Page 10 of Promise of a New Beginning
“It’s my trail, Pratt.” The warning in Jack’s deep voice caused Josie to gasp—and Pratt to stop cold.
Savannah was intrigued by Jack’s behavior. On the one hand, he was right. It was his job to keep them safe, so she and the others couldn’t just wander off, but on the other hand, she’d just heard him tell Pratt to deal with whatever was bothering him, and from what Savannah had seen, Jack was holding in something that was not only eating away at him, but pushing him away from everyone else at the same time—except maybe Aiden.
“Your life is in my hands. The track that was beside you was from what looked to be a bobcat, a very large one.” Jack’s eyes shifted to Savannah and held, just long enough to unleash the fluttering in her stomach again. “Bobcats don’t usually attack people, but if you come up on them feeding, or with pups, they’re a whole different creature.”
“Bobcat? Will it come back?” The words left Savannah’s lips before she had time to stop them.
Jack continued pinning Pratt with a cold stare and ignored Savannah’s question. Pratt gritted his teeth and took a step backward, allowing Jack to once again lead the way.
Resentment swelled within her at Jack’s complete disregard for her question—and her privacy when she had been down at the water. Annoyed, she turned her focus to Pratt. He was either dealing with something pretty heavy, or he was just a brooding twentysomething. She couldn’t tell which. But the more she got to know Josie, the more she liked her, and she wanted to be sure Josie wasn’t getting involved with someone who could bring trouble down the road. She glanced at Jack’s broad back as he led them farther up the mountain.Why is it so easy to see trouble a mile away when I’m looking at someone else and so easy to ignore when it happens to me?
They hiked for another few hours, and when the afternoon sun fell from the sky and the clouds rolled in, they headed back toward their campsite.
“Aiden, how many poisonous plants are in this forest?” Jack asked.
“Seven,” Aiden said proudly.
“Excellent. Why are you so good at remembering things?” Jack asked.
“My mom homeschools me, and she says I’m a book boy not a TV boy and that’s what makes me so smart.” Aiden reached for Jack’s hand.
Jack furrowed his brow and looked at him, then looked back at Elizabeth and Lou. Elizabeth mouthed,Sorry.Jack’s enormous paw engulfed Aiden’s tiny hand, and Aiden looked up at Jack as they walked.
“Watch your feet, not me,” Jack said.
“Okay,” Aiden replied.
“Do you remember what any of the poisonous plants look like?” Jack asked them.
Savannah watched him from behind, and she swore the muscles in his shoulders had settled down an inch or two, and he moved with a little less rigidity in his limbs as he walked hand in hand with Aiden.
“Three leaves let it be,” Aiden said.
Jack flashed a bright smile over his shoulder at Elizabeth and Lou. It was the first time Savannah had seen him look happy. The smile lightened his dark eyes and brightened his skin, as if he were looking into the sun. It instantly stole his serious, grumbly facade, changing his entire persona without a single word spoken. He looked approachable, likable. He looked like someone Savannah might like to get to know better.
“Three leaves, green, shiny sometimes, sometimes they have notches like cutouts and sometimes they’re smooth, right?” Aiden looked up at Jack again.
Jack nodded. “Perfect.”
“Someday I’m gonna live in the woods just like you, Jack. My dad said I can do that if I want to after I’m all grown up,” Aiden said.
Savannah couldn’t see Jack’s face from her position a few feet behind him, but she noticed the way he kept glancing at Aiden, and the attentiveness struck her. The worddangerousdidn’t seem to fit him any longer. When he was with Aiden, the wordsinterestedandsweetcame to mind.
Aiden described the other poisonous plants that he remembered, and then he went through a list of which plants were not poisonous. By the time they reached the camp, the temperature had dipped another ten degrees. Savannah grabbed a hoodie from her tent and then offered to get water from the stream with the help of Elizabeth and Josie. She couldn’t take another minute of being treated as if she didn’t exist.
“ARE WE HAVING fun yet?” Josie asked as they reached the water’s edge. She pulled the hood of her sweatshirt over her jet-black hair and dunked the pot in the water.
“What’s up with Pratt?” Savannah asked. She and Elizabeth sat on a boulder a few feet from the water’s edge. Streaks of sun cut through the center of the trees and cast long, active shadows across the water. Savannah watched Josie flip her black hair over her shoulder as she set the pot on the ground and began pacing.
“He’s complicated, I guess. Geez, I always do this. I came here to sort of find myself, you know?” Her blue eyes shifted between Savannah and Elizabeth. She pulled forward a lock of hair and ran her finger and thumb over the ends, first with the right hand, then the left, in a quick, repetitive pattern. “I always hook up with the wrong guys. Then, when things go bad—which they always do—I swear off men and end up doing the same thing over again,” Josie said.
“Welcome to the club.” Savannah gathered her hair over one shoulder and pulled her hood up, too.
Elizabeth took Savannah’s hand. “You girls just haven’t found the right men yet. You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince.”
“I’ve kissed enough frogs for both of us,” Savannah said. “You and Lou seem happy and compatible, and Aiden is too cute for words, but I’m beginning to wonder if I didn’t miss my window of opportunity. I’m thirty…something…and most guys are married by the time they’re in their mid-thirties. Well, my brothers weren’t, and one is still way too single, but he’s younger than the rest of us. I think in general, by the time you hit your mid-thirties, you’re either unattached for a reason, which is usually not good, or you’ve already been married and divorced, and that’s not always great, either.”
“So I only have five more years to find the man I’ll fall in love with forever? What if I never do?” Josie sat on the other side of Elizabeth, leaned her elbows on her knees, and rested her face in her hands. She stared at the ground, the corners of her mouth turned down.
