Page 26 of Wild Child
Yes. It had to be.
I nodded once to reaffirm it.
Friends.
I got this.
“Ellie!”
A scratchy voice brought me out of my thoughts. I slipped around a corner display of new hiking boots and stopped a few feet away from Daniel. He stood behind the cash register, brow furrowed as he flipped through receipts. A fishing vest hung over his torso filled with brightly colored lures, a few old patches he’d sewn on, and a name tag that said “Old Hoss” instead of his name. Salt-and-pepper hair topped his head in dusty strands. Wrinkles lined his neck.
These days, he was as familiar to me as the mountains and twice as cranky. My loyalty ran deep.
“Yes?”
“Just got a call from a man named Kimball.”
My mind instantly slipped to Kimball, the carefree guy who had come to Pineville a week ago. Nice enough guy. Seemed to be everywhere and, according to Jax, probably had a little crush on me. I’d turned him down on a few date attempts.Just checking this place out for a long, overnight hike,he told me a few days ago.You know of any?
That was averyinteresting conversation for a girl that longed to do overnight mountain guides but needed someone to pay for it.
I leaned against the front counter, riddled with stickers from gear companies and old bumper stickers that didn’t sell. Something fuzzy took residence in my stomach when Daniel gazed at me with inquisition beneath his eyebrows. That furry thing called hope wriggled like a caterpillar.
“And?” I drawled.
“He wants an overnight guide. Five nights.”
Schooling mywhoopcame with serious control. I lifted my brow and cleared my throat, the picture of serious professionalism. Daniel loved me because I didn’t react to stuff. In other words, women still frightened this perpetual, middle-aged bachelor that was surprisingly attractive for his salty personality.
Instead of celebrating, I focused on the rigid frown that had overtaken his face.
“You don’t seem happy about this, Daniel.”
“They requested you.”
“Shows they’re wise.”
“Or Kimball has the hots for you.”
I rolled my eyes. “First, it’s weird that you sayhotsin that tone. Please never do that again. Second, I can take care of myself. Kimball is harmless, and I’ve already turned him down twice for a date. Third—”
He jabbed a finger at me, cutting me off. “First, you don’t make the call here. I do. So don’t inform me how to run my company.”
Properly chastised, I backed down. Daniel might be—definitely was—rough around the edges. It’s why we got along so well. But I knew when to capitulate. When that tone came out, I didn’t have a chance to win.
“Second.” His eyebrows lifted halfway to his hairline as if to emphasize a point. “I don’t care how badly you want to be an adventure guide. I won’t compromise your safety. They aren’t local.”
“They?”
“He has a friend, named Steve, that he wants to come along.”
Fair point. Two strange men plus me in the mountains wasn’t desirable arithmetic. But I wasn’t about to lose this chance.
“I accept the risk along with my Glock.”
“Of course you do,” he muttered. “You’re twenty, and all twenty-somethings are stupid, with one exception, and it’s not you.”
I rolled my eyes. He said that stupid line at least once a week, and, in years of working together, he had never mentioned the identity of thenotstupid twenty-something of his acquaintance.
