Chapter 6
Liz
Ipulled into the Wings End parking lot, my heart still hammering against my ribs like it was trying to escape my chest.
Eighteen thousand dollars. The jeweler’s words echoed in my head as I navigated around a massive fifth wheel.
That was life-changing money for someone who currently owned a twelve-year-old car, a tent, and most of my belongings stuffed in trash bags.
It was the kind of money that could buy me breathing room.
A security deposit on an apartment. Time to find a job that didn’t make me want to cry in my car during lunch breaks.
The jeweler had kept saying words I didn’t understand while I nodded and pretended I wasn’t about to faint. When I’d asked how much I might realistically get for it, his enthusiasm had dimmed slightly.
“Well, to maximize value, you’d want to consign it to a reputable auction house. That could take several months, and they’d take a percentage, of course.”
Several months. I didn’t have several months. I had whatever was left on my nearly maxed-out credit card and about two hundred dollars in my wallet.
I spotted Reese waving at me from beside the RV she’d shown me pictures of.
Next to her stood the tall, broad-shouldered man who’d knocked on my window this morning.
He looked as intimidating in full daylight as he had at the crack of dawn.
His dark hair was cropped short, and his expression was unreadable as he watched me park.
My brakes squeaked as I came to a stop, a concern I’d been ignoring because they worked fine. I did not need car problems on top of everything else.
I took a deep breath before stepping out of my car with my purse.
The knife was tucked safely inside, wrapped in the jeweler’s appraisal paperwork from earlier.
Part of me still couldn’t believe someone had left something so valuable in my tent.
The naked forest man couldn’t possibly have known what it was worth. Could he?
Reese’s smile was warm as I approached. “How’d the errand go?”
I glanced at the man who stood with his arms crossed, watching our interaction. “It went well. The jeweler confirmed what you said.” My voice came out steadier than I expected, considering how my stomach was doing somersaults.
Reese’s eyes widened. “That’s fantastic! See, I told you!”
“He said it would take months to sell at auction, though.” I twisted the strap of my purse between my fingers. “I was hoping for something a bit faster.”
The man’s posture shifted slightly, his head tilting as he studied me with an intensity that gave me pause. There was something unsettling about his gaze, as if he were cataloging every detail of my appearance for future reference.
“This is Kade. Kade, this is Liz. Although you two met this morning, didn’t you?” Reese glanced at Kade and then elbowed him.
He stuck out his hand. “Nice to officially meet you.”
“Likewise.” I shook his hand and was surprised when he didn’t break my bones, given the look on his face. “I want to apologize for camping in my car. It hadn’t occurred to me that it would be such an issue.”
“Because of the bear, right?” Kade raised an eyebrow. Why did that seem like a challenge?
Reese cleared her throat. “We might know someone interested in buying your knife, if that’s something you’d consider.”
I sighed in relief at the change in subject and at the potential buyer. “Really? That would be amazing, actually.”
Kade made a weird grumbling sound and turned toward the RV. “Reese can show you around.”
“You’re going to love it!” Reese walked up the steps and opened the door. “We’ll take care of all the maintenance, and the utilities are all included as well.”
The RV looked even nicer than the pictures she had shown me. It was clean and modern, with a bedroom area, storage, a dinette, and a small living room. Considering I had been on the verge of staying at a seedy motel, it was practically the Ritz.
I hadn’t been completely sure what to do for housing. My parents were always an option but were a last resort. My brother had a family of his own, and I couldn’t impose. And my friends? They’d built lives that no longer had room for me.
How had I let my life get so far away from me that I could barely reach out and touch it?
“It’s perfect.” I fought the sudden, embarrassing urge to cry. “Thank you.”
Reese gave me a smile that said she knew exactly what I was going through.
We hadn’t talked much about her life, but she had said she once lived in her RV.
“We’re having a family dinner tonight. You should join us.
It will be a nice way to welcome you, and it will break up some of the testosterone I have to deal with. ”
A family dinner with complete strangers wasn’t high on my list of comfortable situations, but Reese had been nothing but kind. Refusing felt rude.
“Sure, that would be nice.”
I couldn’t avoid human contact forever, and Reese and Kade seemed nice enough. Plus, they didn’t know how stupid I’d truly been.
I followed the gravel path through the trees, squinting at my phone to double-check Reese’s pin.
The screen’s brightness hurt my tired eyes.
After the adrenaline crash from yesterday’s forest adventure and this morning’s knife appraisal bombshell, exhaustion had set in hard.
Moving my pitiful collection of belongings into the RV had taken the last of my energy reserves.
That RV, though. It seemed too good to be true, which usually meant it was. But for now, I’d take the win.
