8. David
DAVID
I really had no choice.
She wasn’t going to stop.
She was going to keep being gorgeous and sweet and interesting.
And tempting.
Letting her set up ways for us to spend time together, giving her the rush of sneaking around, was really the best and only solution.
This way, she can see for herself that we’re a bad idea.
At least that’s what I’ve been telling myself all week.
While wondering why Mia hasn’t texted or called me.
It’s been a week since I put it all in her hands. And I haven’t seen or heard from her once.
I’ve seen her car. When I’ve driven by the library. Coincidentally.
No, I don’t usually drive by the library during my regular daily activities, but this week I just happened to. At least that’s what I’m prepared to tell anyone who asks.
And yes, her car has been there all week.
I also know she’s been writing because she’s uploaded two new chapters of her fanfiction this week. Two.
From what I can tell looking back and checking dates, her usual pace is once a week at the most. Often she goes two weeks between postings. Once there was even a seventeen day stretch between chapters.
But this is the first time she’s posted two chapters in a week.
And they were fucking spicy as hell.
But she hasn’t called or texted me.
It’s now eight-thirty on Friday night and I’m done for the weekend. I didn’t make any plans because I kept thinking that Mia would text and I…
I sigh. I wanted to be available to show up whenever and wherever.
Fuck. Am I already twisted up over this woman?
Apparently. Because I’ve been waiting around all fucking week for her call or text. And now I’m wondering if I’ll cause any heart attacks if I call my brothers and ask them if they want to get together because sitting at home wondering what Mia is doing seems pathetic.
I can at least call Jack. He won’t have plans that I don’t know about, and if nothing else, I can head over there and hang with him and the kids.
My phone rings just as I get into my truck.
It’s my work phone, not my personal though. I frown and answer. “This is David.”
“Hey, David, it’s Jake Turner.”
“Hey, Jake, what’s up?” Jake is in his fifties and a regular outdoorsman. Jake, his brothers, and sons all own land around Sapphire Falls and I run into them periodically when they’re fishing and hunting in the area.
“My mom just called and said that she saw someone spotlighting out in her north field where we have that big deer stand.”
I frown. “Spotlighting? Is she sure?”
“She was coming back from town. I’m not exactly sure what she saw but she certainly knows spotlighting. I’m in Lincoln for another hour and one of my sons offered to go out, but I figured I might as well just call you. Can you go check it out?”
“Yeah. Of course. I’ll take care of it. Tell your mom not to worry.”
“I appreciate it.”
“Anytime.”
We disconnect and I start my truck, heading in the direction of Judy Turner’s property.
Not only is spotlighting deer illegal, but it’s not even deer season.
Whoever is out there messing around is in trouble for a number of reasons.
I’m glad Judy didn’t try to handle it. God knows what’s going on out there.
I certainly don’t want the sweet widowed seventy-something woman out in her backfield dealing with someone who is possibly armed.
I make the short drive and pull off into the field.
I know exactly where the deer stand is. I’ve never hunted out here, but Jake and his brothers were proud of the stand after they built it themselves from scratch and showed it off to anyone who wanted to see it.
It’s humongous. Ten-by-ten, fully insulated, with a great view of a rolling field of wild grass and flowers to one side, the river on the other.
I’ve never needed a deer stand this big, but they’ve definitely brought in some impressive animals from here.
I see the stand and a pickup as I bump along over the uneven ground, but no spotlights. I don’t see any people either and as I pull in behind the pickup, I frown. I know this truck. This is my brother Charlie’s truck.
What the hell is going on?
I shut off my truck and get out.
“Charlie?” I call.
Not only does Charlie definitely know hunting seasons, and that spotlighting is illegal and unsportsmanlike, Charlie is not much of a hunter anyway. There’s no way he’s out here spotlighting deer.
I turn a three-sixty, not hearing anything. “Charlie?” I call again.
The truck is parked near the hunting blind, so I decided to check it out. I climb the wooden steps and push the door open.
What I see inside is absolutely dead last on my list of things I expected.
Mia Hansen is lying on the floor of the deer blind.
She’s on her back with her knees bent. Her head is toward me, making it impossible for her to see me in the doorway behind her.
It would also make it impossible for her to see a serial killer with a chainsaw in the doorway behind her.
She’s illuminated only by the tiniest bit of light coming through the windows of the blind and the phone she’s holding up in front of her face, her thumbs flying over the screen as she types.
