“Ah the dry ice bomb: clean, simple, effective.”
She laughed. It felt amazing. Though now that she wasn’t running, the chill night air penetrated through her thin t-shirt. She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself. Seth stepped in closer and his strong arm wrapped around her back as his large palm covered her upper arm. He was warm, muscular, and the feel of that arm and being pressed close to his abdomen and chest made her want to turn in to him and hug him tight. Flint and his awful men couldn’t touch her in these arms.
Her gaze darted up to Seth. He was looking down at her and murmured, “Is that okay? You seemed cold. I could go back to the house and grab you a sweatshirt.”
She licked her lips and admitted, “It’s okay. It’s nice. Thank you.” It was miles past “nice”. She’d never felt so comforted yet excited. “I don’t need a sweatshirt.” Though she found herself thinking like a groupie and wishing she had something of his to keep after they separated and never saw each other again. Ridge had long idolized Seth, and Breeze had simply thought the images of him were extremely attractive. Up close and personal, she thought he was worth idolizing.
They walked in silence for a few seconds. She allowed herself to enjoy being close to him and pushed away the dread as each step took her closer to the cabin of nightmares.
“Are you here on vacation?” Seth asked.
“No.” Definitely not a vacation, not that she’d ever had one. She wondered what she should share with this handsome and impressive man. She didn’t want him to think she was a partier like the men and few women in that cabin, so she said, “I’m cleaning and cooking for a large private party.”
“Oh.”
If his family had a house in this area, they were obviously wealthy. It was already obvious to her that he was light years out of her league. Not that it mattered as she wouldn’t see him after tonight.
“So, your brother got married?” She wanted to know about him. Nobody would want to know about her lame life.
“Yeah, crazy guy went and eloped in Hawaii.”
“Wow. I used to dream about going to Hawaii. Have you been there?” She realized her mistake immediately as he glanced down at her with surprise in his blue eyes.
“Um, yeah.” He seemed to feel almost guilty about it. He’d probably traveled the world. She’d been to Idaho, Utah, and now Wyoming.
“So … do you like his wife? What’s her name?”
“Marietta. She goes by Mar.” A smile played at his lips and Breeze found herself wondering about a woman fabulous enough to marry this man’s brother. This Mar was extremely lucky. Probably a supermodel or a successful businesswoman or a doctor, lawyer, politician, philanthropist, or influencer of some sort. Breeze would’ve loved to go away to college, but she had no money to and had been working nonstop and raising her brother. Fat lot of good that did her. Ridge had told her when she arrive at Flint’s how awful he felt now and promised her that he was done with drugs, but it was too little, too late to save them both.
“She’s great,” Seth said. “Super feisty and fun. I don’t think she’s five feet tall and she’s always wearing these spike heels.”
Heels? Breeze had fantasized about wearing a fancy dress and heels. She had a dress for church but only some black flats she’d found at the thrift store.
Breeze realized he was waiting for her to respond. “Is she a model or something?”
Seth laughed and then he rubbed his hand along her arm. Warm shivers erupted on her skin and she wished this walk would never end. Would he catch on if she led him around in circles all night simply to extend this surreal time together? In her normal back in Idaho life, she would have never met a man this impressive, interesting, and handsome. In her nightmarish new existence, Seth would now be what she dreamed about.
“She’s probably pretty enough to be but not tall enough.”
“Oh.” Breeze realized her mistake as he’d said Marietta was five feet tall. Breeze was five-eight so a decent height but definitely not fancy enough to be a model.
“You could be a model.” His eyes traveled over her face, but impressively, stayed on only her face. The men at Flint’s cabin stared at everything but her face. Seth wasn’t like that. He made her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. Yes, she’d definitely fantasize about this conversation. And his touch. And his look.
She heard often how pretty she was with her long, blonde hair and dark brown eyes, but usually the compliments came from men who came into the restaurant and, she was pretty sure, only wanted one thing. Her mom had taught her well to avoid that. Well by word not example. Her mom slept with anything that looked her way.
“Thank you,” she murmured. “So what does Mar do?” She found herself fascinated by this unknown woman: petite, feisty, fun, pretty, and married to Seth Jewel’s brother. Her life must be ideal.
The forest was thinning, and she could see light glowing in front of them and hear the faint beat of their crude music. Shoot. Her walk with this dreamy man was almost over. Would she ever see him again? She doubted it.
“She runs a business, a perfume and cologne company called ‘Cosette’. My other sister-in-law is Cosette, the chemist who creates all the perfume.”
Breeze stopped walking at the edge of the forest. She turned to stare up at him. Sadly, his arm dropped away as she did so. Her mouth and eyes were both open wide and she probably looked like a cartoon character. She knew he was famous because of her brother’s obsession with him, but his family was famous too. Oh, my.
“Shut the front door! I’ve always wanted to buy a ‘Cosette’ perfume,” she breathed, “But I could never afford fancy stuff like that.” Her face got hot and she rushed on so he didn’t have to respond to her poverty. “Is all of your family famous?”
He smiled but his blue eyes looked troubled, as if he was concerned about her, or for her, she couldn’t say for sure. She could usually read people pretty well, probably from her years as a waitress or her years knowing how to avoid letting one of her parents beat her or Ridge. Ridge was a good kid and smart, he could fix anything, build anything. Right now he was simply acting like a stupid nineteen-year old. At twenty-five she wasn’t certain if she was much smarter. She’d saved enough to start doing college online and someday obtain her dream of being an elementary school teacher, but it was rough fitting it in during the school year with being at the school five days a week and the restaurant six nights a week. During the school year, Saturday morning and early afternoon was her only time to catch up and try to do her college work. No way how was she going to work on Sunday. The good Lord deserved better than that and she needed a break. At least right now it was summertime and she was getting a lot of schooling done. Well, until this horrible detour with Flint Brooks.
“My twin, Caleb, is an NLL star, so to some people he’s famous,” Seth told her.