Page 62 of Close Your Eyes and Count to 10

And smacked right into Wild Cody.

Her face came to his chest, which was hard and unyielding. He smelled of woodsmoke and sage. He lifted hands to her arms to steady her as she stumbled back. Then he smiled, released her quickly, and put a finger to his lips.Shhh.

He waved a hand, indicating that she should follow, then moved away.

She noticed that the two Range Rovers were gone. Did that mean that the Extreme team had gone back to the hotel? Was it only her and Wild Cody and Malinka on-site? The game was supposed to start in a few hours.

Cody crouched by the fire which had burned down to embers and coaxed it back to life.

Adele realized she was cold and felt herself drawn to the heat. Wild Cody (that was a stupid name; she couldn’t call him that) nodded toward one of the logs that they’d pulled around as makeshift seating. And for no reason she could identify, she sat. He stared over at her with that clear, seeing gaze, and she saw something she hadn’t expected: kindness. The warmth of the fire reached her skin, and the glow washed his face, softened the hard edges, filled in the landscape of lines.

Adele wrapped her arms around her center. He took a flask from his pocket, handed it to her.

Ew, had he been drinking from it? Postpandemic, that was pretty gross.

“It’s not mine,” he said, reading her expression. “I found it in my tent.”

“What is it?”

She took off the cap and sniffed it gingerly. Bourbon, a good one, light and woodsy. It reminded her of Miller: the old-fashioned was his go-to drink. It wasn’t Adele’s favorite, but he’d always saved the boozy cherry on the bottom for Adele.She remembered that sweetness, that biting alcoholic edge. She hadn’t allowed herself a single sip of anything since Miller left. She felt strongly that she had to be present and in control for the kids at all times. She was tempted to drink from the flask but capped it instead. She tried to hand it back to him, but he held up a palm.

“I’m sober five years,” he said. “But someone put a flask of booze in my tent.”

“Who?” she asked, horrified. “Who would do something like that?”

He smiled, and for a moment, she flashed back to her father, face lit by the campfire, smile broad and relaxed.

“I think someone was trying to mess with me,” said Cody.

She remembered the form in the hotel, the book, and cigarettes. She found herself telling him about it.

“Mind-fucking,” he said with a nod. “I understand they’re good at it. They like to keep you wobbly so you can’t focus on the game.”

She put the flask down, held her hands up to the fire, considering. That was pretty messed up. But she liked the explanation better than the idea that somehow Miller was here in this wild place, stalking her. She couldn’t even imagine seeing him in the flesh again. He had become a ghost. A haunting.

She picked up the flask, unscrewed it again, and poured out the bourbon onto the ground.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “They shouldn’t have done that. It was wrong.”

He looked into the flames. “Nothing surprises me anymore,” he said easily. “Nothing people are willing to do anyway.”

Adele heard resignation, a kind of awakened sadness. He used a big stick to poke at the stacked wood in the fire, and some embers crackled.

“So what did you find out there?” he asked.

Wild Cody’s voice was gravelly, familiar. She’d heard it before—a lot.His had been Blake’s favorite nature show back in the day; probably it still was. She saw it turn up on the BoxOfficePlus Continue Watching queue from time to time. Usually after Blake had been bullied or treated badly by his former friends. It was her son’s comfort show, something they’d watched together in a time when things were happy and good. Long ago, it seemed.

“Just what they said would be there,” she lied. “The overgrown paths, the pool and clubhouse, the casitas. All in various states of disrepair.”

He watched her. She found she liked the look of him—rugged, outdoorsy, ready for anything in the way that her father had been. She remembered when she’d watched with Blake that she’d liked his adventurous spirit, his ready laugh, the clear joy he took in animal life. Here beside the fire, he didn’t seem unhinged to her at all.

“What were you looking for?” he asked. He poked at the fire with the stick; a log tumbled, and the flames danced.

Adele lifted her shoulders. She hadn’t been looking for anything in particular. But she found it all the same.

“Nothing in particular,” he answered for her. “Just recon.”

She nodded.

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