by Kate Morris
“Surprised to see Tristan here?” Renee asked as they walked, arms linked toward the group hanging out by the barn.
“Yes, I thought you said Spencer said he was for sure not coming.”
“Hm, guess he must’ve changed his mind,” Renee hinted and winked. Avery nodded to her friend. “Are you glad he did?”
Her eyebrows pinched together, Avery swallowed uncomfortably and said, “Um, sure. His friends are here, so he probably didn’t have anything better to do, ya’ know?”
“Yeah, right. Hot guy like that? He’s got plenty to do. He just chose to hang out with us for his friends, too. Sure.”
Avery sent her a smirk and shook her head.
“Hey, Ave!” Joshua yelled and jogged over, picking her up and swinging her around.
“Hi! How’s school? Staying out of trouble at OSU?” she asked when he put her down.
“Aw, now where would the fun be in that?” he teased, his blonde hair shiny and gilded in the sunlight.
“Everyone ready?” Renee called out and got shouts and hoots of pleasure from the group in answer. “Mount up, people!”
“Avery, ride with me?” Joshua asked, only to be interrupted by their friend Joella, who had a huge crush on Joshua for the last two years and didn’t have the guts to tell him. She was so sweet and pretty. They would make the cutest couple.
“Josh, I was hoping you’d ride with me,” Joella said, touching his arm, a bold move for her. “Hey, Avery.”
“Hi, glad you could make it,” she greeted her friend with a hug.
“I had to come. I brought the wine and beer!”
Joshua laughed. “Then, heck yeah, I’m glad you came, too. Sure, I’ll ride with you, Joella. Catch up later?”
He was asking Avery, and she nodded agreeably.
She saw Tristan’s pickup truck with a trailer attached. They must’ve brought two of the four-wheelers because Renee’s family only had three. Freddie was already on one. Spencer was riding with Renee behind him. Royce was on his four-wheeler already and their other friend, Sheba, was getting on behind him, which left her standing there. She felt like an idiot until Tristan pulled up beside her.
“Need a ride?” he asked.
She nodded and got on reluctantly behind him. It was really uncomfortable riding with him between her legs, so she tried to keep three or four inches between them so their bodies didn’t touch. He didn’t say anything and followed after the rest of the group on the path that led out behind the barns and sheds.
At first, Avery tried holding onto the small, narrow bars beside her hips but the course became too bouncy. She was jostled forward a few times into his back. Tristan reached behind him and grasped her hand, bringing it around his stomach. Then he did the same with the other until she was holding tight. He slid his hand under her right knee and yanked her whole body forward until she was pressed tightly against his. It was very embarrassing. But once she had a better grip, he sped up, and she didn’t feel like she was about to bounce off the back.
She’d been down this path many times with her friend on horses but never on four-wheelers. Avery didn’t really like riding them. She didn’t trust them not to flip over. Horses seemed more reliable.
They rode through the woods down paths, came to a gravel, abandoned road and kept going. The path used to be a train track but was rerouted and torn out decades ago. Now it was just a nice path to ride on.
Up ahead, Spencer led them off the path up into the woods and onto another trail. They rode to the top, wound their way slowly down a long, tricky steep path until they came to a shallow creek and crossed it. Maybe her sensible khakis weren’t so lame, after all because she heard a few of the girls ahead of them crying out about getting splashed. Of course, Royce and Freddie were trying to peel out and send as much water spraying into the air onto each other as possible. She noticed Tristan hung back until they were through with their shenanigans before slowly crossing.
After another half hour of travel, they arrived at her family’s cabin. It wasn’t much, just a tiny cabin for their friends to stay on when they came down from the city to hunt for the weekend. Each person parked their machines near the structure and got off. Tristan offered to help her, and she took his gloved hand.
“Thanks,” she mumbled and walked away from him to join her girls.
“That was awesome!” Freddie yelled and pumped his fist in the air.
Royce joined in, “Yeah, you’ve got some great trails.”
