“Yeah, I was just thinking about Erin. This was supposed to be her bachelorette weekend.”
“In Cancun?” he guesses, making a point to look down at my flip-flops again.
“Yeah.”
“What happened?”
“Her fiancé tripped, and his dick fell right into her stepsister’s vagina.”
“That’s…graphic.”
“I’m a nurse.” I lift my shoulders once, secretly inhaling his manly scent at the same time. It’s a delicious combination of clean linen, spice, and mountain air. “Bluntness, especially when it comes to anatomy, is kind of my specialty.”
“Noted,” he says with a chuckle. “Did you really think about becoming a park ranger?”
My nipples tingle in response not to the question itself, but to the fact that he remembered such a detail. “Yeah, when I was seventeen.”
“What changed your mind?”
“My grandma—” I catch a glimpse of something shiny, and the reason we’re out here dawns on me just in time to avoid the too-personal question. I push off the railing. “I see my phone!”
“Devin—”
I jog toward the narrow dirt trail to the picnic table, desperately in need of space. Flynn Conners is fuckingquicksand. I’ll have to make sure I keep that mouth nice and busy later so he doesn’t seduce me with all his good qualities and thoughtful questions.
“It’s right?—”
A few feet from the picnic table, I freeze.
A moose the size of a full-grown horse stands so close I can see its puffy breath in the cooling air. I wasn’t able to see this guy from where I stood on the bridge. Despite its massive size, it doesn’t look fully grown. He’s incredibly cute, but also a little bit scary considering he could trample me if I startle him.
“Hey buddy,” I say, well aware that its hooves are just inches from my phone.Please don’t step on it. Please don’t step on it.“Where’s your mama?—"
“Devin, back away slowly,” Flynn says, his voice calm but firm enough to give me full body shivers. And not the good kind.
“What—”
A gigantic moose steps out from beneath the cover of the wooden bridge, moving with purpose. She makes the other moose look like the toddler he is. Her ears are down, and the whites of her eyes are eerily visible as she sets her sights on me. I vaguely remember something Tabby said about that, but I can’t recall exactly what. Just that it’s definitelynotgood.
“Is this Bella?” I ask as I slowly back up the trail, both in awe of the creature I’ve always wanted to see and also a little afraid for the future state of my rib cage.
“Now’s not really the time for introductions,” Flynn says, his tone calmer than the warning he’s implying.
I lift my hands in surrender, as though Bella has a gun pointed at me. “I’m leaving,” I say to her, silently cursing my beachy footwear that’s making my trek backward harder.
Bella lets out a loud snort.
My foot gets tangled in my flip-flop, and I stumble forward.
Before I can scream, Flynn catches me by both arms, yanking me against his chest and back onto level ground half a second before Bella charges up the hill after us.
This is it.
This is how I die.
I squint my eyes closed, focusing on how damn good it feels to be in Flynn’s arms as I wait for my inevitable painful ending.
Only, it doesn’t come.
