Chapter 5 #2
I pointed toward the sunset. There was a thick forest that cut off any hint of another ranch.
The trees created a hearty boundary I’d appreciated when I first toured the grounds.
I liked not being on top of someone else.
The thought of waking up, going outside, and having to wave at a neighbor made me want to go back to sleep immediately.
“And where’s the nearest town?” Rae fell into step with me.
The path to the stable was soaked, mud sticking to our soles.
Rae’s sneakers got caught a couple of times, but she tried to play it off by taking another photo of our surroundings.
I smiled after the third time, wondering if she was familiar with the struggle of not being able to project gracefulness at every turn.
“Three miles that way.” I pointed in the opposite direction from our neighbors.
“Damn,” she mumbled, accidentally stepping into a hole. Rae moved around a bit, struggling to get her foot out.
“You good?”
She ignored the question, trying to continue through her small huffs of effort. “Do you like being out here on your own?”
“It’s the dream,” I assured.
Rae caught my gaze, lingering on my small smile. Her brow twitched. She knew I had an inkling of her struggles. And knew I’d chosen not to jump to the rescue. Rae coughed out a dry laugh.
“Lovely.”
“Quite.” I nodded.
She tugged at her trapped foot. It was an odd standoff: she wasn’t asking for help, and I waited for the request. I wasn’t sure whether she was unwilling to ask for help or simply confident she’d find a way out on her own.
Either way, I was curious to see how she responded when someone didn’t bend over backward for her.
While waiting for her to fold, my curiosity got the better of me, and I had to ask, “Do you live full-time in the RV?”
She grunted a little as she pulled on her ankle. “Yes.”
“Huh,” I murmured to myself.
Rae paused. “What?”
I shook my head and shrugged.
“Huh, what?” Her smile was long gone, replaced by the hard desire to hear my opinion.
She wasn’t always all sunshine and rainbows.
I’d dare say if I poked a little harder, she’d give me a glimpse of what lay underneath her layers of silky charm.
My desire to interact with that side of her would wedge its way into every word we exchanged until she gave me a peek behind the curtains.
“I don’t know, I thought it was mostly for vibes,” I said. “I watched some of y’all’s videos. The post-job debriefs.”
Rae and Co. had half a million followers on their joint social media pages.
They did things like monthly wrap-ups and how-to videos.
It was all surprisingly educational when one suspended disbelief, which was something I experimented with while watching to see if it’d help me stomach things better. It had.
“I figured the RV was something to pull up in when you go to an event. Consistent marketing to keep up that boots-on-the-ground, traveler lifestyle storyline you got going,” I continued. “And then, you’d ditch it for flights to your next gig because the story could only go so far.”
“What’s wrong with you and stories?” She stopped wiggling for a bit, giving me her full attention. “Please, tell me how good marketing has personally victimized you.”
“Hasn’t it victimized us all?”
“It rarely leaves such a large chip on the shoulder.” She held out her hand. “Come here.”
I laughed under my breath at the hard order. She made rudeness almost cute. Almost. “Excuse me?”
“I need help out of this…quicksand?”
I snorted. “It’s wet mud.”
“I’m sinking.” Insistence made her tone clipped. “Or something’s pulling me in. I’m leaning toward the latter.”
“It’s in your head.”
“Do you want your assessment done before midnight or not?” She shook her hand, urging me forward.
I stood in place for a second longer just to piss her off a little more before moving close enough for her to grab onto my arm.
Her fingers were warm and soft around my wrist. I wrapped my hand around hers, lighter with my grip, conscious of my rough calluses.
“On three,” she said.
“On three, what?” I wasn’t always this difficult, but I wasn’t always within arm’s reach of such easy entertainment. Esther was the opposite of a riot. And Wilson’s dad jokes were so unfunny they almost hurt.
Rae looked exasperated, her gaze so pointed I thought it might pierce me. “On three, you pull me out.”
I chewed on my bottom lip, holding back a smile as I nodded. She counted us off, and I did as I was told, tugging her toward me. It only took one good pull, and Rae was free. Her white sneaker remained in the hole.
“Wow…” I whispered, watching the shoe slowly disappear. “It’s…sinking.”
The shoelaces bid us a long goodbye as they got swallowed in the thick mud.
“Like I said.” Rae tried to catch her breath; her exhales tickled my ear.
If it hadn’t been such a bizarre sight to witness, my skin would have burned underneath the imprint of her fingers. We were roughly the same height and stood aligned at the waist. Rae leaned into me, applying slight pressure against my hipbone.
“Is that typical?” she asked. “Your land attempting to devour a visitor?”
I almost laughed before catching her gaze. The question was genuine.
“A recent development.”
“What’s your hypothesis?” Her breath smelled sweet.
“Isn’t that why I’m paying you the big bucks?”
Rae wobbled, leaning on me more to help herself balance on one foot. “I like to give everyone the chance to share their ideas with the class.”
“Sinkhole,” I said simply.
“A sinkhole randomly appeared and did that to me and only me?” She nudged her chin at the now-gravesite of her sneaker.
“It could happen.”
“Anything could happen,” she agreed.
“Not anything.”
“But a sinkhole could, because it fits within the realm of your limited imagination?”
I opened my mouth but couldn’t think of a retort quickly enough.
“I found it!” Jonah announced through labored breath as he jogged to us. “It wasn’t charged, so I had to find new batteries. But those weren’t in their usual place. So, I had to call December, but the signal was spotty. We tried to text, but everything came through slowly.”
I let go of Rae as she reached for the EMF. She wasn’t ready for the release, gasping as her foot landed in mud that soaked right through her gray socks. I closed one eye, guilt churning in my stomach when she glared at me.
“Jonah?” she asked through a heavy exhale. “Grab me a new pair of socks and shoes, will you?”
“On it!” he said without hesitation.
“The EMF.” She held out her hand before he could leave. “Give me the EMF first…please.”
The politeness was an afterthought. An add-on when she saw me staring at her, unimpressed.
“You’ll need boots out here. Sneakers only cut it when it’s not raining.”
“No shoe’s going to stand the test of that.” She crouched down a few feet away from where her sneaker had disappeared. I frowned at the empty patch of mud.
“I’m sure it’s—” I cut off when Rae turned on the EMF.
It looked like a walkie; there was a tuning dial and a bright red light showing use.
The high-pitched beep it emitted sent my eardrums vibrating.
I winced, slamming my hands over my ears.
Rae barely blinked. In all her wet-sock glory, she moved closer; the pitch climbed.
“What the hell!” A nerve behind my eyes pinched, a warning sign of an impending migraine.
Rae frowned at the patch of mud, grabbing a stick to poke at it. Nothing else happened outside of my brain matter separating.
“How do you not want to throw up right now?” I shouted.
Rae glanced over her shoulder. As soon as she saw my defensive stance, she shut off the EMF. “Sorry. I forgot.”
“Forgot the powerful sonic weapon you have at your fingertips?” My ears still rang. I took a deep breath, trying to steady myself on what I would have sworn was solid ground.
“It takes some getting used to…I also might have a bit of hearing loss after years of use.” She clipped the EMF onto her belt. “Octavia?”
“I’m still here,” I said dryly as I tugged on my earlobe.
“This isn’t looking good.”
“Tell me about it.” I scoffed. “I think I taste blood.”