Looking at the garage where most of us store our bikes during the winter months, I unconsciously grimace, longing for a ride today rather than being stuck in a cage.
Chapter 2
Everly
“Dad, don’t get mad, but I’ve been worried and decided to come home for the weekend. I’ll stop by the Wolf’s Den and pick up some takeout for us.” I hate leaving him a voicemail but the situation around Kent sounds like it’s getting worse, and I know that Dad won’t leave, so I’m going to him. “My mouth is watering over the thought of their onion rings, but I can’t guarantee that there will be many left by the time I make it home.”
While Dad doesn’t live in Kent City proper, most people probably think it’s just a speck on the map, if they think of it at all, it’s the county seat so there are enough people living and working in town to keep the pews in Dad’s church nearly full on Sundays. However, it’s the surrounding area that keeps his feed store busy.
The thought of the feed store always brings a smile to my face. Since my mom died giving birth to me, I was practically raised in it, and it’s there that I decided to become a veterinarian.
After Dad had to shorten his visit a couple of months ago, I reached out to one of my friends from high school to get her opinion about what was happening.
When Lucy told me she barely ever leaves her farm anymore, I knew things were bad. While we didn’t become friends until high school, I had technically known her most of her life. She was homeschooled out on her family farm and took any opportunity she could to get into town, or even to Dad’s store to break up the monotony of her life.
Being as isolated as she was, her social skills were a bit lacking when she was a kid and while she wanted to be near others herage, all she would do when she came to the store was to sneak around behind me.
I eventually turned it into a weird twist on Hide and Seek, but gradually she became comfortable enough to talk to me and even though I’m a couple of years older than her we got to be good friends.
When she came out to visit me my freshman year of college, something in her clicked and she decided she was perfectly happy staying in Kent County. By the time I graduated, she was married to a farmer and pregnant with their second child.
There are definitely days, especially when an animal needs to be put down, that I envy the hell out of her. I want kids and a family, but until I’m more established and the rest of my loans are paid off, I don’t see that happening in the immediate future. Plus, I haven’t even been on a date in over a year.
“Crap!” a little screech flies out of my mouth when I see a few deer walking out onto the road about thirty feet in front of me. Hitting the brakes, I’m thankful the road has been plowed well enough so I don’t go skidding along.
As two of the deer pause in the middle of the road, I notice movement at the tree line and see a fawn tentatively step out. It’s slow and clumsy, but absolutely adorable.
I throw on my hazards and sit there, patiently waiting for the little one to make its way up to the road, before tentatively crossing it. The fawn taps its hoof on the pavement a couple of times, then pauses, and I wonder if this is the first time it has ever crossed a road.
My heart wants nothing more than to get out and help it, but my brain knows that would be the absolute worst thing to do in this situation.
Coming toward me is a lifted truck and for a moment it seems like they’re accelerating, and I roll down the window and stick my hand up, my nostrils flared at the idea of someone wanting to scare the creatures in front of me.
Thankfully, they slow down and one of the does double back to the fawn to nudge it along. Exhaling a breath I didn’t realize I was holding, I stay where I am as the deer disappear into the woods and the lifted truck approaches me.
My neck is craned upwards, making sure the man driving toward me can see the glare I’m aiming at him. He’s got tats all around his neck and gauges in his ears and apparently, he doesn’t find me intimidating at all because he just smirks at me as he slowly passes me by.
There was a time I knew everyone around here, and even being gone a while I’m sure I’ve never seen him before, even if the numbers on his plates indicate that it is registered in this county.
“There are a lot of new faces,” Lucy had said. “And none of them are the type who’ll be showing up to your dad’s church on Sundays.”
Asshole.I think the moment he hits the gas and speeds off down the road.Grown-ass man acting like a kid.
It’s full on dark when I hit the western edge of town and the parking lot at Wolf’s Den is half-full, which means the dinner rush has started. Entering, I get smiles and nods from the locals as I make my way to the bar, happy to see Adam working behind it.
“Hey, stranger! Your dad didn’t mention you were visiting,” Adam calls out from the opposite end. Just as he takes a step toward me two men stop him, and he visibly swallows before holding a finger up in my direction to take care of them.
Adam took over his dad’s bar several years back, when Wolf decided he wanted to try a warmer climate. He’s done a decent job of running it, but looking around, the vibe just seems different, and I can’t place what it is.
Moment ago, the locals had no problem meeting my eyes but now their eyes are trained on the table in front of them and the overall volume is significantly lower, as if they’re all eavesdropping on the conversation that Adam is suddenly wrapped up in.
Other than the locals, there are a handful of men at different tables who don’t seem interested in anything other than watching the two men talking to Adam, except for one man, sitting by himself near the door.
His eyes are locked on me. I don’t know what it is, but the moment our gazes meet a shiver runs through my body and I gasp, suddenly desperate for more oxygen. His full, dark beard and even darker eyes make me feel like I’ve been noticed by a demon, then he smiles, and I catch myself taking a step in his direction.
Get a hold of yourself, Ev, I tell myself, confused by my reaction to him. Tearing my eyes away from his, I try to get all sneaky, checking him out in the mirror over the bar, wanting to figure out if he possibly went to high school with me, but I don’t think I’ve seen him before.
The long-sleeved white T-shirt is straining to keep his biceps under wrap, the snugness around the neck must have bothered him because that’s been cut into a V where his collar bones meet, shifting my eyes to his cut is when I realize that he’s just passing through.
