Total pages in book: 66
Estimated words: 61868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61868 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 309(@200wpm)___ 247(@250wpm)___ 206(@300wpm)
Jack breaks the silence.
"Get her out of here!" I don't need to be told twice.
I’m aware of Ethan ranting and raging behind us as we retreat. Jack steps in to deal with him, shouting something about keeping his hands to himself.
"Come on, boys. This isn't gonna get the work done, and I'm not hanging around for overtime today." Aiden steps in again as Skye and I retreat. He has a gift for smoothing Jack's rough edges, and it usually works.
Skye forges ahead of me, her head low and her shoulders hunched in a protective pose. She’s a lonely figure, lost in the middle of trees that seem to stretch to touch the sky. I catch up to her and put my hand on her shoulder to slow her down.
"Thank you!" Her voice sounds choked as if she's trying not to cry. My protective instinct surges, but I’m afraid of crowding her, so I give her some space instead.
"You don't need to thank me."
We slow further still. I’ve read her well, and she faces me and offers me a tentative smile. Her eyes radiate sadness and fear. Red blotches swirl in angry patterns on her chest and neck, but as we continue to walk, she grows more relaxed. We fall into a slow step together, and I lead her into a familiar gathering of trees.
"What do you think of our forest?"
She tips her face, straining into the tree canopy. "Everything smells so good, so fresh."
"Yeah. The air is clear, not like the city."
"How long have you lived out here?"
I stop and rest against the rough bark of a thick trunk, bending my leg and resting my foot flat against the surface. "A few years."
Skye forces her hands into her pockets and chips at the fallen leaves with the toe of her boot. "It's so different from what I'm used to."
"When I came here, I felt the same. The silence was strange. And the darkness. Now, I'm grateful for the forest every day. I never take it for granted. It's a great place to bury your past and find a new future."
I hope it’ll put her at ease, but she shakes her head as if she doesn't quite agree or as though she believes her past is too big and bad to bury anywhere. "You think you can bury your past?"
That's a good question, one I don't really know how to answer. "Maybe, if you distract yourself enough."
"Until you're not distracted anymore."
She's made a small circle before her, leaving rough brown earth exposed. "You're brave, you know…for doing this. I think you are anyway."
Again, a shrug and a shake of her head signal to me that she isn't on the same page. What is she thinking? What's so bad about her past that she doesn't believe she can outrun it? Why is she here?
"Are you always the positive one?" she asks, with a quick change of subject. "The one who keeps the peace?"
This catches me off guard. Is it so obvious in the short time that she has been here that this is the role that I have carved out for myself? The peacekeeper? "The others think I'm young and stupid. I tell them that you don't need to be an old man to learn life lessons. And you don’t need to get bitter from learning."
Skye shivers, and I take off my jacket and wrap it carefully around her shoulders, and she pulls it closer. We are quiet for a few moments, but the air between us feels charged. I’m overwhelmed by the urge to pull her into my chest and soothe whatever is eating her inside, to kiss her deeply like I did last night, to lay her down and bring us both a distraction. My body still tingles at the memory of how it felt to be inside her. The orgasm we shared makes me feel as if we’re connected.
Jack and West are right.
I’m foolish.
Imagining things that aren't there.
Wanting more from this than I'm ever going to get.
We walk again, reaching the clearing that I’ve been leading us towards. When we stop, she gasps, pressing her hand to her mouth. We stand on the edge of a two-hundred-and-seventy-degree elevated crescent jutting outwards and are confronted with a valley so vast and expansive that it appears to have no end. With varying shades of winter green, burnt orange and a scattering of hardy brightly colored wildflowers thriving in the changing season that benefited from the glare of the sun and a break in the dense forest, it’s beautiful enough to steal my breath.
A breeze rustles the trees nearby, and way off in the distance is the plaintive cry of a bird as it soars and circles on the hunt for its prey. The familiar rumbling of the powerful river cutting its way through the landscape around us draws her eyes.