by Anthology
They had spent the past half hour or so of their journey in a comfortable silence, too focused on traversing the frozen terrain to talk much. All the while, Shelby had been virtually frothing with internal curiosity about the man who had become her unexpected companion.
She couldn’t hold back her questions any longer.
“Yes, Wolfe, your story,” she said, raising her own eyebrows back at him. “I, for one, would like to know a little more about the lone man who showed up on my doorstep in the middle of the night.”
When he still seemed hesitant, Shelby threw her hands up in exasperation.
“Oh, come on! You can’t honestly tell me that you don’t have any questions about me as well, can you?”
Wolfe shook his head, his eyes giving away his amusement at her little outburst.
“So, if I answer your questions, you’ll answer mine?” he asked, sounding thoughtful.
Shelby swallowed, but nodded. She hadn’t really thought far enough ahead to foresee this counterstrike to her demand about his personal information, but tit for tat seemed fair enough in this circumstance.
“Sure,” she said, sounding more confident then she felt. “But I get to ask my questions first!”
Wolfe chuckled at her stipulation.
“Of course,” he said in mock placation, laughing again when she stuck her tongue out at him in response.
“Alright, what’s your first question?” he asked as they resumed walking again, this time keeping pace with each other.
Shelby opened her mouth to answer, but before she could say anything, he cut her off.
“And none of this vague, ‘What’s your story?’ stuff either,” he added, giving her a pointed sidelong glance.
“I wasn’t going to,” Shelby grumbled, though she had totally been about to do just that.
Wolfe just watched her out of the corner of his eye, unconvinced.
Shelby huffed and rolled her eyes at him, but the bastard just smirked knowingly at her.
“Anyway,” she drawled, steering her inquisition forward once more. “Where are you from?”
“Originally?” he asked, looking over at her.
Shelby just gazed at him expectantly, waiting for him to continue on his own.
Jesus, this is going to be like pulling teeth with him.
Wolfe sighed heavily, but went along with their game.
“I grew up in several different towns in this area,” he said, his eyes trained somewhere in the distance as he spoke. “I was a foster kid, so I moved around a lot when I was young.”
“Oh,” Shelby said softly. She hadn’t been expecting that.
Wolfe just nodded, still facing forward.
“I never knew my father. And my mother didn’t have any close relatives that I know of, so, when she died when I was six, it was off to the foster care program with me.”
“I’m so sorry,” was all Shelby could think to say.
And she was. Her heart was breaking for this man.
Wolfe shrugged, but gave her a small half-smile as he finally looked at her for the first time since he started talking.
“It wasn’t all bad,” he said, kicking at a piece of a fallen tree branch that was in his way. “The foster parents I had were always pretty nice, but they had a hard time putting up with the angry little shit that I was back then.” He gave her a sheepish smile. “I used to be quite the troublemaker. I was always cutting classes or starting fights; getting expelled from school became a regular occurrence with me.”
Hmm, sounds a lot like three certain brothers that I know, Shelby thought, quietly amused at the similarities. The Roman brothers had certainly been a bunch of rowdy idiots in their teenage years as well.
“What did you do after that?” Shelby pressed, anxious to keep him talking now that he’d started.
“Well, I eventually dropped out of high school, opting for a GED instead,” he said, shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe his own past stupidity. “When my eighteenth birthday rolled around, and I had finally aged out of the foster system, I figured I didn’t have much going for my life, so I decided to up and join the Navy.” He gave her a little wink. “My drill sergeant straightened me out pretty good after that.”
Shelby stopped dead in her tracks as she gaped at him, shocked.
Talk about similarities…
Wolfe took a couple more steps, but stopped to turn around when he noticed that she was no longer walking with him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, perplexed as to why she was staring at him like he’d suddenly sprouted a second head.
It can’t be. There’s no way my life is this colossal of a coincidence.
But, out loud, she heard herself ask, “You weren’t a SEAL by chance, were you?”
Wolfe cocked his head to the side as he assessed her, both confused and suspicious of her question.
“Yeah, why?” he said, somewhat defensively.
Shelby shook her head.
“It’s nothing, really,” she said, wanting to brush past his little revelation before she was forced to explain to him about the Roman brothers.
And Walker…
Wolfe was still watching her, his eyes narrowed as he tried to understand her abrupt strange behavior.
He opened his mouth to say something…
But Shelby was saved from further conversation when she caught sight of an unnaturally shaped mound of snow in the distance.
“Hey,” she exclaimed, squinting in a useless attempt to see better as she pointed at the object. “Is that your truck over there?”
Her distraction worked.
Wolfe wheeled around to face the direction she was pointing, their interrogations momentarily forgotten.
“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Wolfe said after a moment, raising his hand to shield the sun’s glare from his eyes.
They picked up their pace after that, quickly approaching the truck. Shelby felt a bead of sweat roll down her neck and between her shoulder blades, and she spared a thought of gratitude for Wolfe convincing her to take off a layer of clothing.
