Chapter 14
Ethan
I step out of Kayla’s camper and leave her where she’s fallen asleep on her couch in the living area. I was going to move her to the bed, but the second I lifted her, she shifted so abruptly I thought I was going to wake her.
I head back to my camper. The one where my family still waits for me.
I’ve made a lot of questionable decisions in my life.
Skipping college, quitting jobs on a whim, that one time Jared and I made a raft out of beer cans, only to sink the moment it hit the water.
But deciding to follow a woman I barely knew out into the woods and then to help her butcher a body and then sleep with her might just take the cake.
But I don’t regret it. Not even a small part of me does, and I think that’s the scariest thing.
Jared is sitting in a folding chair with a beer in his hand, watching Susie-May run circles around Avery like she’s got unlimited energy. He glances up at me the second I step into the clearing.
“Where have you been?” he asks casually.
I shrug, grab a drink from the cooler, and take a seat next to him. “Just out for a walk.”
He hums and nods, taking another sip of his beer. “You disappear all night, show up looking like you haven’t slept…” He looks down at my clothes. “In someone else’s clothes… and that’s all I get?”
I chuckle, cracking my beer open and taking a swig. “I slept.”
He smirks. “Okay, Romeo. If you say so.”
Avery is the one to stand up for me as she usually does. “Leave him alone, Jared. Ethan is allowed to have his own life.”
Jared scoffs. “Sure, sure. But I like to know who is a part of that life. He makes questionable decisions.”
My eyes flick toward the tree line. But I don’t answer him. I don’t need to. He saw us earlier on the trail; he knows exactly who I was with.
He chuckles. “You’ve fallen for her, haven’t you?”
I lean my head back against my chair and look up at the sky. “Yep.”
“You won’t even try to deny it?”
I don’t answer. There is no point. I don’t deny it. I have fallen fucking hard for a woman whom I should run from. But somehow my mind tells me to stay, and for now I’m listening to it.
The sun has set. I’ve spent the rest of the day catching up with Jared and Avery. Letting Susie-May drag me wherever she wants to drag me. Now, I sit by one of the fires in the camp and watch the flames.
“Uncle Ethan!” Susie-May comes barreling into me, not even giving me a chance to open my arms and catch her before she flings herself onto my lap.
I nearly fall over the back side of the log, but manage to catch myself.
“You promised bedtime stories!”
I wince. Right. I nearly forgot again. I’ve been too lost in my own mind to remember a story.
“I remember,” I grumble, standing from the log.
She drags me to the camper, and the door opens before I can even reach for it. Avery walks out to see where her kid is. She raises her brow toward me when she sees us. “Bedtime stories,” I grumble as we walk past her, and I hear her laugh as the door closes behind us.
By the time I get Susie-May asleep, I have already read her four bedtime stories. She was pushing my patience tonight, and she knows it. But I love the damn kid.
I step out into the night air, and Jared is sitting by the fire he made under his canopy. “Where are you headed?”
“Out.”
He checks his watch but doesn’t comment on the time. “Be careful, and if you need me, call me.”
I nod and head toward Kayla’s camper.
I find her exactly where I thought I would, sitting on the front step by her door. Her arms rest on her knees as she stares into the forest. “You came back,” she states before I even come fully around the corner.
“Did you think I wouldn’t?” I find an empty spot in front of her on the ground and take a seat.
She shrugs. “You were gone when I woke up, so I just assumed you left. I wasn’t expecting you to come back.”
“Maybe, I’m just drawn to the darkness,” I smirk, and she rolls her eyes. Silence stretches between us before I clear my throat. “When are you leaving?”
She shrugs. “I was planning to go tomorrow morning. I don’t have much of a reason to be here anymore. I got what I came for.”
Her words are meant to hurt me, but I don’t let them. “Cool, where are you headed to?”
She raises her brow. “I didn’t tell you the last time you asked me, what makes you think I’m going to tell you now?”
“I think you want to. I think you would love to tell me where you live.”
“Oh, really? You think that?”
I nod with a smile. “Yeah, I do.”
She lets out a breath and looks up at the moon. “Fine, I live in Crestwood.”
My heart nearly leaps out of my chest. That is where I live as well. So this will be perfect. “Awesome, I’m going to leave with you tomorrow morning.”
Her eyes snap to mine. “Excuse me? No, you’re not. I’m not making any pit stops along the way to drop you off, and besides, what about your family?”
I laugh at her nearly choking on her own words. “They won’t be leaving till the end of the week, and I don’t need you to make a pitstop cause I live in Crestwood as well.”
“You have got to be kidding me,” she grumbles, but doesn’t say no.
I cross my heart. “Cross my heart and hope to die.”
“I just might make that happen if you annoy me enough.”
I smirk. “As long as you eat me afterward.”
She growls, rising from the step. “You better have all your shit ready, 'cause I’m not waiting for you in the morning.”
I push myself up from the ground, brushing the dirt off my legs. “Wouldn’t dream of slowing you down.”
She opens her door, looking down at me. “6 a.m. If you’re not outside and ready, I’m leaving without you.”
“I’ll be there.”
She shuts the door, and I watch as her camper shifts from her weight as she walks to the back near her bedroom.
I walk back to Jared and Avery, who still sit outside our place. The fire is dim now, like it's nearly burned to embers.
Jared sees me first and shifts in his seat. “You look like you just made a huge life decision,” he chuckles, tossing his empty beer can into the trash.
I shrug, sitting down in a chair next to them. “Kinda.”
“Good or bad one?” Avery asks.
“I don’t know. Ask me in a week or so.”
Jared raises his brow. “You leaving tomorrow?”
I nod. “Yeah, she lives in the same town as us, so I’m going to catch a ride back with her.”
They both nod. “You better text me so I know you’re safe, bro,” Jared says, squinting his eyes at me.
“I will. You don’t have to worry about me so much, you know?”
“If only that were true.” He grumbles, rising from his chair. “Well, we'd better get some sleep before all hell breaks loose. You know how Susie-May gets when you just leave without saying goodbye to her.”
I grimace at the thought of the last time I did something like this. Not leave with a random woman, but leave while Susie-May is asleep. She cried for three hours until they got me on the phone. She is very attached to her people. “Just call me when she wakes up, and I’ll talk to her.”
Avery pats my shoulder as she rises from her chair. “That’s a good idea. I’m sure she will be fine. But you'd better be safe.”
I nod, watching them both walk into the camper.
As I stare at the embers from the fire, I can’t help but feel a sense of relief. We leave tomorrow. To the same town, down the same roads, to the same place. And somehow, I know this isn’t the end of something but the start of something new. And for once in my life, I’m not going to run from it.
I’m going to hold on to her and see where it takes me.