Chapter 20 Falco
FALCO
“I’m not eating anything with fur on it!” Aerin calls from outside the shed I’m neck deep in seeking out anything that resembles hunting gear.
A few old knives and worn arrows lie scattered across an old, stained wooden table, along with some hooks. But given Aerin’s rule on what she will eat, I disregard them all.
A fishing rod tucked in the back corner becomes my only viable option.
Grabbing it, I return to Aerin’s side on the woodchip path, brushing dust and cobwebs from my clothes and hair.
She laughs and suddenly reaches for my face, catching some missed cobwebs clinging to my stubble with the end of her fingertips.
In that single touch, a brush of warmth that lasts barely half a second, I’m reminded of her question in the car.
“Does it ever go away?”
It does. Every time she touches me and sometimes even when she’s just looking at me, the constant burning tightness at the back of my neck and the wary tremor in my heart vanish, allowing me to feel like a normal man.
The edge I balance on every day of my life disappears.
“You can fish?”
“You can’t?” I ask, mimicking the same surprised tone she gives me.
Aerin’s eyes narrow as she brushes the cobweb off her fingers then wrinkles her nose. “I can’t. But I do like fish. Are you going to teach me?”
“Do you want me to?”
She eyes the rod, her mouth twisting slightly, then she shakes her head. “No. But you’re not going to leave me here alone, are you?”
“Not on your life.”
After some quiet debate with herself, Aerin vanishes back inside the cabin—that really is more of a small cottage than a cabin—and reappears dressed in jeans and a checkered shirt with a sketchpad tucked under one arm and pencils clutched in her hand.
“You draw?” I ask, surprised.
“You don’t?” she mocks with a teasing smile. “I need to keep myself entertained while you fish. Although…” Her brows pinch together as she looks at the rod in my hand. “Where are you going to fish?”
“I saw a stream on the drive up here. From what I remember of the map, it should be close by. Enough that I can fish something for us to eat. But if you want to stay the whole weekend here, we will need to get more food.”
“Tomorrow,” Aerin decides. “We can shop tomorrow. I don’t want to go back to the city yet.”
“Works for me.” Her desire to get away sounded so desperate when she blurted this plan out to her mother, and I kick myself for not having the foresight to pick up supplies regardless of how well stocked this place is supposed to be.
The rod under my arm, Aerin falls into step beside me and we begin hiking away from the cabin and deeper into the forest.
Gigantic pine trees mingle with other breeds I can’t decipher, lining the makeshift path we take.
Twigs and leaves crunch underfoot, brittle from a lack of rain in the past weeks, and roots rise from the ground at each turn with the lingering threat that an unseen one will twist an unsuspecting ankle.
The air is brisk in my lungs and fresh in my nose, filled with scents I haven’t breathed in since I was at war.
While I never camped as a child, some of my work abroad in the military took me deep into forests like this one. Threats lingered behind every trunk and under every pile of leaves. Those threats don’t exist here, but it’s strange how similar the scents are.
We walk for twenty minutes until the sound of rushing water fills the air. Another ten and the stream comes into view. It’s wide enough that we can’t cross without getting our feet wet, but deep in certain areas that fishing won’t be a problem.
“Is here good enough?” Aerin asks as she approaches the pebbled edge of the stream. “I don’t know what to look for.”
“It’s good enough,” I assure her gently.
“What will you use for bait?”
Glancing around, I study the damp ground near the edge of the stream, then the air where various bugs and flies dart between flowers and plants while teasing the fish below. “I’ll make do.”
“A man of many talents, huh?” Aerin chuckles.
She retreats from the river and walks a few feet away.
Just as my heart gives an unexpected uptick at the distance between us, she chooses a mound of greenery formed around a fallen branch from a nearby tree and sets herself up to draw.
In the peace of nature, with the late sun reflecting off her hair and turning it to pure amber, my gut tightens.
She’s so beautiful and she truly doesn’t see it.
In a perfect world, I’d be able to show her until she believed it.
In a perfect world, our lives would be like this: nature, drawing, and fishing, the quiet peace of each other’s company.
Shaking my head, I eject the fantasy from my mind and focus on scouring the dirt for worms and grubs.
Once I have enough, I settle on a polished rock near the river and adjust so I can study the water while keeping one eye on Aerin and the tree line behind her, and my other eye on the opposite bank.
Then, with a flick of my wrist and a whip of the rod, I begin fishing.
It’s more peaceful than any other day I’ve spent on this earth.
Aerin’s tongue slides over her lower lip as she draws and sketches.
I fish with smooth sweeps of the rod, arcing it over my head and letting the hook hit the water with barely a ripple of disturbance.
Birds flutter overhead, creatures scurry about in the undergrowth, and the water weaves effortlessly past all the rocks, carving out the embankment.
Beneath a hot sun that gradually sinks lower in a deep blue sky, a gentle wind steals past my bare forearms and catches on the finer edges of Aerin’s hair.
Occasionally, she lifts her sketch pad to show me the nature scene she’s drawing and I give her small, acknowledging smiles.
It’s peaceful and exactly what Aerin needs after everything she’s been through. A day after we returned home, Bullet had called to let me know we were right about the Devil’s Breath in her system, which gives Pidge an avenue to explore for the source.
