18 - Brie
Stop, Drop, And Roll
~
Brie
It still looked early, but I had already been in bed for as long as I could stand.
I got dressed and ready for the day, hoping for some company.
The fire was already lit in the living room, and Tobias sat reading the news on his laptop with a cup of coffee in his hands.
He took slow, steady sips and didn’t look up when I walked in.
“There’s coffee in the pot,” he said.
His voice sounded cheerful. He was still basking in the afterglow of Thanksgiving dinner.
Lexi had softened. She was more childlike.
She had always been free and spirited, but there had also been something very grown-up and guarded about her that wasn’t there after Thanksgiving, and it made Tobias softer, too.
“Where is everyone?” I asked, making my way to the kitchen and pouring my coffee.
“Gunner is getting ready to go out hunting,” Tobias said, pointing at Gunner with his coffee mug as he came down the stairs.
“And you should come with me,” Gunner smiled. “Consider it part of your wilderness education.”
A few months ago, I would have said no instantly.
Nothing about stalking and killing an animal appealed to me.
After weeks of living out here, I finally recognized the circle of life; the bird Gunner had shot tasted much better than any turkey I had bought at the grocery store.
It was a different way of life, and I wanted to be part of it all.
“I’m going too!” Lexi squealed, bounding down the stairs, past Gunner, and into Tobias’s lap. “It’s going to be so much fun.”
The sudden noise in the house must have brought Gideon down. He looked around, mumbled a good morning, and started getting breakfast going.
“Brie and I are going hunting with Gunner,” Lexi said excitedly. She bounced around the living room with a big grin on her face.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Gideon said, but with a stern tone.
I read between the lines, and I could see that both Gunner and Tobias did too. Gideon didn’t think it was a good idea; he strongly felt it was a bad one.
“It is a good idea,” Lexi protested. “I want to go, and if Brie is going, so am I.”
Lexi crossed her arms over her chest and puffed out her cheeks angrily. It was a standoff, and we all knew it.
“Then I’ll go with you,” Gideon said, already packing away everything he had just set up for breakfast.
Gunner rolled his eyes irritably, “That’s unnecessary. I can handle it. Lexi and Brie will both be safe.” Gunner flexed his biceps, and it was Gideon’s turn to roll his eyes irritably.
“We’ll be fine,” I said, trying to pacify Gideon.
I grabbed some fruit for Lexi, Gunner, and myself and started to leave.
“Be careful,” Gideon said, gently touching my shoulder.
“We will,” I smiled.
I might have been more excited than Lexi. Even though I didn’t run for the truck, squealing as she did, my heart was pounding against my ribs, and my stomach was doing flip-flops. My first hunting trip!
Gunner fast walked ahead to strap Lexi into the back seat and open the front passenger seat for me, winking as he clicked in my seatbelt.
He climbed in next to me and started the truck. It rattled and shook, making its way off the property and into a quiet wooded area.
Gunner’s face seemed to change the deeper into the woods we drove, his eyes focused, scanning the area, finding the perfect spot before packing in a clearing.
“We’re going to walk from here,” he smiled.
I envied Gunner; he didn’t need much to make him happy.
He just needed to be outside, wandering in the woods.
He walked quietly, taking light steps as he scouted the area.
It all came naturally to him: touching the trees, watching the ground for tracks, listening intently for something I couldn’t identify even if I knew what I was listening for.
Lexi and I followed closely, trying to step where he stepped, stay quiet, and touch the trees to figure out what he felt when he touched them.
Lexi stared at everything wide-eyed with her mouth held in a soundless gasp. She grew up here, but it was hard to imagine ever taking any of this for granted. It was beautiful. Everywhere I looked seemed like it was pulled from the pages of a fairytale. Even Gunner.
His eyes sparkled, his body moved in sync with the gentle swaying of the trees. He knew exactly where he was going, even though there were no paths or route markers; he was free. I was kind of free.
“Look here,” Gunner said, pointing to indentations in the ground.
Lexi and I leaned down close to Gunner as he pointed out deer tracks in the mud.
“The bigger ones are a stag, a big one, it must weigh about 600lbs,” he whispered.
I looked carefully at the tracks, and I watched Gunner measure their depth with his finger, nodding his head.
“How do you know how much it weighs?” Lexi whispered, poking her fingers at the tracks too.
