Alexa was already packing away her satellite dish. “Okay, let’s go.”
“The only bears around here are black bears, and they tend to avoid humans. So do mountain lions.”
“‘Tend to’? So there’s still a chance they could decide we’re lunch?”
“It’s pretty unlikely.”
“That isn’t a no. Now will you put on underwear? Or do you want to run for your life with your twig and berries flapping around?”
“My twig? Are you kidding me?”
“Log and walnuts, whatever. Put your damn clothes on.”
“Relax, it’s more likely to be a trail biker who doesn’t understand boundaries or those Hayes boys messing around. Juno will bark if there’s a threat.” Nolan reached for his boxer briefs. “I’ll go take a look.”
“You will not.”
“So you’d rather sprint down the mountain for no good reason? Babe, you hate running. You don’t even like walking.”
“I’ll take a look.”
“You? No way. I’m not sending you into potential danger.”
“Aha, so you admit there could be danger.”
“Alexa…”
She rummaged around in her giant backpack, pulling out sunscreen, a box of cookies, a gun, a bottle of sunscreen, spare socks— Wait a second… A gun?
“Is that an actual pistol?”
“Yup.”
“Why the hell is it in your backpack?”
“In case someone tries to kill me.” She used an “isn’t it obvious?” tone. “Shouldn’t you be putting on shoes?”
“Do you even know how to shoot it?”
“I figured I could watch a YouTube tutorial if the need arose.”
“Heaven help us all.”
“Of course I know how to shoot it, dumbass. Jez made me learn.” Alexa pulled out a slim box, flipped the lid, and removed a cross between a tablet and a game controller. “If you want to make yourself useful, screw on the suppressor.”
“Alexa, we’re not shooting anything.”
“Look, if it comes down to the choice between you or a bear, I’m picking you. I know most women would pick the bear, and up until a couple of months ago, I would have too, but…” She paused to launch a drone, a fucking drone, and Nolan just stared as it rose into the air. Other women carried make-up and breath mints. Alexa brought enough tech to make James Bond weep. “But then you showed me there’s at least one straight man who isn’t a monster, and— Actually, I guess there are like…eight, but I’d never consider dating any of the others.”
Nolan hopped around with one leg in his pants. “Eight? Who are the other seven?”
“Dawson, Zach, Brax, Justin.” She didn’t look away from the screen. “Cole, Rusty, and Priest.”
“Who’s Priest? And what about Greyson?”
“The jury’s out on Grey. He didn’t seem like too much of a douche in Blackstone House, but then he went into politics.” She made a “yikes” face. “And Priest is a guy I work with sometimes. He’s mostly okay, but he does have a bad habit of marrying random women. That’s always fun.”
“How do you marry a random woman?”
