Page 10 of Their Romantic Chalet

“And yet you live in a remote cabin in the woods.”

“I love them all to pieces, but sometimes you need to get away from it all. Sometimes you need your own place to go, where you can just be alone.” I lean into her as well. “Or, well, maybe alone with someone you love in a way that isn’t familial.”

“Inviting me to your private cabin, huh?”

“I think you’d like it.”

“I think I would.” She continues to watch my family. There’s a wistfulness about her people-watching.

It kind of makes me afraid to ask. We’ve had such positive vibes so far, and I’m afraid to break them by getting her to reveal some harsh, dark truth about her situation.

That maybe she doesn’t have a family that loves her.

Perhaps she doesn’t have a family at all.

FOUR

lavender

We set our date, and the weather report looks good. I pull up to our agreed meeting point, the start of a forest pathway not far from Tabitha’s old grandmother’s place.

I psyche myself up.

My fears of Hawk have mostly been pushed aside. It was never like I thought he’d actually go and rip my head off, just that he seemed so damn stoic and unapproachable.

Him coming up to me and making small talk, though, managed to help my nerves a good deal, and seeing that he’s a man with a family like anyone else helped a whole lot too.

That anxiety has been replaced by this new anxiety, of not wanting to lose the attention of an incredibly hot guy and not making a total and utter fool of myself in front of him.

I’m sure I’ll get over that only for something else to replace it. I can’t ever just feel like everything’s going to be A-okay, now, can’t I?

I wait for Hawk, sitting on the hood of my car, my hiking backpack next to me. I think I arrived a bit too early in my fear of being even remotely late.

Soon enough, he rolls up in that maintained but kinda dirty pickup. He steps out of the truck, his own backpack in hand, flashing me that dashing smile of his.

He then sees my car, and a look of confusion hits him. “Uh, you drive that?”

“I drive what?”

He points at what I’m sitting on. “That thing looks like it meant for Rodeo Drive, not for driving to an actual rodeo.”

Oh, uh, shit.

This was a present for my eighteenth birthday. A Lamborghini sports car. I’d been driving it around since, just kind of accepting that it was perfectly normal to drive a top of the line sports car to the grocery store or the DMV or wherever else. I didn’t even give a second thought to bringing it to Evergreen Valley with me.

“I... uh... won it in a contest.”

“You won a Lamborghini in a contest?”

I nod. “It’s a car. It gets car things done. So I never thought too much of it.”

Why was I so worried if he found out I came from money?

I swallow audibly as other realizations hit me. Did Hannah see this too? She couldn’t just think I was an idiot working a part-time job to make payments on something more expensive than some people’s houses?

“I guess it does. It rides so low I’m surprised it doesn’t get caught up on some rocks. Those types of cars don’t get along with dirt roads at all.”

“Yeah, I’ve noticed. I’ve managed to get through, though.” I hop off the hood of my car and hoist my backpack to show I’m ready to go.

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