Though recalling their moment outside the cabin together made Shelby hot in a completely different way.
Once they’d reached the truck, Wolfe walked up and wiped away the snow that had built up against the driver’s side door and window. Shelby stood back and took the opportunity to catch her breath.
Walking through the snow was a hell of a lot harder than she’d originally anticipated.
But worth it, her mind conceded as she watched Wolfe open the truck door and pull out a large black duffel bag.
Shelby couldn’t argue with that. She would have walked an even farther distance if it meant learning more about Wolfe Carmichael.
As it was, they still had a long walk back to the cabin ahead of them.
Wolfe slammed the truck door shut, turning to face her as he slung the strap of the duffel bag over his shoulder.
“Well, mission accomplished,” he said, patting the bag that rested against his hip for emphasis. “Ready to head back?”
“Sure,” Shelby said, straightening up from how she’d been bent over with her hands braced on her knees.
“Great,” he replied enthusiastically, throwing her a wolfish smile that made Shelby want to gulp. “Because now it’s my turn to ask the questions.”
Chapter 7
“But I haven’t finished asking all my questions yet!” Shelby protested as they started walking back toward the cabin.
“You’ve asked enough for now,” Wolfe replied easily, unfazed by her pouting. He gave her a pointed look. “Besides, I wouldn’t put it past you to try and weasel out of answering my questions if we get back to the cabin before I can even ask them.”
Shelby’s scowl only deepened at his words, which made Wolfe grin.
She’s damn sexy when she purses her lips like that, Wolfe thought appreciatively as he watched her out of the corner of his eye. It looked like he could add getting Shelby riled up right after b
lushing on the list of things he liked to do to her.
Ah, but there’s so much more I’d like to do to you, Shelby.
That is, if you’re as interested in finding out as much I am.
“Alright, fine,” she relented, throwing her hands up in defeat as she stomped ahead of him through the snow. “Go ahead and ask your damn questions.”
Wolfe just smirked, easily catching up to her and matching her pace.
He tilted his head back and studied the iced-over canopy of tree branches overhead as he pretended to ponder his options for a moment, but he already knew the first question he wanted to ask.
It was just a matter of whether or not she would actually answer it.
“Sooo…” Wolfe started slowly, trying to gauge her reaction as she turned her head to finally look at him. “Why did you freak out like that earlier when I told you I was a SEAL?”
Shelby’s cheeks erupted with an instant blush as she faced forward again.
“Pass,” she said after a short pause of silence, her voice mildly strained as she avoided his gaze.
“What?” Wolfe said, incredulous. “You can’t just say ‘pass’!”
“I just did,” Shelby said stubbornly, still not looking at him.
“Oh, come on,” Wolfe cajoled, reaching out to grab her hand and pulling them both to a stop. “It can’t be that bad, can it?”
Shelby shook her head, but she still refused to meet his eyes.
Wolfe let go of her hand so that he could take her by the shoulders instead. Gently, he bodily turned her to face him, though her eyes remained focused on her boots.
“Listen,” he said softly. They were standing so close that the misty clouds of their breath mingled together. “I told you some stuff about myself that I’m not all that proud of. Do you think less of me now than you did before?”
That got Shelby’s attention.
Her eyes darted up to his, wide with their sincerity.
“Of course not,” she said earnestly. “If anything, I think it’s amazing that you’ve come so far from who you used to be.”
She thinks I’m amazing?
Wolfe was overcome with an unprecedented feeling of pride at her admission. No one had ever said something like that to him before.
“Okay,” Wolfe acknowledged carefully with a nod, not wanting to give away how much her words had affected him. “So after all that, why would you think anything you have to say about yourself would make me think less of you?”
Seeing as how he was still gripping her shoulders, Wolfe felt Shelby shift her weight uneasily. He let her go and took a step back to give her some space, though his instincts were screaming at him to do just the opposite. He wanted to wrap her up in his arms and never let her go again.
What the hell is this woman doing to me?
“It’s just that…well, it’s sort of embarrassing,” Shelby said at last, her arms coming up to hug herself self-consciously.
“Well now you have to tell me,” Wolfe teased, trying to lighten the mood.
It worked, sort of.
Shelby rolled her eyes at him playfully, but then she gave a heavy sigh as her arms dropped back down to her sides.
“Okay, so there’s this guy…” she started, but then winced as if talking about it was painful.
Wolfe barely noticed.
He was too busy trying to tame the wave of unbridled jealousy that had suddenly washed over him at the mention of another guy. He forced his outward expression to remain calm, while internally his emotions raged out of control. He knew his feelings of possessiveness over her were irrational—hell, he barely even knew her—but still, he couldn’t help it.
In less than a day, this woman was making him feel things in ways he’d never experienced before.
And to lose her before he even had an actual chance with her just made him feel…hollow.
Cool it, man. You said so yourself back at the cabin: there’s no way she could be single.
But despite that, Wolfe had started to feel like there was something happening between the two of them.
