Page 30 of Sweet Harmony

* * *

“Grace, you area world-class idiot.” With a frustrated puff of air, Grace blew thehair that had escaped from her ponytail away from her face. Sheheld up the map of the Falls and the surrounding park and studiedit carefully. “Okay, so according to this map, you entered thetrail here, you didn’t leave the trail, so you should be back atthe park entrance by now…”

Yeah, sheshould have been. Only she wasn’t and she had no frackin’ idea whynot. She hadn’t taken a foot off the damn path. She pulled herphone out of the pocket of her yoga pants and tried to Googledirections out of the park, muttering another curse when sherealized she didn’t have service.

“Oh, for thelove of God,” she said before shoving her phone back into herpocket. “I can’t seriously be lost in the goddamn park.”

She could andshe was.

She should haveknown better. When Addie had called and cancelled their hike lastminute, she should have kicked off her damn shoes, orderedtake-out, and binge watchedGood Girls. But, oh no, she wentto the Falls anyway, even after promising Addie she wouldn’t.

Both Addie andKira were well aware of her challenges with directions. More thanonce they had affectionately teased that she wouldn’t be able tofind her way out of a wet paper bag. Sadly, they were right. It waswhy they’d made her promise never to go hiking at Harmony FallsPark on her own. Not even the easier, shorter trails. The odds ofher having to spend the night out here were way higher than sheliked to consider.

She glancedaround, her unease growing a little. It was only a little afterseven and she still had at least an hour before the sun went down,but what if she didn’t find her way back to the park entrance bythen? There were plenty of bears in Harmony Falls woods, and shedidn’t fancy being a snack.

“You idiot,”she muttered again. No one knew she was out here. She lived aloneand she told Addie she wouldn’t go hiking. Which meant no one wouldeven think to go looking for her until she didn’t show up for worktomorrow morning.

More unease,tinged with the slightest amount of fear, made the base of herspine itch. She took a deep breath and marched forward, armsswinging at her sides, the small bell on her backpack to let bearsknow she was around, ringing steadily with every step.

She was fine.She was still on the path and eventually she’d come to the parkentrance. All the trails, even the difficult ones, were all bigcircular trails that led back to the park entrance. As long as shedidn’t panic, she’d be fine.

Until it getsdark and you can’t see the trail anymore.

She ignored herinner voice. She would get back to the park before it got dark. Shehad to. She had a small first-aid kit, water and a few snacks inher backpack, but nothing else. No emergency flares, no bear spray,no matches, no –

Her breathcaught in her throat and the hair on the back of her neck stood up.She turned slowly to her left, staring intently into the bushesthat lined the path. They rustled again and the air wheezed out ofher.

“Oh shit,” shewhispered. Wetting her lips, she backed up, stepping carefully andwishing like hell she’d grabbed the goddamn bear spray.

The bushesrustled again, she caught a glimpse of fawn-coloured fur and hereyes widened when the dog wiggled out of the bushes and spiedher.

Fuck. She’drather it be a bear. Not that she didn’t love the big stupid dog,she was probably a little too attached to him, but where he went,his master went, and she really didn’t want –

“Shit! Tank,no! No, boy! Sit!” She realized far too late that the dog had madea beeline for her and, as usual, his enthusiasm was notched up to athousand. Tank hit her with what felt like the full speed of anout-of-control train. She went ass-over-teakettle, her musclesscreaming in protest. Before she could curl up into a protectiveball, Tank dropped on top of her like aone-hundred-and-seventy-five-pound medicine ball, driving the lastof the oxygen from her lungs.

He licked herface repeatedly, chuffing happily before blowing air from his noselike a horse. Spit and –gross- dog snot covered her facein a fine spray, and she pushed at the heavy dog.

“Off.” Hervoice was barely above a croak. “Tank, off…can’t breathe.”

He chuffedagain before licking her face from her chin to her forehead. Shedecided that noise she heard was her ribs cracking. She let herbody go limp and accepted her fate. Shuffling off this mortal coilby being crushed under the weight of a giant, happy, dumb dogwasn’t the worse way to go.

“Tank,off.”

His deep voicemade her groan inwardly. She closed her eyes as Tank licked herface a final time before he jumped up. His big paw gouged her inthe side as he left, and she winced.

“Sorry aboutthat. You okay?”

A shadowcovered her face and mentally preparing herself, she opened hereyes and stared up at Gideon.

“Just fine.”Ignoring the way every muscle in her body was throbbing, she satup. He made no effort to help her stand, but she hadn’t expectedhim to. He wouldn’t touch her. Of course, he wouldn’t. Henevertouched her.

He touched youthe night of -

Nope. She wasnoping right the fuck out of that thought, thank you very much.

She struggledto her feet, dusting off her ass and straightening her t-shirt. Shecould feel dog drool running down her face and she wiped it off,glaring at Tank who sat next to Gideon, panting heavily and givingher his big doggie grin.

“Bad dog,” shescolded. “Very bad dog.”

---