“The heavier the animal, the deeper the tracks,” Gunner whispered. “A stag that big can’t hide for long; we’ll spot him soon enough.”
We crouched down, following Gunner’s gaze across the woods. Trying to see what he saw.
The woods were quiet, just the hushed rustle of the trees now and then. It might have been the stag, but it was most likely the wind. Gunner would know the difference, though; how he did it was a mystery to me.
“The tracks go down this way,” Lexi said seriously.
She walked ahead of us, bending down to feel the tracks every few steps, just like Gunner had done. We followed her in silence. She didn’t leave our sight, but she was too caught up in her tracking to pay us any attention.
“Is it dangerous?” I asked. “What if it sees her before she sees it?”
Gunner wrapped his arm around my waist protectively. “Those tracks are from hours ago. If we seriously wanted to catch something so close to home, we should have been out at sunrise.”
We stood watching Lexi remember the things Gunner had taught her on their previous trips. She checked the trees for markings, ran her hand over the bark, then returned to the track marks.
I leaned into him naturally, my body just about melting into his. There was something romantic about being out here. Without even knowing how it happened or ever deciding to, I looked up at him. Our eyes met, then our lips easily followed.
A soft kiss, our lips pressed against each other until they softly parted. I could taste the coffee on his tongue, the heat between us both, hands moving slowly over my waist.
The bushes rustled ahead of us, and I pulled back quickly, following Lexi, who by now had gotten further from us than I was comfortable with. I hurried toward her, not wanting to lose sight of her.
One moment I was walking quickly, and the next I felt a root over my boot.
By the time I felt it, it was too late to step over it.
The root hurled my body forward. I fell, tumbling down steep ground.
I felt helpless. Everything I tried to grab onto slipped from my hands until I came to a painful stop.
I was dizzy, disoriented. I looked up to see Gideon standing over me. Either I had hit my head on the way down, or he’d been tracking us this whole time and we didn’t know.
“For fuck’s sake, Gunner,” he grunted as he bent down to lift me off the ground with ease.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on for dear life as he trudged back up the hill to where Gunner and Lexi were waiting, shocked and afraid.
“Get Lexi, we’re going back to the cabin,” Gideon barked. “I knew you were stupid, but this? I should never have let you take the girls out here on your own.”
Gunner lifted Lexi onto his back and trudged toward the truck. He didn’t make any jokes or even try to run and play. My fall had silenced him and Lexi too. We climbed into the truck and drove back to the cabin in silence.
I bit down on my lower lip, holding back tears that burned at the back of my eyes more from shock than actual pain. It was only my leg that hurt. I was lucky to get away with just a sprained ankle and a few scratches. It could have been much worse.
Gideon insisted on carrying me all the way into my quarters. He walked slowly, carefully, even though I told him I had only sprained my ankle. His brow was furrowed with concern. His eyes searched my face every few steps for signs of pain and concern.
He wasn’t angry anymore. But after I examined my sore leg and figured it was just a sprain, nothing some rest wouldn’t fix, Gideon was still worried. He fussed over me, holding me steady in his arms, cradling me so I moved as little as possible.
I knew how he was about Lexi and even Tobias, fiercely protective.
It was his personal business to keep them safe, and a personal failure when something went wrong.
Something had gone wrong, something out of everyone’s control, but I could see he considered it a failing on his part.
He was doing everything he could to make up for it.
I could tell, even though he didn’t say it, the way he had looked at Gunner. The way he looked at me.
I had no idea his protection extended to me too. It warmed me to know he was looking out for me, too. He held me gently, like some fragile thing that could break if he walked too fast, and smiled back at me with the worry still etched on his face.
“You know I can limp there,” I said softly. “It might even be faster than the way you’re walking.”
Gideon smiled a small, gentle smile. “I wouldn’t risk that. I already took a big enough risk letting you go out hunting this morning.”
He struggled with the door, refusing to put me down so he could open it.
Finally, we were in my room. Gideon placed me gently on the bed and arranged the pillows so I could sit up with my injured leg elevated by one big pillow.
He looked around for a blanket and settled for the throw that was on the armchair.
My job had always been taking care of others. I did it in the city and out here. For the first time in a long time, I was the patient being tenderly nursed while in bed.
“I’ll take care of you,” he whispered, caressing my face. “You’re going to be okay.”