He was brought back from his internal struggle when Shelby started talking again.
“I’ve known him my whole life; him and his two brothers—all three of them Navy SEALs, by the way,” she added with a pointed—if not slightly accusatory—look in Wolfe’s direction.
All things considered, Wolfe was surprised to feel the edges of his lips twitch into a smile in the face of her surliness. Even consumed with inner turmoil as he was, this girl could still get to him.
As she continued talking, they came to a silent agreement to resume walking again, though at a much more leisurely pace than what they had set before.
“Anyway, our two families are pretty close,” Shelby continued, her gaze fixed on something in the distance. “His older brother is actually married to my sister. They have two kids together now, but they still go at each other like they’re teenagers.” Shelby’s nose wrinkled a little at that, but she quickly moved on.
“A while back, his younger brother, Colt, fell in love with a girl who is now one of my best friends. She was new to town at the time, but Colt snapped her up before anyone else could,” Shelby said with a wistful smile at the memory, but then her shoulders slumped. “Which left Walker and I as the only two single people.”
Wolfe perked up a bit at hearing her admit that she was single, but that didn’t necessarily mean that she was available.
He forced himself to ask his next question, bracing himself for whatever her answer might be.
“This Walker guy…do you love him?”
Wolfe held his breath as she seemed to think about her answer. After a moment, she shrugged and shook her head.
“No.”
Wolfe didn’t think he’d ever been so happy to hear that word before in his life.
“No,” Shelby reiterated, as if needing to reconfirm it with herself. “I don’t love him—at least not in that way. But I probably could have someday, given enough time.”
Okay, not quite the explanation that he wanted, but Wolfe wasn’t ready to give up on her just yet.
“So, what happened with him?” Wolfe prompted when she failed to elaborate more on the situation.
But then a sudden, horrible realization dawned on him.
“Did…did he die?” he asked tentatively, not wanting to upset her.
Shelby startled him by laughing.
“Oh my god, no!” she wheezed, trying to catch her breath from her little hysterical outburst.
But then another fit of giggles would take hold and she’d have to start the whole process all over again.
Wolfe just watched her, bemused. They’d stopped walking again, but neither of them seemed to be in much of a hurry to get back at this point.
“No, Walker’s not dead; though he might as well be, for all the romance I see in our future,” Shelby said, wiping at her eyes as she finally composed herself again.
“No, the bastard went and got himself married.” She spit out the last word like it was a profanity and not a holy union, all her former humor gone. “And then my sister had to go and suggest that both our families go on that damn Christmas cruise together and I just…couldn’t,” she said, winding down her impromptu rant with a sigh.
But for all that, Wolfe still didn’t get it.
“So you and he never…?” Wolfe trailed off suggestively, not sure how to even pose the question he was asking.
Thankfully, Shelby got the gist of it.
“Nope,” she said, shaking her head.
“I’m not sure I understand then,” Wolfe admitted after a moment, frustrated. “If you guys never had, you know, a thing, then why are you so pissed that he married someone else? I mean, you just said yourself that you didn’t love the guy.”
Shelby huffed and looked away.
“It’s complicated,” was all she said as explanation.
Wolfe just watched her, expectant. He was beginning to learn that silent and persisten
t patience was the best way to get Shelby to talk.
She didn’t keep him waiting long.
“It’s just that…I mean, haven’t you ever pictured your life turning out a certain way, but then something happens that screws up all your plans?”
Wolfe thought about that for a moment.
“Does my truck giving out in the mountains and then me almost dying from exposure count?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
Shelby laughed like he’d hoped she would, but she shook her head.
“Not really what I was talking about, but you get points for experience,” she replied with her signature sass, making Wolfe chuckle.
Shelby quickly became serious again, though.
“But no, I guess the real reason I’m so hung up about Walker is that…I don’t know; it was just so easy to see what our life together would have been like, you know?” she said, her brow furrowed in contemplation. “Our families would have completely merged as one. We would have either lived on my family’s ranch or his, maybe raised a couple kids…”
Shelby blushed at that last part.
And again, Wolfe was forced to check his jealousy.
Wolfe cleared his throat uncomfortably and Shelby looked up at him, blushing even harder now.
“So, it sounds to me like you don’t miss him, so much as the idea of him,” Wolfe said eventually, trying to clarify things. “Is that right?”
Shelby nodded.
“Yeah, I guess that pretty much sums it up.”
“And you’re out here all alone in The Smokies because you’re single and he’s not?”
Another nod.
Wolfe couldn’t help it; he had to laugh, if only at the sheer craziness of her story.
Shelby didn’t take too well to this.
“See? This is why I didn’t want to tell you!” Shelby whined, her face turning red.
Wolfe just chuckled, not realizing that she was actually angry until she turned and started to walk away from him.
Wolfe sobered instantly.
“Hey, wait!” he called, following after her as fast as he could while lugging his heavy duffel bag.
Shelby ignored him as she trudged ahead, obviously still pissed.
Wolfe cursed himself under his breath.
