Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
JACK
“My courage always rises at every attempt to intimidate me.”
~ Elizabeth Bennet
There was nothing quite so volatile as an angry Sunday… except, in this case, an angry Wyatt.
I’d managed to sidetrack Webb from whatever kind of glove-slapping come-to-Jesus he’d been planning when he first walked in by uttering five simple words, “I think Hawk’s in trouble.”
In an instant, Webb had tabled his issues with me and demanded details, so I’d filled him in on what little I knew and suspected about Simon and his scheme.
“Hawk’s still not answering,” Webb said for the third time in as many minutes.
“Try him again,” I instructed.
The pile of papers on my desk scattered as I grabbed my keys, but I didn’t stop to pick them up. I was too consumed with the need to beat Simon Wentworth into the ground and then bury his body where nothing but rabid wildlife could find it.
Did northern long-eared bats eat humans? If not, perhaps they’d make an exception.
“According to our family tracking app, Hawk’s last location was the pullout for the Rock Cut Trail on the northern side of Fogg Peak, two hours ago,” Webb said, checking his phone as he followed me back to the dining room.
“Why would he be there instead of at the main parking area for one of the easier trails? And why isn’t he calling us back? ”
“I don’t know,” I said, responding to both questions. “He’s supposed to be meeting Simon for dinner soon. He should have been back in cell range long before now. Maybe he got delayed.” I waved to get Crys’s attention, and she excused herself from a customer to head toward me.
“Or he’s ignoring our calls,” Webb finished.
“Hawk wouldn’t ignore my calls,” I said without thinking.
“Oh really.” Webb raised an eyebrow. “And remind me why that is, exactly?”
I pretended not to hear him. “I’m leaving for the night,” I told Crys. “You all set here?”
“Katey, Tom, and I will manage,” Crys assured me. “Go warn Hawk.”
I pulled Webb back through the kitchen and out to my truck. “Rock Cut pullout, you said?”
“Yeah. But I’m thinking we should head to the Stag and Crowne. If Hawk’s running late, we could have a little chat with Simon before Hawk even gets there.” His voice was the kind of angry rumble he got only when someone he loved was threatened.
I understood that growl on a fundamental level now.
“Let’s head to Rock Cut first and see if his car is there, then double back to the restaurant.” I hopped in the truck and started the engine, making sure Webb was inside the vehicle before jamming it into reverse. “Keep your eye on his location.”
I drove through town, gritting my teeth against the urge to speed, especially when thick raindrops began spattering the windshield. Webb remained silent, except for the periodic side-eye looks he sent me, which spoke volumes.
I glanced out my side window. Despite the rain, two little girls were riding on plastic unicorn toys in the fenced front yard of a white clapboard house.
Two grown women stood under the cover of a wide front porch, watching the girls and laughing at their antics despite the mud covering both girls and the toys they were riding on.
Finally, I couldn’t take the tension in the truck anymore. “Fine. You win. I’m in love with your brother,” I blurted. “He’s in love with me. We’re together.”
“No shit.” He folded his arms over his chest and sat back in his seat, utterly unsurprised. “Good thing I wasn’t waiting to hear it from you.”
“I texted you earlier this week!”
“You texted, ‘Hey, drop by the diner soon? Wanna run something by you.’ That’s what you say when you wanna debate the pros and cons of a riding lawn mower, Jack. Not when you’re shacked up with a man’s baby brother.”
“Look, what did you want me to say? I know how you feel about Hawk, and I could venture a guess as to how you’d feel about Hawk ending up with me,” I said darkly.
“I wasn’t gonna ask for your blessing, and I sure as fuck wasn’t gonna ask your permission.
Hawk’s an adult—an adult who’s recently been knife throwing, I might add, and who wouldn’t hesitate to remind me of that fact if I was foolish enough to ask his big brother for permission to have a relationship with him.
I prefer my essential organs to have as few holes as possible. ”
“You’re wrong,” Webb said.
I shot him a look. “I assure you, I am very averse to puncture wounds.”
He rolled his eyes. “Not that, dumbass. You said you know how I feel about you and Hawk together. Clearly, you don’t.”
“Huh?”
“Jesus. And they say I’m dense when it comes to emotions.
You’re my best friend, fucker. I…” Webb stretched his neck from side to side, like Hawk did when he was uncomfortable.
“I love you. Why wouldn’t I want Hawk to be with a good guy who works hard and protects people he loves?
I’m just annoyed that Luke says I was the last person in town to realize you two have been ‘mutually pining’ for years.
