Page 36 of Wild in the Woods
"I'm assuming I shouldn't say compostable toilet paper or a rain poncho."
He grinned. "It's mindset. Mindset will make or break your ability to survive. Coming to one of my courses with the wrong mindset guarantees you won’t pass. So, I'm going to ask you again. What's your reason for being here?"
Lulu didn't know how to answer that. Up until this very moment, she thought she was here as part of her job and to get a story that would impress her boss and give a middle finger to her ex. Was there more to it?
"I don't know how to answer that. I want to say that I'm here for my job, but you said that’s a bullshit answer."
"It is."
Feeling a bit helpless, she thought for a minute to see if she could scrounge up something that might satisfy him. But that would be dishonest. She didn't want to placate him was something she thought he might want to hear. Perhaps she had some deeper work to do, and if it made the story better, she was willing to do it.
"I suppose… it’s good for me to get out of my comfort zone. This is about as far out of my comfort zone as I can possibly get."
He hitched a brow. "You suppose it’s good for you to be uncomfortable, or you know it is?"
"You're right, itisgood for me. Yes, I want to be challenged. I…"
She didn't know how to give a voice to what she was feeling. He waited patiently while she formed her thoughts. She didn’t like the conclusion she came to, and certainly didn’t want to say it out loud. But hell with it. After this was over, she’d go back to Chicago and never see Fox Mitchell again.
"I would like for people to look at me as a capable person who can handle herself in the real world and not just a daddy's girl that's had life handed to her."
He made in impressed face as if he was not expecting her to be honest. "Did you have everything handed to you?"
She shrugged. "I suppose so. But everything came with a lot of strings attached. I'm so very tired of the strings."
He didn't look like a man who could be chained down with conditions and terms and unrealistic expectations. He was very much free to do as he pleased and probably didn’t care at all what other people thought about it.
"What kind of strings?"
"What is this a therapy session? Therapy by Fox. Has a nice ring to it.”
His teeth flashed white as he grinned. She was momentarily captivated, once again, by his beautiful face.
"There’s a bit pf therapy in what I do. I didn't realize that myself until I got into it. A lot of people come here to find themselves. So many people are walking around with a missing piece or two inside of them and they're looking for something to patch it up. The challenge of being outdoors and pushing yourself to your limits, testing your boundaries, and really digging into that primal sense of survival brings out a part of you that you didn't know existed. It can be just the patch you need.”
She come here with a very obscure idea of who Fox Mitchell was. Why she even bothered to form that opinion of him before meeting him, she didn't know. But for someone who was such a ghost online and kept himself so private, here he was in his own little world doing these amazing things for other people.
“What about you?” She said around a bit of fish. “Got any holes that need patching?”
“No, I’m good.”
“Really? Is that why you’re desperately looking for a wedding date?”
That got his attention. He’d brush her off and divert as per his normal. Setting down the pan, he put his elbows on his knees and laced his fingers together.
“What is this, therapy by Lulu now?”
“Sure. Lay it on me.”
“So you can put it in your story? No thanks.”
That stung a little, but she was used to it. “I wouldn’t do that. I don’t go out of my way to get info out of people just to use it in a story. Personal stuff is off limits unless you say otherwise when we get that far.”
He stood and collected his things. “Right. You have a lot of work to do before we get to that point.”
She stood as well and poked her fork into the mug for one last bite, only to be surprised that she’d eaten it all. Taking his lead with how to properly clean up, she put her mug and fork away and waited to see what was next.
“So, why don’t you have a wedding date?” No harm in trying again.
