“Want one?” I hold out the bag of gummy bears. “You could use a bit of sugar,” I say with a smile and a wink.
He stops in front of me, and his nostrils flare as he looks at the bag. I keep the smile on my face, my neck tilted and my lashes lowered. Yup, I’m flirting with him, and the uptight ex-whatever he is has no idea how to cope with it.
He leans forward so his breath tickles my ear, and I gasp as heat skitters over my skin. When he speaks, it’s so low I think I’ve misheard him.
“And you could use a good spanking.”
When he pulls back to look at me, our eyes lock. His flash for a moment, and it’s enough to make every fiber of my body zing. Heat spreads up my neck as I stare at him.
Then, with a smirk, he turns away.
I watch, stunned, as he marches over to a group wrangling a tree from its pot into the earth.
Damn, he does know how to flirt, and he’s good at it too.
“Thanks, Willow.” The bag rustles, and I snap my attention away from the image of the hot veteran and his rough hand connecting with my bare ass.
Blaze, a scary-looking tattooed dude with the heart of a pussycat, takes a gummy from the bag.
“Share them around.” I murmur.
By the end of the day, I’m sweating through my clothes, and there’s brown paint all over my hands and some on my overalls, which is fine. They’re already splattered from my efforts this morning.
I help Janelle wash the brushes, and then we store the paint in the shed. I don’t mind the work. It’s nice to be outdoors, and they’re a nice bunch of people to work with. Well, most of them. Boxy is an asshole who thinks it’s funny to make sexist comments. But mostly everyone’s good.
“You want a ride home? I’ve got my car,” I ask Janelle once we’re done.
Janelle shakes her head. “Nah, I want to get back to the hostel, see if anyone’s tried to call there.”
She has a theory that the kids’ father has taken their phones, and they don’t know her number, so they might call the hostel to get hold of her. It’s far-fetched, but hope is currency, so I smile and promise I’ll see her for dinner.
Everyone trails off to catch the minivan, but I hang back. I like the peacefulness of the retreat. Nestled at the base of Wild Heart Mountain, a pine forest surrounds it, and the mountains loom behind.
It’s so different from the concrete and glass of the city. The sounds are different, with bird calls instead of car horns. I closemy eyes and breathe in deeply, enjoying the fresh air instead of car fumes.
I hope you’re somewhere as nice as this.
I offer up a silent message to my brother, wherever he is. I hope the wind carries my good thoughts to him.
My phone buzzes, and in my haste to pull it out of my pocket, I almost drop it. For an absurd minute, I think it’s my brother, and he’s somehow heard my message.
It’s an unknown number.
You owe us
My blood freezes in my veins. The phone shakes in my hand as I stare at the screen, the words burning into my retinas.
You owe us
There’s only one “us” it can be from.
Cold sweat breaks out over my body, and I gasp for air.
They don’t know where I am, I tell myself. It’s a scare tactic. Those fuckers are trying to scare me, and I won’t be intimidated.
But I can’t stop the trembling in my fingers.
I glance up, and the hot veteran is staring at me. He’s frowning, but it looks more like concern than anything.
