“Enjoy your trip!” He grins wide again, and my defenses are on the ropes. I need to figure out an immunity to that smile.
My brows furrow together. “Wait! I didn’t catch your name. I think I might need it when I’m telling the cops who came after us.”
He laughs, and climbs up into his truck, rolling down the window to talk to me. “Hank.” His engine roars. “Good luck out there. Keep your eyes open and let someone know where you’re going. You never know what can happen.”
I nod and he takes off toward the dirt road that runs up between the Colorado pine forest and the river.
I showed too much interest in him. I should’ve played it much cooler back there. I’m thinking I need to start reading my romance novels out loud, because I very clearly had no idea what I was saying when the words left my mouth.
“What was that all about?” My sister hops down from the Jeep and turns the corner. She’s gorgeous and I’ll bet with every penny I have that if she’d gone into that store, she’d be coming out with a number. Her pink and white sundress flutters up in the breeze and her light blonde hair follows, blinding her for a moment before she swipes the strands away from her face. She’s tall, curved perfectly, and every inch of her face is symmetrically lined, like some painting on a wall in France.
I, on the other hand, stand five foot six, with more round to my shape than I’d prefer and a nose that’s off center by at least a centimeter. Not to mention my too pale skin and the mess of red I’ve colored too many times to count.
I shrug toward her, tossing the bags in the back seat of the Jeep. “I don’t know. But he’s hot, right?”
“If you’re into Dads,” she scoffs. “He’s like twenty years older than you. When did you become a DILF hunter?”
I laugh. “DILF hunter?”
“Yeah, it’s like a MILF, but you know… for dads.”
“Well, I don’t think he’s a father, though the conversation we had on smoking kind of did sound dad like.”
“Smoking?”
I wave my hand away, dismissing the conversation. “Anyway, I think he was trying to scare me out of camping alone. I guess there’s going to be extra traffic up in the hills this weekend. He said something about some kind of work going on.”
“Maybe we should ask around. I’m sure one of your fireman friends knows something.”
My heart sinks when she saysfireman friends. I haven’t told her the news I’ve been holding back yet. Hell, I haven’t told anyone except saidfireman friends,who are way more supportive than they should be.
“Yeah,” I say, hopping up into the truck. “I’m sure it’s fine, though. We’re just going to be gone for a few days. We have bear spray and it’s all good. I’m sure he was just trying to freak me out. He sounded like one of those overprotective, sexist men who thinks women can’t do anything on their own.”
“But what if we’re wrong? What if there are weirdos lurking around up there and—”
“What is with everyone and all the weirdo talk? We’ll be fine. Come on!” I start up the engine and look toward her, realizing for the first time how serious she may have been when she said camping was a terrible idea. I brushed her off, thinking she needed to be pushed out of her shell. Hell, she spends three hundred and sixty-one days a year living two houses down from our childhood home. The four days she spends with me should be exciting, not some boring spa like she suggested. “I’ll keep us safe. I promise.”
She glances toward me. “I should be telling you that. I’m the older sister.”
We’ve never had a typical sisterly relationship. Sure, we stayed civil enough, and we love each other, but she is a people pleaser, and I’m a hell raiser. Those two things repelled each other at the expense of our parents' sanity. Not to mention the fact that she’s nearly six years older than me.
I pull out into the street and take a right up into the mountains, sucking in the fresh air from the cracked window beside me. “Don’t you love that?”
“Love what?” She looks toward me as though she truly doesn’t smell the freedom in the air.
“The cedar, the pine, the bit of damp moss behind it all, luring us further into the forest.”
She laughs and cracks her window just slightly, peeking her nose out like a cat who’s afraid of the outdoors. “All I smell is mold.” She sniffs dramatically harder. “Maybe animal urine… I don’t know. It’s hard to tell over this wretched burning smell.”
“Burning smell?” I glance toward her with a downturned gaze and roll my eyes. “You’ve been stuck in the city too long. You’ve forgotten what real-life smells like.”
“I’d agree if you said I forgot what real-lifefeelslike,” she says, rolling her window back up.
I glance toward her. The smile on her face is gone and her shoulders are shrugged over just slightly. “What’s going on?”
My gaze is back on the road as it winds around the mountainside, but my ears are on her words. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen my perfect sister this upset before.
“It’s not all it’s cracked up to be, you know? If I’m not married by next summer, Mom has vowed to set me up with an arranged marriage. Dad spends every day telling me that I need to settle down before I get too old.Brianna, you can’t expect the perfect man to just come walking through the front door.”