She frowned. “I have a girls’ night tonight, I think.”
“No problem.” He gave her another kiss. “Bye, Jess.”
With Bear at his heels, he headed for his SUV and pointed it toward his condo. Jess tested the limits of his control, something no woman had ever done before. Which meant he needed to get ahold of himself.
Back at his condo, he took Bear for a walk and fed her breakfast. For himself, he devoured a few donuts from the box in his pantry while he boiled a couple of eggs to round out the meal. Sweets were his indulgence, but protein was necessary to fuel him through a day at Off-the-Grid.
With that taken care of, he headed for work. Bear rode along with him, as usual. She would hang out in the office with whoever was working the desk today, probably Trent. Mark had a zip-line tour booked at one, but he’d be spending the morning on the new property, working on the mountain bike course with Ethan.
As business slowed for the winter, they had more time to get the course in shape. And since both he and Ethan had some experience with woodworking, they’d volunteered to lay the raised portion of the course themselves. Kept costs down and kept them busy.
“Ready?” Ethan asked, walking out of the office. “I’ve got Ryan’s truck already loaded up.”
Mark nodded. Bear took one look at the truck and hopped into the bed with their lumber and tools. “Guess she’s hanging with us today.”
“Cool with me.” Ethan climbed into the driver’s seat. “You’ve been kind of absent lately. Everything okay?”
Absent? “Yeah.”
“Okay, bro. I’ll take you at your word. Just, you know, check in with us every once in a while, let us know how you’re doing.”
Mark shot him a look.
Ethan grinned. “Just trying to be a good friend, man. Yesterday, you walked out of here for a few hours in the middle of the day. It’s not like you, that’s all.”
“Had an errand to take care of.”
“This errand have a name?” Ethan gave him a questioning smile.
Dammit.“No.” Because it was none of his business, and Jess had asked him to keep things private for now.
Ethan guided the truck back into the woods beyond the end of the zip-line course. Already they’d built a platform where the mountain bike course would originate. Today, they would begin constructing the course itself. It would run on a raised wooden track for the first quarter mile or so over the rocky terrain on their original property. Then they’d carve a dirt trail into their new land, twisting and turning down the hillside, ending in another raised portion that branched, offering a moderate finish for those looking to play it safe and a hair-raising drop on the other side for the true adrenaline junkies.
If all went well, the new course would be ready to open for business in the spring. And he couldn’t fucking wait. It had been years since he’d been on a mountain bike. This course was going to be a rush.
He and Ethan spent the rest of the morning hammering wood. They made pretty good progress too. It was exciting to see their vision starting to come to fruition. He wondered how Jess was coming with her plans for the cabins.
Just past noon, they loaded up the pickup truck and headed back to the main building for lunch before the one o’clock zip-line tour. He and Ethan would be taking out a group of locals. Mark had been helping out on the zip-line a lot since his survival skills class had been a slow starter, and he didn’t mind. He enjoyed the zip-line, but it involved a lot of face-to-face time with the clientele, and he preferred being behind the scenes or one-on-one teaching survival skills in the forest.
He’d just finished his roast beef sandwich when their clients arrived in the lobby, a group of middle-aged men and women who all looked suitably excited about their afternoon adventure. His gaze fell on a woman near the back, a small woman with bleached blond hair and a timid smile that made his sandwich curdle in his stomach.
What was Sharlene doing here?
He thought he’d made himself perfectly clear when he confronted her in the deli parking lot last week. She wasn’t welcome, not here or anywhere else in his life.