The part of me that aches to be out there, searching for the bastard behind all of this, soothes with each tilt of Aerin’s head and every nod she gives herself as she draws.
This is where we’re meant to be.
Thirty minutes in and I have three fish secured for dinner.
Aerin eventually sets her drawing pad aside and gazes downstream, watching the water rush past until something catches her eye and she tenses.
Sitting upright, she leans off her branch slightly, then she scrambles to her feet. The movement makes my heart jump.
“Aerin?”
“What is that?” She darts forward and leans over the river, staring down at the water. As I start to reel in my rod, she leans further and drops to her haunches while shifting her weight to keep her balance.
“Be careful, Aerin, those rocks are—”
She yelps in alarm when her foot loses grip on the rock. Whatever Aerin’s reaching for vanishes as she topples over and plunges into the river.
“Aerin!”
Tossing the rod aside, I leap up and charge forward across the pebbles and rocks. Aerin submerges for half a second then she surfaces, gasping for air and laughing.
“Oh my god!” she squeals. “It’s freezing!”
Thankfully, the stream isn’t deep enough to drag her down, but the water moves fast enough that it threatens to sweep her away.
Without a care, I charge straight toward her and wade into the river as she ducks under the surface once more.
My heart lurches. I reach her and she surfaces once more with her hand held aloft, clutching something proudly.
Not waiting for an explanation, I sweep my arms around her and scoop her out of the water princess-style.
“I got it!” she gasps, shaking the water out of her eyes. After a few coughs and splutters, she laughs and kicks her legs while I carry her out of the stream.
“I warned you to be careful.”
“I know.” She sweeps her now dark orange hair behind her ear. “But look!”
I reach the embankment and swiftly climb up, keeping Aerin in my arms.
She uncurls her hand slowly, and a beautiful piece of aquamarine sea glass rests in her palm. “I’ve never seen something so beautiful before. What do you think it is?” Keeping one arm around my shoulders for balance, she brings her face closer to mine as she peers down at her palm.
“Sea glass,” I say, shaking one of my legs out to dislodge water from my boot. “Probably dropped by a passing bird who was just as distracted by the color as you are.”
“You think so?” She turns it over in her hand, staring down in awe. “It’s so beautiful. I want to keep it.”
“I’m not going to stop you.” She’s a cold, wet weight in my arms, and my heart’s pounding furiously as if I’m nothing more than a teenager giddy over a first kiss. She rests comfortably in my arms, making no effort to move and I equally make no effort to put her down.
Warmth builds between us, and Aerin is distracted by the sea glass for a good few minutes until a shiver moves through her. Suddenly, her head lifts and my gaze is filled with her flushed, grinning face.
“Oh my god I can’t believe I slipped. I’m soaked. You’re soaked!” She tenses in my arms, and I accept that as a cue to place her down on the ground.
Despite my own waterlogged jeans and boots, I’m distracted by Aerin. Her jeans are dark and cling to her curvaceous, shapely legs.
Her shirt, utterly drenched, is almost black now and hugs every swooping curve from her chest to her waist.
It’s like the very water I plucked her from has risen to try and take her form, attempting to mimic her beauty and my heart thumps so loudly I’m sure she can hear it.
“What?” Aerin asks suddenly. “I look awful, don’t I?” She attempts to smooth her wet hair away from her face and plucks at her clothing. “This is so embarrassing.”
“No,” I say softly, then I clear my throat.
“You look like someone who fell in the stream. It’s normal.
” I force a friendly smile to distract myself.
All I ache to do is grab her flushed face and kiss the water droplets from her lips, take hold of her soaked hair and coax her head back to warm her dewy, soft neck with kisses.
“We really should head back, though, before we catch a chill.”
Aerin groans in agreement and retrieves her sketchpad. “I scared the fish away, didn’t I?”
“Worth it for that,” I reply, nodding at the sea glass in her hand. “Something that beautiful away up the mountain? A rare gem…What I’ve already caught will do.”
And it’s not the only thing.
A pleasant smile creeps across Aerin’s face, and it remains as we hike back to the cabin. By the time we arrive, the world is growing dark and we’re covered in pine needles and leaves that caught on our damp clothes.
“Goodness,” Aerin groans as she climbs the steps of the back porch to reach the door. “Are you going to do an inside sweep again or can I go inside?”
I bite back an amused smile. “You can head inside.”
“Thanks. I’m tired of my clothes sticking to me.” As she opens the door, she pauses and peers across to the wooden deck connected to the back porch where the hot tub sits in suggestive silence. “We both need to warm up.”
“I need to gut these fish,” I say, pausing on the step as Aerin lingers. I follow her eyeline to the hot tub then look back at her to find her staring at me.
“Come in the hot tub with me,” she says, her voice soft. “You’re tired too. I see it. We just hiked after being in a cold stream. You need to rest and warm up.”
She’s dangling a steak in front of a starved lion, and it takes every ounce of my self-control to shake my head.
“Not if you want to eat tonight,” I reply carefully. “Go. Enjoy yourself. I’ll prepare some dinner.”