“I believed there was somethingextrato them.”
“There was something extra to them because by the time we got to eat them, they were a few months old, not to mention Bull kept them by the bait boxes in the kitchen. We were probably slowly being poisoned by him.” Thomas finished the sandwich,then cut it into eights. “This cucumber was grown by Tim, and he brought it up about thirty minutes ago for me. You can’t get fresher than that.”
He began preparing the fruit salad, and the smell of strawberries and mangoes had Scott’s stomach groaning.
Scott tapped his hands on the table like an impatient child. “Let me try something, I am starving.”
“Not here,” Thomas replied, packing the sandwiches into a cooler box. “I’m taking you out.”
“Taking me…out?” Scott rolled his shoulders, getting edgy. “Sounds like you’re going to take me across the road and shoot me.”
Thomas hummed. “You’re half right.”
“What?”
“I’m taking you across the road,” Thomas clarified. “Not to shoot you, but for…” He flicked the cooler box. “For lunch.”
Scott blinked. “You made me a picnic.”
“I madeusa picnic. Yes.”
“I’ve never had a picnic before.”
Thomas drew back. “What do you mean you’ve never had a picnic?”
“I haven’t.”
“It’s eating food that’s been made by hand outside, of course you have.”
Scott’s gaze trailed up to the ceiling. “I’m sure it’s more than that. There must be an actual definition.”
When Scott glanced at Thomas again, he headed through the door with the cooler bag swinging from his hand.
“Hey, wait!” Scott yelled, rushing after him.
Tim took his hat off to greet them as they came outside. “They’re on the edge of the woods.”
Scott didn’t have time to question what Tim was talking about; Thomas nodded and marched over to his car. Scotthopped in the passenger side, waiting for Thomas, who put the food in the back. They set off from the gate but didn’t travel far. Thomas drove over the road to a muddy track that led through the trees.
“The man-eating deer? Your idea of a date is taking me to the man-eating deer?”
Thomas bristled. “Who said this was a date?”
“A mate-date,” Scott corrected.
“There’s no such thing.”
They kept heading through the track in the trees, until they were fewer and fewer. “I’m getting Jurassic Park vibes.” He peeked at Thomas. “And looking at you isn’t making me feel any better.”
Scott shuddered and wrapped his arms around himself.
They broke the tree line, and Thomas slowed the car, parking it beside a fallen tree. The bark had been stripped off, leaving a pale trunk that reminded Scott of a skeleton.
“There they are,” Thomas murmured, pointing out the window.
The fifty deer staring at them from a distance did nothing to ease Scott’s fears.
“Why aren’t they bouncing around looking all picturesque?”
