Chapter 19
Jeannie
Something Strange in the Woods
Man, I was kind of getting tired.
I wasn’t in the most incredible shape, but since the hike was only supposed to be ninety minutes there and back, I’d figured I could handle it. But it had been at least half an hour since we separated from our children, and I was beginning to get a little concerned.
Was it my pacing? I didn’t feel like I was going slow, and we were following the markers on the trail, so it didn’t make sense that it was taking so long.
“Are you okay back there?” Remy asked. Either I was being a lot more obvious than I thought, or he was doing that thing again where he knew exactly how I was feeling.
“I’m fine,” I said, my cheeks coloring a bit at how breathless I sounded. We were just walking, so I really shouldn’t be having so much trouble. Too much time at my desk all day, that was for certain.
“Sorry this is taking a bit,” he said, and now it was my turn to pick up on the fact that he sounded a bit troubled. “For some reason, I don’t recognize this path at all. We should have been there already. Honestly, we probably should have been on our way back by now.”
Oh, so I wasn’t the only one sensing something was off.
“Did we somehow get onto a different path?”
“I suppose it’s possible, but you saw the same markers I did. They did feel kind of off... but if you look at the ground, we’re definitely not the only ones who have been here.”
I glanced down. Even though we were on a trail, I didn’t really notice anything unusual. If I didn’t have Remy leading me and showing me the markers, I would be hopelessly lost.
“The snow’s been trampled in a few spots, and you can see how there’s a sort of leveling off on the ground between trees, marking both desired paths and an actual trail.”
“I’ll take your word for it,” I said, pulling my coat tighter. I wasn’t outright cold, but it was definitely chilly. All the walking had made me sweat enough to become clammy, which didn’t help.
“Should we turn back?”
I thought of Max’s broken-hearted pleading, and how horrified I had been when he blamed himself for making me miss out on things. I shook my head vehemently, determined more than ever to get him those photos to prove that he only added to my life, never subtracted.
“Are you sure? It’s getting close to dark.”
“I’m at the point where if you turn back, I’ll keep going on my own.” I knew that sounded crazy, but I didn’t care. There was no rock I wouldn’t move for my son. “Besides, our phones have flashlights, and I do have a tiny emergency one on my keychain.”
One of the many things I appreciated about Remy was that he didn’t think I was insane for the lengths I would go through to be a good mother.
He knew exactly how hard it was to be a single parent, and that sometimes we pushed ourselves to extremes.
I also trusted him to tell me if it was too dangerous.
If there was an actual possibility of death, he would pick me up if he had to and haul me all the way back to our cabins.
But perhaps it would be prudent not to think about him lifting me and throwing me over his shoulder.
Because, yum, that was an utterly delicious thought.
Although I was on the shorter side, I was built quite densely, so there weren’t a lot of people who could manhandle me.
But I knew, without a doubt, that Remy could.
Oh boy.
He looked back over his shoulder at me, and for a moment, I was horrified that he could read my thirsty thoughts, but he shot me a reassuring grin, then kept walking.
And walking.
And walking.
The sun was beginning to sink below the tree line in a truly ostentatious display of gold, coral, and orange, dissolving into the slowly descending curtain of cobalt, then a deep eggplant. It wouldn’t be long before the pitch of a winter night set in, and I really didn’t want to be out in that.
“There!” Remy said suddenly, nearly startling me out of the breathing pattern I’d sunken into so I didn’t sound like a panting dog.
“Huh?”
“There’s the circle of trees with the fire pit where people sometimes take a break at.
The cabin’s gotta be like ten or fifteen minutes down the path.
” He shook his head, his expression full of chagrin.
“There had to have been some storm, or maybe a teenager who messed with the markers, because we basically walked all over this area for no reason before being dumped out here.”
Honestly, that wasn’t the craziest prank I’d heard of a teenager pulling. “At least I’ve gotten my steps in. But now I’m pretty sure I’m the one who’s gonna need to rest tomorrow instead of Max.”
Secretly, I was incredibly relieved that I was going to get those photos for my son. Max asked for so little, and the idea that I couldn’t even complete a hike for him had been tearing me up inside.
“You and me both,” Remy joked even though he seemed completely fine. He was a big guy, both in height and muscle, but he acted like he’d taken a casual stroll around his yard. It was really attractive.
We trudged along, the crunch of snow underneath our feet a constant echo of our steps. If I loosened my focus, it almost sounded like applause. Nature was giving me my own little cheering squad despite the ache in my calves and the burn in my chest.
Finally, we stepped into the clearing, and I nearly crashed into Remy’s back as he came to a sudden stop.
“Are we there?” I asked, looking around his impressive frame. I frowned. “I thought this place was supposed to be abandoned?”
“Yeah. It’s supposed to be.”
It most certainly did not look like the idea I’d had in my mind of an abandoned cabin in the woods. There were no cobwebs, no broken windows or rotting porch steps. In fact, the windows were so clean, they gleamed.
String lights had been hung from the roof, giving it a Pinterest-board quality, and a soft glow emanated from said clean windows.
Something was definitely going on.
“Hold on,” Remy said. If he was a cat, his hackles would have been fully raised. He was making me nervous, but I didn’t blame him. It had been a weird, emotionally charged day, so a little caution was probably wise.
“Holding!”
He stepped forward cautiously, his head tilted to the side as if he was listening to something, but all I could hear was the same sounds of nature that we had been hearing all day.
Now that I thought about it, he was much less like a cat and more like a lion. Wait, no, not a lion, those males were pretty useless. Maybe... maybe... A wolf, or even a bear! Yeah, definitely a bear. He was protective, but he was also nurturing. And he loved food.
My kind of guy, really.
You stop that now, I reminded myself sternly. It wasn’t that I was ashamed of the budding attraction—my talk with Ana had helped with that a lot—but because it really wasn’t the time, and I still needed to find out if he was even in a spot where he could have romantic feelings for someone else.
Step by step, Remy drew closer to the cabin, before finally pushing open the worn door. It gave an ear-piercing squeak as it swung on its hinges, but didn’t fall off.
“Huh,” he said, which really told me nothing, so I crept a bit closer.
“What are you seeing?”
His posture wasn’t defensive, which made me think it wasn’t something dangerous, but I wasn’t exactly a fast runner at the best of times, so I didn’t want to get too close in case we suddenly had to split.
Like if the somewhat fairytale romance I was experiencing suddenly jumped genres to a horror story.
“I think I’m seeing that we’ve been set up.”
“Set up?”
I closed the distance between us and peered inside. The place was rundown, but it had been spruced up as best it could be. Firewood had been stacked in the fireplace, and the tables were laden with food set under plastic cloches, and two different bottles of wine were chilling in ice buckets.
Oh.
“I…” I was baffled. Well and truly baffled.
My mind started putting together the pieces, and those pieces indicated that our children and his sister-in-law had orchestrated the entire hike. The idea was so ludicrous that I couldn’t fill in any of the other blanks, like why or how or what the purpose would be. “I don’t even know what to say.”
“Neither do I,” Remy said, shaking his head before giving a hearty laugh. “But I am hungry, and that food isn’t going to eat itself.”
My stomach rumbled in response. I’d thought the light snack I had with Max earlier would be enough to tide me over on the “easy” hike, and boy was I wrong.
“You know what? I like the way you think.”
We closed the door against the cold, and even though I was a bit bewildered, I was really happy that I was back on track with my fairytale romance. Because maybe I was totally in my head, but a cutely decorated cabin out in the woods seemed pretty damn romantic.
I just hoped the big bad wolf didn’t come knocking at our door.