Every vehicle carried on the back rack either a cooler or supplies of some sort. Avery had helped Renee pack items earlier into the coolers on the back of her family’s three ATV’s. The guys were nice enough to carry them over and set them by the campfire pit, which they also went about dumping wood and kindling into.
The sun was lowering in the sky as they set up their table with hotdogs, buns, chips, cold pasta salad, and cookies that Avery made and contributed- this time peanut butter. She hoped nobody had a peanut allergy. She’d also brought Hershey’s chocolate bars and marshmallows. Her family liked doing fun versions of s’mores like chocolate and marshmallow melted between two cookies.
Someone set up and lit the oil lamps around the fire and brought out the folding chairs. There was also a wooden picnic table, and the fire was roaring and crackling. Avery went back into the cabin to retrieve the paper plates she knew Renee’s family kept in stock in the pantry cupboard in the tiny kitchen.
“I heard you had some trouble last week,” Tristan said behind her, causing Avery to jump at his deep voice.
“How did…”
“Through the rumor mill,” he answered, cutting her off and moving to stand with his hand on the counter, his wide back creating a wall that she could not see past. “Is it true?”
“Hey!” Royce complained loudly outside. “There’s no service up here!”
“Duh,” Renee countered. “You should’ve figured that out that by now.”
They all teased him, but Avery was more concerned about her discussion with Tristan.
“What did you hear?” she asked cautiously.
“That someone chased you down the road,” he said bluntly, getting straight to the point, which she was learning was exactly how he was. “Is that true?”
“Yes, I think so.”
“You think so?” he asked impatiently.
Avery was having none of it. She didn’t like raising her voice at people, but she did have seven younger brothers and sisters, after all.
“Yes,” she stated more emphatically and with a touch of attitude.
“What happened? Tell me exactly,” he demanded, apparently not at all intimidated by her emphatic tone.
“I-I was out for a walk,” she described because she figured with that determined look on his face he wasn’t going to stop asking, and she didn’t want to talk about this in front of the others. They’d probably think she was just being dramatic. “It was a little foggy.”
“Where were you walking?” he interrogated, to which she shrank.
“Through the woods,” she explained, watching an irritated scowl wash over his features. “I do it all the time.”
“What kind of gun do you carry?”
“What…no, no gun,” she said confusedly.
His scowl deepened. “Continue.”
She stared at him a second as if he were crazy and then said, “I went across our neighbor’s farm. They were super sweet. Both passed away now, though. Not even very old when it…”
“Avery,” he stopped her. “We’ve only got about thirty seconds before the hoard comes in here for those plates.”
“Oh, right,” she said, blushing. She knew she was because she could feel it and because Tristan’s eyes dropped slowly to her cheeks. Which, of course, caused them to stain deeper. “I was coming past our neighbor’s property on our road out of the woods then, the Campbell’s. They have a dog, a big English sheepdog. So cute and… right, sorry. Stick to the facts! Charlie was barking his poor head off.�
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“Does he do that often?”
“No, never. He’s a little…I mean, big angel. He’s huge. So sweet. Anyway, sorry again. I heard something…”
“What? What did you hear?”
“Branches snapping,” she recounted and felt a shiver on the back of her neck and placed her hand there to calm it. “I can’t describe it, Tristan,” she said, her voice quieting and her heart rate accelerating as she remembered that night. She had been truly terrified like never before in her life, not even when that man had grabbed her at the bar. It was a fear so intense. “I heard… something.” Avery’s gaze lowered from Tristan’s to stare at the wooden floor about three feet away as she recalled it all so fresh in her mind still. “Growling or a voice…but not a voice…not really…not anymore. And then it started coming through the woods at me. Something just told me to run. So, I did. I ran fast. I’m not much of a runner. I prefer hiking, but that night I ran like the hounds of Hell were on me. It was all so strange, though. As fast as I was going and as far ahead of a lead I had…” she shook her head, remembering. “It went across the road into the woods on the other side and was caught up to me in a flash. I barely made it through the gate before…I don’t know what.”
