I clear my throat and force myself to walk in front of her. “We’re taking the road.”
“I’ve camped all over this mountain,” she appeals at my back. “Just trust me.”
I snort. “You visit wild bears, let rats live in your house, and you runtowardlightning with large metal objects. I’m not sure you should be the one that we follow blindly. We’re taking the road.”
She mutters something that I don’t catch, but whatever it is, it makes Theo toss his head back and laugh. “Fuck, this is gonna be great. You guys are either gonna end up fighting or fucking. Or maybe both,” he muses.
“It’ll be both,” Brant announces beside me, and I shoot him a glare. He shrugs at me. “It will.”
Puddles walks between us, and I reach down and give her a pat. At least she’s one female that can’t argue with me. She looks funny in the shirt that Brant put on her, but she looks happy as can be as she trots along, sniffing everything as we go. Brant looks more at ease, too. I would think that getting into a collision, having to ditch over half our supplies, and being forced to walk the rest of the way would have freaked him out, but if anything, he looks less stressed. Then again, us moving to Endstone did wonders for him too. I think he just does better with a simpler life nowadays, and there’s no simpler way of living than camping and living off the land.
“Tell you guys what, you take the road, and I’ll meet you at Endstone. I’m sure you’ll get there a few days after me,” Remi announces as we walk up the hill toward the road.
“Absolutely not,” I snap. “We’re not splitting up. I can’t believe you would even suggest it.”
I look over at her, ready to lecture her about all the reasons why that is a terrible idea, but my words die in my throat when I see the mischievous tilt of her mouth. I narrow my eyes at her. “You’re just fucking with me, aren’t you?”
“Yep,” she says, popping the P at the end.
I sigh in frustration. “Can you stop doing that? You’re driving me fucking crazy.”
She grins at me and leans in. “I know. Why do you think I like doing it so much? I love to see you get all worked up, soldier.” She salutes me, and my dick jumps behind my zipper. The fucking idiot.
* * *
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Theo whines, as we walk around another bend in the road that’s a switch back. “We’re taking forever winding back and forth, zig-zagging our happy asses down this road, when we could walk straight down through the trees in half the time!”
Fuck, he’s right, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to admit it, especially when Remi has that smart-ass grin on her face. I run my eyes over her features, and she pretends not to notice, which is good, because I can’t seem to stop myself from watching her. She’s like a puzzle I’m trying to put together, but I’m not trying to figure her out, I’m trying to figure out why I’m drawn to her in the first place. It’s not lack of sex, which might be Brant’s or Theo’s excuse. I get plenty of that when and where I want to, but there’s something else about this chick that I can’t put my finger on.
I could live without her digs and attempts to fuck with me, and I vowed to myself in the car to just ignore her and not engage in her fuckery. But then I find myself wanting her to notice me, wanting her to cravemyattention. It doesn’t make any fucking sense. We approach another tight corner that is, yet again, another switch back, and I’ve officially had enough. At this rate, it will take us a month to get back to Endstone.
Fuck it!
I step off the cleared dirt at the side of the road and move towards the trees that provide a straight path down. I turn to Remi. “I don’t want to hear a word,” I warn her, not sure what I’ll do if anI told you sosnakes out of her mouth.
Why am I being so stubborn? Who gives a shit if Crazy was right about this? Even a broken watch will get the time right two times a day. Remington mimes zipping her lips and throwing away the key, but her smirk says everything.
I grab the map from Brant and point at the campsite that’s supposed to be at the bottom of this dirt road. “We should still be able to get here before night fall.”
Remington leans in to take a look and nods. “Yep. We would’ve been there already if you’d listened to me before,” she puts in very unhelpfully.
I raise my finger to her. “I told you—not a word.”
“My bad,” she says with a shrug. “Come on, GI Joes. Remington April will lead the way,” she says as she takes point with far too much pep in her step for my liking. Her opossum is riding on her shoulders, resting against her backpack, and both rats are hanging on top of her back, cuddling into her fur. The fact that I’m not even phased by this says so much about my life right now.
Remington ditches the road and leads us with the watch in hand, and we all follow. My fingers itch to snatch the map and watch and lead the way, but I know that wouldn’t go over very well, so all I can do is hope she really does know what the fuck she’s talking about and won’t get us lost. Then again, I’m the one that wrecked the car in the first place, so part of this situation is my fault. Mine, and that damn rodent she insists is a pet.
As if it knows I’m thinking nefarious thoughts about it, the opossum picks its head up and looks over at me, and I swear, the fucking thing grins, showing off its sharp little dagger teeth. I shudder involuntarily and step further away from it.
“Dude. Coon is giving you crazy eyes,” Theo says.
I feel slightly justified, glad to know I’m not just imagining it. But that knowledge doesn’t really help, because I’m fairly certain the thing is envisioning jumping on me and clawing my face. It’s looking at me like it knows I’ve been a dick to Remington, and she’s now protecting her owner. Which is fucking crazy, because it’s just a damn opossum that in no way has enough intelligence for that. I narrow my eyes at it and decide to step closer, refusing to cower. She sits up and hisses, and I immediately shift further away. Theo laughs at my quick footwork. Such an asshole.
I give Coon a wide berth for the next couple of hours, and the four of us settle into a relaxed camaraderie as we walk. I have to admit, if it was just three of us guys, I’d have taken the lead, and I’d be all business. I would have been worried, tense, and serious. But with Remington, she somehow has made this feel like a nice hike down the mountain as she points out game trails, collects edible plants, and gets excited every time she sees some animal scat that she recognizes. I’ve never seen anyone, let alone a girl, get so excited by shit.
It’s way too easy to forget all about things like the Handshake Plague and death tolls when we have her here, so full of life and joy and excitement. I’m almost dreading getting back to Endstone—not that I’d ever admit it. Getting medically discharged from the Army was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go through. It was harder than the injury and permanent damage to my ear; harder than any boot camp or ranger school, and harder than losing both of my parents when I was sixteen. I suddenly had no purpose or direction, and I’ve been floating around, not sure of anything, ever since.
For someone like me, who’s always had a goal they were busting their ass for; something bigger and better always in their sights, having that taken away was crushing. So this task that Sheriff April gave us—and everything that his crazy ass daughter has put us through since we first laid eyes on her—has been a wakeup call in a way. I didn’t realize how much I was just letting the tides of life carry me around until I met Remi, who has an uncanny ability to force me to swim and work hard again for something. I like living in Endstone and being with the guys. Hell, none of us would be as well off as we are without each other, but right now, I have purpose. I have a goal again that requires me to bust my ass to achieve it, and that keeps me on my toes, and I’ve needed that. Plus, it doesn’t hurt that I feel this crazy attraction to her like I haven’t felt with anyone for a long time.
