Page 78 of Love Me Dangerous

“Ava and Hutch?” I catch his eye. “They’re just friends.”

Zach nods, but I can tell he’s confused. He’s not alone.

We bump over a rocky section, and Zach grabs the coffee to keep it from spilling. “What’s going to happen to this project when winter comes?”

I’m grateful for the change of subject because I don’t like to think about Hutch leaving. “Everything is paused until summer.”

“Do people still hunt in the snow?”

“The season ends December thirty-first, but only die-hard hunters stay out that long.”

He sips from the coffee then hands it to me, our hands brushing again. That charged heat zips over my skin.

I can’t help but smile as I savor the last sip. We’ve gone from sharing moments of vulnerability to a simple cup of coffee. I think about Linnie’sis he your boyfriend?while my tummy flutters kick into high gear.

“Does your dad hunt?”

“He used to, but he’s too busy during hunting season nowadays. Jesse and I went a few times with him when we were younger. I like the camping and tracking part, but when it comes to killing an animal… I did it once, and I don’t ever want to do it again. Linnie flat-out refuses to go. She doesn’t even eat meat anymore.”

Our convoy tops a steep rise and turns right at a Y, heading for a copse of aspen and pine.

“How does your dad feel about that?” Zach asks.

“He understands,” I reply. “Hunting isn’t for everyone.”

“Yet that’s his job, right? To protect hunting.”

I give him a look. “What gave you that idea? Dad’s job is to protect wildlife.”

We reach another fork, with one road paralleling the lower edge of the grove and a steep one heading to the top. The orange work truck has parked at the Y and Dustin is directing the vehicles ahead of us to continue on the low road. In the aspens, the coils of rusty wire stand out against the white bark.

“There’s a section up at the top,” I tell Zach with a nod up the steep grade. I lean out the window. “Okay if we go up?”

Dustin gives a flick of his wrist. “Go ahead,” he calls out in his gravelly voice.

Zach puts the truck in Low 4. When we lurch upward, throwing me back in the seat, I reach out to steady myself. My hand lands on Zach’s knee.

His cheeks flush, and he eyes me. “You okay over there?”

“Fine,” I reply in a thin voice.

He covers my hand with his and gently accelerates. At the top of the grove, we’re still holding hands, with the warmth from his touch sending happy prickles over my skin. Zach turns off the truck and we sit there in the pale morning glow of the sunrise, the distant trill of birds in the trees filling the silence.

Zach caresses my fingers with his thumb. “Kitchen Radio is playing at The Limelight tonight. Are you going?”

“Dad’s in the field, so I’ll be home with Linn.”

He strokes my hand again, slowly, like he’s trying to memorize the feeling.

“You want to come over?” I ask. “We could make dinner, and we’ve got a bonfire pit out back.”

He slips his palm beneath mine and cradles my hand on his thigh. A smile creeps across his face. “That sounds ten times better than the show.”

Whooshgoes my stomach. “It does to me, too.”

Chapter Nineteen

ZACH

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