sat on the stool beside her. “I spent half my childhood camping but I realized, I’ve never been on a long trek alone. I lost four toenails and my feet are now extra ugly.”
“I hear the toenail stories from everyone who comes through,” she said. “Were you lonely?”