Page 25 of A Bear's Secret

Trevor raised his eyebrows.

“Sorry,” she said to him. She blushed a little, which Trevor thought was odd, but not unwelcome. “It’s dumb running joke we’ve had all morning.”

“About lady pirates?” he asked.

Sloane looked thoughtful.

“Well, they could be lady pirates,” she said. “Maybe this particular romance book was very progressive.”

“Not if it was part of Barb’s stash,” said Austin.

Then he looked slightly embarrassed.

“Oops,” he said.

Trevor laughed out loud. He was already starting to feel looser, more like himself. Just like he always felt when Austin was around.

“Barb, you minx,” murmured Sloane, still looking at a view. “Hey, there’s a hawk.”

“For a while, earlier, there was one in this tree right here,” Trevor said, pointing to a scrubby little pine tree clinging to the edge. “I got to watch it eat a mouse.”

“Gross!” said Sloane, staring up into the tree, sounding more excited than grossed out. “Did you see it catch the mouse?”

“No,” said Trevor. “Just eat it.”

“That’s so cool,” she said. “About a week ago, I was sitting on a rock pretty far off the trail, eating lunch, and I saw a fox get a rabbit,” she said. “I felt really bad for the rabbit, but it can be amazing to see nature in action. I had no idea foxes were so sneaky or fast.”

Trevor just nodded, his eyes still scanning the view.

Behind them, Austin sat on the rock and started pulling food out of his backpack.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ve got two giant sandwiches, a bunch of apples, potato chips, some cheese and crackers, a baggie full of cookies, and, uh...” he trailed off for a minute, still pawing through the bag. “A container of chicken salad, some cold bacon, biscuits, jam, butter, and a bottle of chocolate milk.”

Trevor’s eyebrows went up, and he couldn’t help but smile.

“So Barb packed you a lunch?” he asked.

Sloane looked at Trevor and then at Austin, her face inscrutable.

“Yup,” said Austin. “What do you want?”

“Biscuit and jam as an appetizer,” said Trevor. “Then I’ll see where the day takes me.”

“You didn’t tell me we were meeting Trevor here,” Sloane said. She went through the pile of food and pulled out a cookie.

“Oh, we just... ran into Trevor?” Austin said. He looked at Trevor for confirmation of that.

Trevor didn’t respond. It wasn’t like Austin was doing a great job of pretending this was a chance meeting, so he just slathered jam onto his biscuit and pushed it into his mouth, letting the flaky, sweet, buttery goodness take over his senses.

Sloane’s eyes narrowed, but she focused on her cookie, then noticed Austin looking at her, a smile around his eyes.

“What?” she said, her mouth full.

“You’ll ruin your lunch,” Austin said.

“It’s pre-ssert,” she said, swallowing. “Like dessert, but before the meal. Live a little.”

The way they already talked to each other tugged at Trevor’s heart.

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