Page 328 of How to Kiss a Hawthorne Brother
I shrug. “You’d be surprised how far some people will go.”
She nods. “Right. That makes sense. Youshouldbe cautious. You don’t really know anything about me.”
I playfully tap my phone against my palm. “I don’t know if I’d saythat.”
She tilts her head to the side. “What would you say?”
“I’d say I know you’re serious enough about your work to trespass not once, but twice. Also, you have an uncanny ability to blend into the wilderness, and you know more about squirrels than any person should. Also, I’m pretty sure you have a thing for rock-hard—”
She cuts me off. “If you say one thing about your abdominal muscles, I swear, Flint Hawthorne, I will…” She hesitates, her eyes darting around like she’s trying to find an appropriate threat.
I lift an eyebrow. “You’ll what?”
“I don’t know what I’ll do,” she says, her tone snobbish, which is hilarious, considering she’s currently dressed like a bush. “But it won’t be good.”
“Well, now you’ve got me worried.”
She holds my gaze, and for a second, I think she might smile. I’m filled with a sudden craving for the sight of it, and that same certainty I felt the first time I saw her settles into my soul.
If this woman smiles at me—because of me—I think I’ll be done for.
Audrey rattles off her phone number, then glances up at the quickly darkening sky. “When can I start?” she asks as she rearranges the strap on her camera bag. “Is tomorrow too soon?”
I almost say yes, but I don’t want to sound too eager. This woman has already made her lack of interest perfectly clear. I don’t want to scare her off. “Just work it out with Joni,” I finally say. “She knows my schedule better than I do. I’ll make sure she reaches out tonight.”
Audrey nods. “Okay. Perfect. Sounds good.”
I tilt my head toward my four-wheeler. “Do you need a ride?”
She looks over her shoulder, toward the creek. “I don’t think your trail goes far enough. But I’ll be okay. My truck isn’t far from here.”
I nod. “Okay. Then I guess I’ll see you when I see you.” I move to my four-wheeler and climb on, then reach forward and crank the engine until it hums to life. I look back one last time and watch as Audrey takes a few hurried steps toward me.
“Flint, I just…” She licks her lips. “Thank you. You have no idea what this means for my research.”
If this were anyone else, I might laugh. We’re talking about squirrels, after all. But after meeting Audrey and really talking to her, I have to respect someone who has so much passion for her work, who takes her job so seriously.
“Also, I know how important privacy must be to you,” she continues. “I want you to know I won’t tell anyone about this—that you’re letting me come here. Not anyone.”
“I appreciate that,” I say. Nateisgoing to protest, but I believe Audrey, and weirdly, even though we just met, I also trust her. She isn’t going to cause any trouble.
I lift a hand in a final wave, then ease my hand off the brake and head toward the house. Just before I pull into the garage, a white squirrel darts across the driveway and into the woods.
I grin, feeling invigorated in a way I haven’t in years.
Maybe it’s all the physical labor I’m doing. Maybe it’s being back home in the mountains.
Or maybe—just maybe—it’s the squirrels.
Chapter Six
Flint
“So let me getthis straight,” my oldest brother Perry says, his expression disbelieving. I follow his gaze through the kitchen window and out to the lawn beside the pool where Audrey is sitting in a camp chair, scribbling something down in a small, leatherbound notebook. “You’ve given a complete stranger access to all of your property because she wants to take pictures…of squirrels?” He leans across the counter and grabs a cracker and a slice of cheese.
It is not surprising that Perry is the one asking the hard questions. He’s the oldest and the grouchiest and definitely the one most likely to point out potential problems.
Itwassurprising when my family descended upon the house, laden with groceries, for what they claimed was a “random family gathering.” Perry said it was because his son Jack wanted to swim, but I’d put money on this having something to do with the conversation Brody and I had a couple of weeks back. Brody thinks I’m lonely. And now he’s made the rest of my family think I’m lonely too.
