Page 8 of Firefly Embers

This was it. I was going to die. An axe murderer was going to kill me, chop my body into bits, and I’d never be seen again.

All because I couldn’t just stick to the woods around the house like Mama and Daddy had told me to.

“Whoa. Don’t fall,” a boy’s voice grumbled from behind me. I could hear the old Southern twang in the way he talked, but he sounded young, which took me by surprise.

I took a chance and pried my eyes open to see my attacker, figuring if I got away, I could at least describe the person who assaulted me.

Except it wasn’t an attacker at all; it was a boy around my age who looked boyishly charming and nothing like the murderer I’d envisioned.

“You gonna scream? I don’t really need my ma and pops thinking I’m out here hurtin’ someone.”

My voice finally came back as my heart rate slowed. I was still hesitant, but this boy seemed innocent enough.

Actually, now that I got a good look, he was kinda cute. He had scruffy blond hair that reached almost over his ears, curling upward like he’d been wearing a hat all day.

His eyes were dark brown, like chocolate syrup. He had tiny little freckles sprinkled across his cheeks and nose that looked like stars scattered through the night sky.

“No, I’m not going to scream. But please don’t kill me,” I huffed as he helped steady me before letting go of my arm.

“Kill ya?” he chuckled, snagging a cowboy hat off the ground and plopping it back on his head.

Well, there was the reason his hair looked the way it did, the blond locks curling underneath the wide brim. “Why would I kill ya?”

“I don’t know. I just figured it was creepy to be walking through the woods at night. It’s something a killer would do.” I straightened my shirt and brushed off my pants, hoping to get rid of the sweaty palms that had cropped up after noticing his proximity and relative attractiveness.

Why was this boy suddenly making me nervous?

I took another look at him. He definitely looked familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on where I knew him from, and we were still relatively new to town.

Ignoring my rambling about serial killers, he brushed the dirt from his jeans.

“You’re the new girl, right? Just got here last month?” he asked, putting his thumbs in his belt loops.

He looked like a tried-and-true cowboy with his jeans, button-down shirt with pearls on the snaps, and black cowboy hat atop his head, standing with an air of confidence that can’t be taught.

“Uh. Yeah.” I hummed skeptically. I wasn’t about to give some random stranger in the woods all the intimate details of my life.

“I remember my ma saying something about a new family that moved in next door, but we haven’t had a chance to come over and introduce ourselves yet, on account of it being calving season and all.” He kicked at the ground around the bank, a small stone tumbling into the water and making a tiny splash. I wondered whether he knew how to skip rocks.

“Do you know how to skip rocks?” I blurted out, not bothering to respond to his previous statement about living next door. Apparently, my mouth had a mind of its own.

“Uh… not really.” His brow furrowed in confusion, but it didn’t seem like my abrupt change in subject really phased him. He looked at me with an examining stare, like he was trying to figure me out, but there was no judgment in his eyes.

“I know how to skip rocks,” I said with an air of confidence, straightening my back and flicking my pigtail braids over my shoulders. I could at least pretend that he wasn’t making me nervous.

“That’s actually pretty cool.” His smile stretched across his face, and little swirly butterflies flapped in my belly. I’d never felt that before.

I wondered if I was coming down with a stomach bug. Izzy had been sick last week, so maybe I’d caught what she had. Hopefully, I didn’t puke in front of this guy.

“So.. Are you⁠—”

“Rayna!!” I heard Mama’s faint shouting from the back porch. She didn’t sound frantic—yet—but I knew if I didn’t start moving my butt and quickly, she was going to lose her mind.

“That’s my mama. I’ve gotta go,” I said, hiking a thumb over my shoulder in the direction I assumed was my house.

“Do you want me to walk you back?” the boy asked, scratching at the back of his neck with what looked to be a little bit of nervousness. Okay, so I wasn’t the only one nervous here.

“Actually, that would be cool. I kinda got lost on the way out here, which is how I ended up by the water.”