Chapter 6
NATE
Okay, so this was exactly what I needed to make my brain shut up. Not all the way. Never all the way. But the rhythm helped. Dig, twist, lift. Dig, twist, lift.
Maya sat on her rock, map spread across her knees, pen moving in quick, efficient strokes. My shoulders burned from the unfamiliar angle of the digger, the sun was warm on the back of my neck, and the waterfall filled the silence so neither of us had to.
Which didn’t mean that I wasn’t viscerally aware of her presence, of course.
The digger struck a root, and I wrestled with it, adjusting my grip until I found a way to work around the obstruction. Earth crumbled. The hole deepened. I moved to the next marker.
Since I’d gotten back to Esperance, everything had that itchy, too-small feeling. Like wearing a shirt that used to fit. But this. Dirt under my fingernails, the burn in my arms, the clean mountain air. A task with a clear beginning and end. This I could do.
“You’re going too shallow on that one.”
I looked up. Maya hadn’t moved from her rock, but her eyes were on my work instead of the map.
“Thought you weren’t watching.”
“I’m not. I can hear it.” She uncapped her pen with her teeth, attention already back on her notes. “The sound changes when you hit the right depth. You’re stopping about two inches early.”
I looked at the hole, then back at her. She was right.
“How long did it take you to learn that?”
“About three hundred holes.” The corner of her mouth twitched. “Give or take.”
I adjusted the depth on the next one, driving the blades deeper until the resistance shifted under my hands. Different sound. Fuller, somehow. Heavier.
“Better,” she said without looking up.
The tension in my gut eased. Only a fraction, but enough to notice. Until my father’s voice surfaced without warning. Wondering what a man does with himself after ten years of taking orders. I drove the digger in harder than necessary, and the handles jarred against my palms.
“Easy.” Maya’s voice cut through. “The idea is to make holes, not tunnels to the earth’s core.”
A breath of surprised laughter escaped before I could stop it. “Sorry. Got distracted.”
She held my gaze for a beat, questions hovering in her eyes. Then, “Last three are just up ahead. Past the big boulder.”
I followed her direction and found the remaining markers. When the last hole was done, I straightened up and rolled my shoulders, relishing the satisfying ache of muscles well used.
Maya was already packing up, folding the map into precise squares and tucking her pen behind her ear.
“Nice work.” She took the digger from me and strapped it to the side of her pack. “You’re hired.”
“What’s the pay?”
“Nancy’s pot roast, apparently. Consider yourself compensated.”
I snorted. That almost-smile crept back onto my face, the one that kept catching me off guard.
We started back down the trail together, falling into step easily. She moved through the bush like she belonged to it. Confident. Sure. Nothing like the flustered woman who’d caught me in a towel three days ago.
This version of Maya was something else entirely and it fucking fascinated me. Yeah, not going there.
“I was thinking of heading over to the station to find Brody,” I said as the trail widened. “He around today?”
“Should be. He’s on until five.” She glanced back at me. “You walked all the way out here from the main lot?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s a solid two hours each way.”
“I know.”
She shook her head, a look on her face that said she thought I was a particular kind of stupid. “I’ve got the quad bike stashed at the falls trailhead. I’ll give you a lift back.”
“Great, thanks.”
Simple. Practical. No big deal.
Except that when we reached the quad bike and Maya climbed onto it like she’d been born on the thing, she paused. Her hands stilled on the handlebars. She looked at the seat, then back at me, and the exact moment the math caught up with her played out across her face.
One seat. Two people. A lot of unavoidable body contact.
A flush crept up her neck.
She recovered fast, I’d give her that. Kicked the engine to life like nothing had happened, the machine rumbling beneath her. “Get on.”
I climbed on behind her. Every available inch of space required pressing myself flush against her back. My thighs bracketed hers. My chest hovered mere inches from her shoulders.
“You’re going to need to hold on,” she called over the noise.
My hands hovered at my sides for a second, then I gripped the metal rack behind me.
Maya glanced back. “To me, genius. That rack’s for equipment. You’ll bounce off the back on the first hill.”
She said it like it was nothing. Like putting my hands on her was just standard quad bike safety protocol.
I set my hands on her hips. Lightly. Carefully. Like I was handling something that might detonate.
“Ready?”
Not even close. “Yeah.”
She took off, and the trail swallowed us.
Every bump in the track pressed us closer together.
My hands tightened on her hips of their own accord, and she stiffened.
Just for a second. A quick, sharp tension that ran through her whole body before she forced herself to relax.
The wind whipped past, carrying the smell of pine and warm earth and underneath it, that sweet scent of hers that had been wrecking me since the bar.
I focused on the trail. The trees. The sky. Anything to distract from the searing warmth of her body against mine, from the way she fit perfectly into the space I fought to keep empty.
The ride lasted maybe fifteen minutes. Felt like an hour.
When she pulled up outside the ranger station and killed the engine, the sudden silence rang in my ears. I dismounted fast, probably too fast, and put a solid three feet between us.
“Thanks for the lift.”
“Anytime.” She pulled off her hat and shook out her hair, supposedly unbothered. Meanwhile, my blood was running about fifteen degrees too hot.
The station door opened, and Brody appeared on the front step, coffee mug in hand. His gaze moved from Maya to me, then back to Maya, then back to me again. His lips curved in a smirk. Intel received.
“Well, well.” He eyed me over the rim of his mug. “Nate. Didn’t know you were coming by.”
“I was in the area.”
“Uh huh.” Another sip. His eyes cut to Maya for just a second, and I caught the faintest twitch at the corner of his mouth before he smoothed it out. “Come on in, then. I’ll give you the tour.”
He held the door open, gesturing me through. As I passed him, he gave my shoulder an easy clap. Friendly. Casual. But that devilish look was still there.