Page 40 of Ensnared
I roll my eyes but don’t push it. I don’t want to cause strain between them, so I decide to drop it. I mean, it’s not like I want to wander the woods on my own. But I would feel safer if I knew I could call someone in a pinch. They can’t babysit me all the time, either.
“Show me where you saw the shadow,” Jack says. “I’ll go check it out.”
I point him in the right direction, and he strides into the forest while I put on my hiking boots and add layers of clothes to my ensemble. He returns minutes later, frown lines etched in his forehead.
“Did you find something?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “No bear tracks. I ran over to the fence, and it’s intact on this side, too.”
I chew the inside of my cheek. “Could it have been a deer? Or a moose? I didn’t see what it was, exactly, but I’m sure there wassomething. And Princess Penny saw it, too.”
The guys exchange a look that I can’t interpret. I know my evidence sounds flimsy, especially since I’m citing my aged Pomeranian as a witness, but I’m not making shit up.
“Did you smell anything?” Ty asks.
Jack shakes his head, then pauses. “I mean, there was a whiff of fish, but the wind’s blowing off the ocean, so that could be it.”
“No bear scat?”
“Nothing like that,” he replies.
I cross my arms, a movement made more difficult by all the clothes I’m wearing. “Well, I’m not crazy.”
Jack puts a hand on the small of my back and pulls me closer to him. He places a kiss on my forehead. “I know,” he says, “and I’m not saying you are. We’ll check around the village perimeter, see if the fence is broken elsewhere.”
That gets my hackles down. “Okay,” I agree. “Now can we stop talking about weird bear visits? Will you tell me where we’re going?”
Ty grins, his white teeth flashing. “We’re going swimming.”
Fifteen
Skye
“Swimming.”
Ty seems so pleased with himself, and I have to remind myself that he’s a sea dragon. Maybe he doesn’t know that humans can’t survive long in water as cold as in this bay. I’ve been to the beach several times now, and though I dipped my fingers in the water, it certainly wasn’t warm enough to be inviting.
“Ty, I don’t know how to tell you, but I’m not…”
I struggle with how to finish the sentence without hurting his feelings. He looks so excited about this date that he’s planned.
“I can’t go swimming with you. I’ll get hypothermia.”
“Aha,” he says. “But you won’t. I’ve brought something for you.”
He lifts a large duffel bag that I haven’t noticed before. With trepidation, I tug at the zipper and uncover…
Ew. The smell hits me first, of old socks and wet dog.
“What the hell, man?” Jack cringes back, his nose wrinkled.
Yeah, if I can smell it, so can he with his much more sensitive nose.
“It’s a wet suit,” Ty explains. “It’s a little old, but it’s the only one that’ll fit you. We have a couple more in storage. Tourists sometimes use them when they want to do underwater photography or some shit.”
“And they all smell like this?” Jack asks.
Ty shakes his head from side to side. “I think this one is the worst. But it’s the smallest of the bunch, and it needs to fit Skye properly or it won’t do shit as insulation.”
