That beautiful stranger was probably long gone by now. The thought hit me harder than it should.
I should have asked for her number. Or at least offered to guide her down to the spring.
The trail wasn’t dangerous, not really, but it could be a lot for someone who wasn’t used to this kind of terrain. And the way she’d been breathing when she’d stopped to talk to me, flushed and a little winded, told me she didn’t spend much time outdoors.
It was odd that she kept lingering in my thoughts.
Leah.I rolled her name around in my mind, liking the sound of it.
Women didn’t usually catch my eye these days, but there’d been something behind her pretty green eyes that had caught my attention. A depth to her that I wasn’t used to seeing.
Shewas a woman with her head on her shoulders. Afinewoman.
Plus, it had almost felt like there’d been a spark between us. And I’d never felt anything like that before in my life. I wasn’t sure what it meant.
I wonder which hotel she’s staying at? Maybe I could just… run into her there.
And then what?I snorted.We’d live happily ever after?
That didn’t exist outside of fairy tales. My own life proved that.
I picked up my pace as regret flowed through me. But I shook that feeling off.
It had probably just been too long since I’d been laid.
Chapter 3
Leah
The gate was locked.
I stood there rattling it feebly, my fingers wrapped around the cold metal bars.
The sign right next to itclearlystated that the gate locked at dusk, and technically it was still dusk, wasn’t it?
The sky wasn’t fully dark yet. There was still a pale glow on the horizon, a soft lavender that was rapidly fading to deep purple, but it wasn’tnight.
“This is fine,” I said out loud, because apparently I was the kind of person who talked to herself now. “This is totally fine.”
I pulled out my phone.
No signal.
Not even a single bar showed when I held it up toward the sky like some kind of technological offering to the wilderness gods.
Well, shoot. That was my whole escape plan.
There was an emergency phone mounted on a post near the gate, one of those old yellow boxes with a receiver inside. I grabbed it and pressed it to my ear, but there was nothing.
No dial tone, no static, just dead silence. I jabbed at the buttons anyway, hoping something would happen, but the phone was as lifeless as my cell.
The light mist that had been settling over the parking lot shifted, and a fat, cold raindrop landed on my cheek. Then another. Then three more in quick succession.
Okay. Don’t panic.
But fear had already started crawling up my throat as I looked around the empty parking lot.
Other than an old, rusty pickup truck, my rental car sat alone in the lot, still visible in the gathering darkness. The forest that had seemed so breathtakingly beautiful just a few hours ago now felt oppressive and watchful, the trees pressing in on all sides as if they were waiting for something.
