Page 25 of Broken-Hearted

“After you pushed me down the hill.”

“No need to keep bringing it up,” I mutter, embarrassed and guilty as hell.

“I’m okay, peach. You only bruised my ego.”

I consider his question. “I’m not sure where I was leading us. I figured we’d get somewhere safe unless we got ourselves eaten by a bear, but I wasn’t really worried about the bear. Until now.”

He grins down at me. “Yep. Definitely glass half-full.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

He draws me closer to his side. “Nope. Just something else we have in common.”

I open my mouth to disagree.

“Impulsive, prone to telling white lies, and glass half-full,” he says as we walk.

I close my mouth.

There are some things worth arguing about, and there are others where you know there’s no winning the argument.

This is the latter.

Simon and Matilda’s little cabin is cute. But it’s very small.

Other than a small wood shed just outside, and another slightly larger outbuilding made of the same red wood as the cabin, it looks like the perfect place for a hiker to stop for a couple of nights along a trail that winds through the forest.

I have no idea where we are, or even how far we are from the road. We walked for maybe thirty minutes, and we were moving fast. It’s quiet here though, and I have a feeling we would hear any trouble coming before it surprised us, which might’ve been why Matilda and Simon settled here.

It’s an open concept one bedroom cabin with low ceilings. The kitchen and living space all form one space, and a closed door leads to the bedroom. It’s rustic, earthy, and with cozy vibes. When Matilda tells me it’s so small that the bathroom is in an outbuilding, I’m not sure I’d be happy living so simply.

“It’s a tourist cabin, and we’re staying until we figure out where we want to settle,” Matilda explains when I ask her about the less than ideal bathroom situation after she returned from the bedroom dressed in a pair of sweats and a T-shirt.

Stumbling outside to use the bathroom while half-asleep would probably lead to me walking right into a tree or getting lost. Or, if I was really unlucky, a bear.

“Out of curiosity, are there any bears around here?” I try to look casual as I listen hard for any large animals trampling through the forest.

Nathan steps up close behind me, clasping my hips as he speaks directly into my ear. “I’ll protect you from any bears, peach.”

Matilda let me borrow a T-shirt to wear since I’m missing a sleeve after I tore it off to tie up Nathan’s arm. When I glance down, there’s no more fresh blood on the strap of fabric. It looks like it’s healing.

I step away from him and he releases me so reluctantly, it’s clear he doesn’t want to.

“If you’re calling me peach for the reason I think you are, you need to stop,” I say, opening up more space between us.

He blinks big, innocent brown eyes at me. “And what reason might that be?”

I caught the way he was staring at my ass when my old boss asked how I was. My gaze snags on Matilda’s grin before I can call Nathan out on his inappropriate nickname for me.

I walk away from Nathan and take a seat at the dining table.

Naturally, two seconds later, Nathan drops into the seat beside mine and pretends not to notice my glare.

“We don’t have any bears around here,” Matilda reassures me, drawing my attention. “Just quiet, nature, and the occasional lost hiker who wandered off the trail.”

“We just point them on their way and go back to blissful tranquility, don’t we, Mattie?” Simon says as he walks out of the bedroom.

He’s dressed in a pair of black sweats and a baggy, slightly wrinkled gray T-shirt. His feet are bare, as are Matilda’s, and they match in their casual clothing.

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