Page 23 of Wild in the Woods
“Tomorrow. I start a two-week course in a week and a half, and a twenty-one-day course after that. By then we’ll be fully into winter and I’m just guessing here, but I’ll bet you don’t want to try and make a shelter and find food in ten feet of snow.”
She shook her head vigorously, thought for a moment and said mostly to herself, “I’m flying out tomorrow.”
“Well, we tried. It was nice meeting you and have a good trip home.”
He slapped her on the shoulder like she was one of the guys and walked out. Problem solved. Except, the pit in his stomach and an unhappy bear pacing behind his ribs said maybe not.
“Wait,” she called behind him. “I’ll let you know by morning.”
He faltered. Really, she was going to consider it?
“Let’s go. I’ll take you back to your car.”
And with any luck, she’d drive away and promptly be on the next plane back to Chicago.
Chapter Nine
Shehadtoberational. No way could she manage seven days in the woods. And she really couldn’t survive seven days alone with Fox Mitchell.
It’ll be just me and you.
Was he insane? Was she insane for being secretly thrilled at the thought of going wild in the woods with this man? She’d known him for the scant part of two days. Not weeks or months. Certainly not long enough to jump into something like this. If a man in Chicago had suggested she wander off alone with him she’d have pepper sprayed him before delivering a death blow to the crotch and getting the hell out of there.
But this was different. Fox was a professional. Well known. Well liked. And nothing about him gave her a single red flag except the attraction she couldn’t get rid of. Besides, she liked being around him. Something drew her in captivated her when he was around, like invisible ties trying to keep them together. It was weird and it should bother her enough to keep her from considering what she was considering.
Could she really do this?
Lulu frowned into her wine spritzer and ran a finger around the rim of the glass. The hotel bar was nearly empty, which was a shame for the pianist in the corner pounding the keys—badly—for tips. But she had bartender’s frequent attention and a steady stream of spritzers coming her way.
She’d planned for a lot of ‘what ifs’ before coming to Estes Park. But she never imagined participating in an outdoor survival course. Which was a great opportunity and probably something she should have considered from the beginning. What better way to see things from the inside than to go into the wild with him? Ugh, it’s something Rudd would have pushed for from the start.
You’re not the reporter for this job.Maybe he’d been right.
Time was running out. The magazine accountant had only authorized four days for this trip, and she was flying out tomorrow night. She needed time to prepare. It would take at least a month to mentally jazz herself to go traipsing through the trees for days on end. There would be mud, rain, dirt, and bugs. She’d never slept on a floor, not to mention the bare ground. Outside. There’d be wild animals.
Her palms began to sweat.
Fox might be a bear shifter, but would that keep other dangerous animals away?
Tingles raced down her spine. She couldn’t do it. This kind of thing was for other people, like those who would read her article it in Men’s Adventure Magazine. Except… if she didn’t do it, there wouldn’t be an article.
Shifting uncomfortably on her seat at the realization, she tried not to feel defeated. But honestly, she was screwed.
Her father would lose his mind if he knew she was considering going alone in the woods with a strange man. He’d made her promise that she wouldn’t do anything to embarrass the family, like she had with her little fashion vlog. That’s why he’d approved her job at Men’s Adventure where she’d be assigned respectable, useful stories. Ones that aligned with his substantial pocketbook and ego, like most of their readership.
Sighing, she polished off the wine, recalling how she’d totally freaked out over a beetle in her hair today… and a spider. But to be fair, the spider was, well a spider, and most people would have burned the building down after that. She wasn’t cut out for wilderness anything.
It was a sure-fire way for her to fail.
She was going to have to turn Fox down. He said he’d do the interview if she passed the course, which she had no chance in hell of doing. Her eyes narrowed as she thought about what he’d said. He’d made the deal with her immediately following the spider incident because he knew she’d never accept. And if on the slim chance she did, she’d never complete it.
Oh,he was good.
Fox Mitchell was kind of an asshole to make this deal with her, knowing she wouldn’t handle it very well. He wanted her off his turf. Who in their right mind would turn down an opportunity to advertise their business like this? A full spread, for free, in a national magazine with an enormous readership. Had he really been so embarrassed by the viral videos that he couldn’t see beyond his ego to the benefits his business had gleaned from it?
Is that what was holding him back from the interview? A bruised ego?
“A sparkling water with lemon, please,” she bid the bartender.