Her dark hair is spread around her head and shoulders, spilling out from under the camouflage cap she’s wearing, and I can now see earbuds nestled in her ears. That explains why she hasn’t heard me.
And why she wouldn’t hear a serial killer approach.
She’s dressed in a camouflaged long-sleeved T-shirt, and camo pants. She’s got brown boots on her feet too. She looks decked out to hunt, but I don’t see any weapons. And if she is here for the hunting, she needs some lessons.
Like, to bring a gun.
To not do it in someone else’s blind without permission.
To only do it during hunting season.
And what kind of snacks to bring.
The cheese, crackers, fruit, and wine she has spread on the floor beside her aren’t it.
But I can’t help but smile and shake my head.
No, she’s not here to hunt. But I think I know why she’s here. And fuck, it’s kind of adorable. If ridiculous.
As I watch, she pauses her typing and reaches for the plate next to her hip. She grabs a cracker, slides it through the hunk of cheese on the plate next to it, then pops it into her mouth.
She chews, the soft crunching noise the only sound filling the blind, as she goes back to moving her thumbs rapidly over the screen of her phone.
I don’t know what she’s doing exactly, but I instantly wonder if she’s writing chapter eleven.
“Mia,” I say.
She doesn’t respond. What the hell is she listening to, and why does she have it so loud?
I raise my voice. “ Mia .” I nudge her shoulder with the toe of my boot.
The next thing I know, she has popped up, and a hunk of cheese has hit me in the face.
“Oh my God! “Her hand goes to her chest. “David, you scared me!”
“You’re in a hunting blind and your weapon of choice is cheese?” I ask.
She takes a deep breath, then blows it out as if trying to settle her heart rate. “I didn’t think I would need a weapon tonight.”
“Well, the serial killer stalking through the woods looking for unsuspecting women to murder will be happy to hear that.”
Her eyes widen, then she smiles. “You think there’s a serial killer just hanging out in these woods on the off chance that someone like me might come to this deer blind?”
“Might be his lucky day.”
She tips her head to the side, regarding me. “I don’t feel like that’s a compliment.”
“What the hell are you doing out here?”
She looks around, then back up at me. “Getting in trouble with Game and Parks.”
And just like that, I have my confirmation.
She set this up. She knew I would come.
I relax. She’s out here for me.
I like that far more than I should.
I lean my shoulder against the door jamb. “You’re not out here hunting? Spotlighting deer? “
She gives me a mock surprised look. “Spotlighting deer is illegal. And it’s not even deer season anyway.”
“That’s true. Which is why I was called when someone thought that’s what the pickup with the bright lights that isn’t supposed to be here was doing.”
“I needed the brights to see my way across the field.”
“The field that belongs to the person who called to turn you in.”
“Hmmm. How interesting.”
“This isn’t a treehouse in your backyard. You can’t just come out here and hang out.”
She smiles and looks around again. “It's kind of a treehouse though. And the view out that window is amazing.” She points to the window that faces the river.
It is. “It’s also on someone else’s land.”
“Oh. That seems like a waste. It’s beautiful out here. Whoever it is should share this.”
“I’ll give Judy Turner the message.”
“Oh, it’s Judy Turner’s?”
She clearly knows this land and deer blind are Judy’s. Mia Hansen is a terrible liar. I find that…also adorable. “So, what are you doing out here, in the woods, at night, in camo —I’m shocked you have camo, by the way—with cheese, crackers, fruit, and wine, Mia?”
“Can you keep a secret?”
“Very well, actually.”
“This guy that I’m interested in told me that we have to sneak around and that I have to come up with ways for us to see each other without anyone else knowing.
He’s this big, rugged, outdoorsy guy who works for Game and Parks.
So I looked up ways to get him to come to me.
” She grins. “Turns out hunting off-season and spotlighting deer are two ways.”
I don’t know if it’s her description of me being ‘big and rugged’, or that she got me out here on purpose this way, or that little grin, but my heart kicks hard in my chest.
I can picture her at the library on one of the computers looking up ways to get turned into Game and Parks. Of course, in my imagined scenario she’s in a cardigan and her hair is in a bun.
And of course, she didn’t just say ‘meet me two towns over for coffee’. No, it had to be more interesting than that. My little librarian found a way for us to see each other that no one will know about exactly the way I challenged her to.
I think I really like this woman.
I clear my throat. I can’t say that. So I ask, “You had camo?”