Avery drew her eyes up to meet his again. He looked fierce and angry and…something else…worried? Instead of saying anything, Tristan just nodded.
“A bear?” she asked softly.
He just stared at her but narrowed his blue eyes. “Maybe.”
“We get coyotes out by us pretty often,” she tried to rationalize.
“But coyotes make their own sounds, kind of a yipping. You said this thing was growling and what?”
“Almost…I don’t know. It sounded like a person, but they weren’t saying words.” Avery covered her face with her hands. “I feel like an idiot. It was probably just somebody’s stray dog or a coyote looking for a chicken coop.”
He pulled her hands down gently and didn’t let them go.
“I’m glad you listened to your instincts and ran. Sometimes people don’t, and it costs them.”
She pursed her lips and nodded. “I think…I’m not sure, and this probably sounds crazy, but…”
“Hey, you two!” Freddie called. “Get those plates out here. We’re starving.”
The trance was broken, and she ducked around Tristan and hurried back out to the campfire, which gave off the most glorious smell, all woodsy and smoky and crisp. Everyone ate, the guys told funny military stories, except Tristan, of course. He wasn’t even sitting by them. He’d chosen to sit on the picnic table and plant his feet on the benched seat part of it and eat alone. His face was so severe and intense. He didn’t laugh at his friends’ stories or even crack a smile. Maybe he already heard them, or maybe he was thinking about something that upset him. Maybe he was just grumpy.
“Who wants s’mores?” Renee announced and got a lot of loud and raucous ‘yes’s’ as she rose to get the supplies. Avery went to the picnic table to help. “S’more, Tristan?” her friend asked. He just scowled. Not one to miss a beat, she said, “More for us, then! Avery’s family has the coolest s’mores inventions. Tonight, it’s peanut butter cookies instead of graham crackers.”
“Cookies?” he chirped up.
Avery smiled. What was it with men and cookies? Renee took the supplies to the campfire, and Avery kept one box of cookies behind. She opened the lid and enticed Tristan. “Want one?”
“Peanut butter, huh?” he asked, to which she nodded.
“What’s your favorite?”
“Any,” he said and almost cracked a grin. Almost. But he did take a few cookies.
Avery felt bad he was sitting alone, so she climbed onto the tabletop and sat like Tristan right beside him. She didn’t want a cookie, though. She’d had a few during the baking process early this morning.
“Hey, Ave!” Renee called over to her. “Tell Tristan about your dick boss. He’ll get a kick out of that story.”
Avery sent her a glare and shook her head. Renee laughed and went back to talking to Spencer.
“What’s this about?” he asked.
Avery took a deep breath and lied. Then she tried to figure out why she lied. “Oh, nothing. She’s just being silly.”
“Then why’d she bring it up? You dating your boss or something? What boss? I thought you worked as an independent contractor.”
“I do. No, not dating him…”
“Who are you dating then? That kid over there, Joshua? He keeps staring at you all night.”
“What?” she gasped on a whisper, hoping nobody heard him. Tristan didn’t seem like the kind of man who cared what anyone heard or didn’t hear. “No, Joshua is a friend. We’re just friends. He’s Renee’s cousin.”
“Then what’s the deal with the boss?” he pressed and took a large bite out of a cookie as Sheba starting dancing around the fire with Joella. They cranked up the music that had been playing at a low decibel. Sometimes her older friends drank. Tonight was going to be one of those times.
“He’s not really my boss, just the project coordinator for the hospital that I’m working on this contract for. It-it was nothing.”
“Nothing, huh?” he asked and sniffed, staring at the fire and not her. “If it’s nothing, then tell me what happened.”
“He just made a pass, not a big deal.”
“What kind of pass?” he questioned and casually leaned forward to place his elbows on his knees while he worked on another cookie.
Avery scrunched up her face and said, “Just said some rude things.
