Page 50 of Resisting Fate (Hope Falls: Brewed Awakenings 3)

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Was this actually happening?

One minute she was asking Josh to change her tire and the next they were climbing into his truck. They’d been on the road for about half an hour, and they’d barely said two words to each other. That wasn’t unusual for them. He was a quiet person and so was she. Neither of them felt the need to fill the silence every minute they were in each other’s company.

But usually, their silence was because they didn’t have anything to say not because they were avoiding things that needed to be said. That’s what she felt was happening now. At least on her part.

She needed to bring up the confession she’d made at dinner. The statement she’d made after the motorcycle ride. And the kiss that she’d planted on him at his house.

And she would. But not now. She would bring it up on the drive home. She’d had it all planned out. When they were headed back home and passed Coyote Junction, which was about twenty minutes outside of Hope Falls, she’d tell him that they needed to talk. She’d explain that she had feelings for him and that she totally understood if they weren’t reciprocated. She’d tell him that the most important thing to her was that they didn’t ruin their friendship but that she had to be honest with him about her feelings and that she hoped he would be honest with her, too. Since she had zero experience with any sort of relationship “talks” she really hoped she didn’t make a fool out of herself.

Audrey let out a silent exhale as she looked down at Thor’s head, which was lying on her lap, and ran her hand over the top of it. He was curled up on the bench seat between them the same way he’d been when they left the shelter the night that Josh adopted him. She still couldn’t believe what an instant connection Thor and Josh had had. Actually, she could. That’s exactly how she’d felt about Josh the first time she’d seen him.

She was four years old at the time. It was the first time their mom had brought them to Hope Falls for their summer vacation. Their mom took her and her sisters down to the Riverside Recreation Area for the Fourth of July. Audrey remembered that the place was packed with crowds gathered to watch the fireworks. Somehow, someway, she became separated from her sisters and her mom and got lost in the crowd right before the fireworks started.

The whole thing was sort of blurry in her mind. But from what she remembered one second, she’d been holding Viv’s hand and the next she was in a sea of people and there were bright lights and loud explosions going off.

She remembered standing frozen in fear as a stream of huge tears fell down her face. Then, a boy walked up to her and asked her if she was okay. She shook her head and he asked where her mom or dad was. That question made her cry even worse. She could still picture his face looking down at her as bright colorful bursts of light exploded behind his head. Even then she’d thought that he had kind eyes.

He bent down and said, “My name’s Josh. What’s your name?”

Audrey hesitated to answer because she wasn’t supposed to talk to strangers. But then he smiled at her, and she just knew that she was safe. She told him her name right as another firework exploded. She must have flinched when it did because he took the sunglasses that were hanging off the collar of his T-shirt Miami Vice style and put them on her face. He explained to her that they were superhero glasses, and they’d make her brave. Then he asked her if she wanted to go find her mom. She sniffed back tears and nodded.

He held her hand and guided her through the crowd. She had no concept of how long it took to find her mom, but she did remember her mom crying and thanking Josh when they were finally reunited. He was her hero that night. Just like he’d been Thor’s hero the night of the thunderstorm.

Out of her peripheral vision she noticed Josh glance over at her. “You’re quiet tonight.”

“Sorry.” She looked down at Thor as she ran her hand over his head. “I was just thinking…”

“About what?”

Damn.Should she lie? Was it weird that she was thinking of the first time they met? Screw it. Before anything else, Josh was her friend. If she couldn’t be honest with him, what was the point of any of this?

She turned her head toward him. “I was just thinking about the first time we met. On the Fourth of July.”

A small grin lifted on Josh’s face. “You were so little.”

Crap.The last thing she wanted was for him to be thinking about her as young. She wasn’t little anymore. Was that why he wasn’t interested in her? Did he think of her as that little girl? She was a thirty-two-year-old woman.

“But you were trying to be so brave,” he continued.

“You gave me your sunglasses.” She still had his glasses on her dresser. They were a pair knockoff Oakley’s that had been popular at the time. “You said that they were superhero glasses and that they had special powers to make me brave.”

“I was eight. It was the only thing I could think of to help you not be scared.”

“It worked. And then you walked me through the crowd until we heard my mom calling for me and you took me to her.”

“She wasn’t that far away but it was so crowded down there.” His eyes cut to hers and he smiled. “I can’t believe you remember that. You were so little.”

There was that word again. Little. She wasn’t a little girl anymore and she would do whatever it took to prove that to him.

* * *

“I think that’s it.”Audrey pointed out the windshield.

Josh dipped his head so he could see what she was pointing at. When he did he saw that there was a cabin tucked away in the trees higher up on the mountainside. The only reason it was visible was because there was a light shining through the large windows that must have a spectacular view.

The Moonlight River Resort spanned a fairly large and very remote area. When they’d arrived at the front gate, a security guard had given them a map with a highlighted path on it. He told them that the owner Jeremy Mills would meet them up at the cabin when he finished with his current meeting, to give them a proper tour of the facilities.

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