” He smirked. “Though, gotta say, I still figured it out before you did.”
I realized my jaw had dropped, and I forced it shut. “But… wait. If you feel that way, why were you pissy when you walked into the diner just now?”
“I wasn’t pissy,” he scoffed. “I’m a grown man, Jack; I don’t get pissy.
I may, however, have been… justifiably annoyed.
” He threw up his hands. “Dude, my best friend just fell in love, and he somehow managed to con the kindest, most loving human in Little Pippin Hollow into falling in love with him, too, but no one even mentioned it to me. Not a postcard. Not a telegram. Not a folded-up note shoved in my locker.” His tone was joking, but the hurt in his voice was clear.
“If my family wasn’t solidly dialed in to the Hollowan gossip network, you and Hawk would have had seven kids before I knew anything. ”
“Kids?” I goggled at him for so long I missed the light change at the corner of Parrish and Stanistead, and the car behind me laid on the horn. “Whoa. No one said anything about kids.”
Webb snorted. “So I take it that’s a no on children, then? Have you and Hawk talked about it?”
“No. I…” I shook my head to clear it. “We’ve been together a week, Webb, and he’s been up on a mountain most of that time.”
“Hmm. So you’re a yes on kids?”
“No! I…” I paused.
I honestly had no clue how I felt about having children.
I had no desire to parent solo, that was for sure, and since I’d never intended to have a relationship, that put children squarely in the column of “Nice, But for Other People,” along with luxury yachts and the ability to write poetry.
Now, though, I was having to rethink all of my columns.
Because I didn’t not want children, and if Hawk wanted them…
Well, Hawk deserved the fairy tale. The happily ever after, just like Elizabeth and Darcy.
Nothing in life was guaranteed, of course. People changed. Dreams changed. Bad shit happened when you least expected it. There would always be things that Hawk and I disagreed about and maybe even argued over. Chaos and mess and misunderstandings. But…
I thought of those little girls, riding their muddy unicorn tricycles with joy on their faces and decided maybe the chaos was the fairy tale. Maybe happily ever after was just the beginning of the story.
“…I think I’m gonna have this conversation with your brother first,” I told Webb firmly.
He laughed.
“But I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about us sooner,” I offered as we approached the Rock Cut pullout. I shoved his shoulder. “And I’m glad you’re with me now.”
“Me too,” Webb said. He pointed at a familiar rain-soaked Toyota parked in the dirt lot. “Especially since it looks like my brother has a death wish. What was he thinking, hiking up the steepest trail on all of Fogg Peak in the rain?”
I threw my truck into Park, then reached behind me for my hiking boots and rain jacket. “If he’s here instead of meeting Simon, there’s gotta be a good reason.”
I shrugged my jacket on and stomped my boots a few times to get the feel of them after wearing chef clogs. Thankfully, I kept my hiking gear in the back of the truck these days for impromptu visits to my boyfriend in his tent.
Webb, on the other hand, only wore running shoes and no rain gear.
“Stay here,” I advised, waving him back inside the truck.
“There’s no point in you getting drenched when I can look for him on my own, and I’ll go faster without you.
If I can’t find him… I dunno. Maybe the timing belt in his car was acting up again and he caught a ride back to town with someone else. We’ll look elsewhere.”
Webb eyed me warily but eventually nodded and hopped back in the dry cabin of the truck.
I tossed him my keys. “If I’m not back in an hour, it means I found him holed up somewhere to wait out the storm. I’ll stay and catch a ride with him, and you can head home.”
“Or it means you got hurt,” Webb pointed out.
I waved my phone. “Plenty of places to send a text up there. It might just take a while. If you still haven’t heard from us an hour or so after the storm ends, send someone up. Just don’t put anyone in danger.”
“He says while heading up a mountain in a rainstorm.” Webb huffed.
“That’s different,” I said with a wink before turning and making my way to the trailhead.
I hiked fast, filling my rain jacket with steam from my overly warm body until I was too hot to keep it on. I stripped it off and tied it around my waist in hopes it would continue to keep my shorts dry at the very least.
By the time I got to the spot where Rock Cut merged with the Red Trail and headed up toward the summit, my shirt stuck to me like plastic wrap, but I didn’t mind. The cooling effect was worth it.
There was no sign of Hawk anywhere, but I wasn’t sure what that meant. Was he even up here at all?
I’d come too far to turn back, though, so I kept going at least until I came to the footbridge that spanned Glassy Creek… or used to. An all-terrain vehicle lay half in the creek, tangled with the broken remains of the wooden bridge.