“Did he say rude things or make a pass?”
“Hey, we’re going for a walk!” Sheba shouted and linked her arm through Royce’s. If she didn’t know her friend so well, Avery would think it was a bad idea. However, she almost felt like she should warn Royce. Sheba was homeschooled and raised in a Christian home, but it hadn’t exactly stuck. She was fairly rebellious to the point of reckless, and Avery believed promiscuous. They didn’t actually hang out that much unless Renee was with them.
Spencer waved to them.
“Which one?” Tristan pushed. “Rude words or hit on you?”
She thought about that for a moment. “Both, I suppose. Let’s not talk about it, okay?”
Tristan twisted his neck to look at her directly, which always caused Avery to feel a little breathless. There was something about him that made her nervous.
“Did he touch you?”
She sucked in her bottom lip and squinted. “Um…”
“He touched you?”
“Just…it was no big deal.” She tried to chuckle, but it came off as nervous and nerdy. His left eye twitched.
“I should go up there and take care of this asshole.”
His crassness and the implication of what he was suggesting made her flinch. Then she remembered something that might help to talk him off the ledge.
“You already did.”
He looked at her again with a perplexed expression, the light from the fire making the blueness of his eye color more intense. “What are you talking about?”
“I sort of lied and told him I had a boyfriend.”
“What’s that got to do with me?”
“I said it was you. Sort of. I mean, I just described you to him, and the man backed right off after a few minutes. I’m sorry. Now that I say it out loud, it sounds creepy and like I’m your stalker or something.”
Tristan chuckled. It was a low belly sound and guttural.
“What made you do that?” he asked and polished off another cookie, his third. “Tell him I’m your boyfriend?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. You-you’re the most intimidating person I know. I guess I just thought of you when I was trying to describe my ‘boyfriend’ to make him stop.” Avery used air quotes to explain it.
“Intimidating, huh?” he asked, to which she nodded and raised her eyebrows. Then he mumbled something.
“What was that?” she asked. “Sorry
, I didn’t hear you.”
“I said if he wants to see intimidating, I’d be happy to show him intimidating. Especially if the asshole likes intimidating women. Punk.”
Her eyes widened at his threat. She didn’t want to see that. She could imagine what he’d do to a man like Mark Crane.
“I think threatening him with my Army boyfriend did the trick. He seemed a little scared actually.”
Tristan chuckled again, a husky, throaty sound. “Damn straight. He should be. What hospital again?”
Avery was young, but she wasn’t stupid. “No, I don’t need you going up there. This is a big contract for me. This is the equivalent of some people’s full-year salary. I took care of it.”
“Uh-huh. Renee!” he called across the campfire, his deep voice a booming sound in the night. “Which hospital does this asshole who hit on Avery work at?”
“No!” she shouted to her friend and hopped down from the picnic table to stand in front of Tristan. She clasped her hands over his ears so he couldn’t hear her friend’s reply. “Do not tell him!”
Renee laughed loudly as Tristan’s hands shot up to her wrists. She struggled to keep his ears covered. Peering over her shoulder, she could see her friend had returned to talking with Spencer and the others. Finally, Avery allowed him to lower her hands.
“No,” she said firmly and wagged her finger, or attempted to.
“Do you really think you could stop me from finding out?” he asked in a serious tone and tugged at her wrists until she was forced to kneel on one knee on the picnic table’s seat between his thick thighs. He was very close. She could smell his…after shave? Cologne? No, probably not cologne. She couldn’t imagine someone like Tristan wearing cologne. Mark Crane wore cologne, a lot of it, too. Tristan smelled like leather and grass or dirt. Dirt? She was losing her mind.
Suddenly, a blood-curdling scream ripped through the night sky, and the moment was over. Tristan jumped down, moving her out of the way at the same time. He led her over to the others, and she looked down to notice he had a tight grip on her hand.
Chapter Fifteen
“Shut that shit off,” he ordered of the music, which Spencer immediately cut the sound to.