The scent of cooking food reached me first, followed by the low rumble of voices and laughter. The path curved around a cluster of pines, and a gorgeous cabin came into view. It had a porch that wrapped around to the back.
Following the voices, I reached the steps of the sprawling deck. It had perfectly placed cedar planking, a professional-grade outdoor kitchen setup with a massive grill where Kade stood, and plenty of outdoor furniture.
Reese was next to Kade, drink in hand, looking relaxed in a way that made me acutely aware of how long it had been since I’d felt that way myself.
I hovered on the steps, feeling like I was intruding.
“There she is!” A sandy-haired man spotted me first, bouncing up from his chair with infectious enthusiasm. “The mystery woman arrives!”
His energy hit me like a friendly tidal wave. I hadn’t expected such immediate warmth from a complete stranger. The man was tall, though not as imposing as Kade, with tousled hair and bright green eyes that sparkled with happiness.
So, this was part of the “testosterone” Reese had mentioned. I’d assumed she had sons, not a grown man who looked like he moonlighted as an outdoor gear catalog model.
“I’m Atlas.” He extended his hand as I walked toward him. “Professional wilderness guide, amateur comedian, and full-time third wheel until I find my… queen.”
I shook his hand, surprised at how immediately comfortable I felt with him. “Liz. Professional... well, currently unemployed.”
Kade turned from the grill, giving me an assessing look like I was a building inspection he wasn’t sure would pass code. “How do you like your steak?”
“Medium, please.”
He nodded once and turned back to the grill. Communication complete.
“Let me get you a drink,” Reese offered, guiding me toward the table. “Wine? Beer? Something stronger? We have it all.”
“Wine would be great.” I sank into a chair, grateful to be off my feet. “Red, if you have it.”
“How was moving into the RV?” Reese poured me a glass from a bottle she already had open on the table. “Everything working okay?”
“It’s fantastic.” I took the glass of wine from her and took a sip. “Though the awning is a little stubborn when you—”
The words died in my throat.
A man came out of the house, and something—everything—in me went completely still.
He was tall, with light brown hair, shorter on the sides and longer on top. It worked with the sharp lines of his face and the short beard.
But that wasn’t what stopped me mid-sentence. Something slid up my spine and lodged at the base of my skull. It wasn’t cold or hot, but a sudden, hyper-awareness that my body apparently thought was important.
Fantastic. Exactly what I needed right now.
“—try to extend it,” I finished, picking up my sentence a beat too late. “I think it needs a little WD-40.”
My voice sounded normal, but the prickling sensation remained, humming beneath my skin like static electricity.
The man’s blue eyes found mine across the deck, and for a split second, they seemed to flash with something impossibly vibrant and almost purple. Then he blinked, and they were blue again.
I must have been more tired than I thought. Or hungry. Or both. I filed the strange reaction under low blood sugar and took another sip of wine.
Atlas’s eyes moved between me and the man. Kade and Reese were at the grill, but their attention was on us too.
“Have you met Lucan?” Atlas sat down a few seats away from me.
My brow furrowed in confusion. “No?” There was a brief flicker of surprise across everyone’s faces. “Should I have?”
Lucan cleared his throat, drawing my attention to him. “I’m in forest management, and I am always out on the trails.”
“He makes himself very comfortable out there.” Atlas hid a laugh by taking a drink of his beer.
Lucan’s smile faltered for a second. “You must be Liz.”
I nodded, not trusting myself to speak while something in me refused to settle. My heart was racing like I’d sprinted up a hill. What was wrong with me?
Lucan took the seat across from me, his movements slow, as if he were trying not to startle a wild animal. Which was ridiculous because I wasn’t a wild animal. I was a grown woman having dinner with new acquaintances.
New, unusually attractive acquaintances who lived together in some kind of... what, exactly? I realized I had no idea what the relationship dynamics were here. Kade and Reese were clearly a couple, but where did Atlas and Lucan fit in?
They didn’t look related. Were they—
“Steaks are up,” Kade announced, breaking my increasingly confused train of thought.
Clearly, I needed food before I embarrassed myself any further with whatever malfunction my body and brain were experiencing.
I was tired. And hungry. And overwhelmed by kindness after days of solitude and stress.
That was all it was.
It had to be. Because the alternative was that I was having some sort of visceral reaction to a complete stranger, and that made absolutely no sense. I wasn’t the type for instant attractions or whatever this bizarre feeling was.
Kade set a perfectly cooked steak in front of me as Reese brought out a large tray with sides. Everything smelled amazing, and I picked up my fork, convinced that the food would reset my nervous system.
It didn’t.
Lucan’s gaze had been locked on me since the moment he stepped onto the deck. And I couldn’t break away from it, no matter how much I told myself to.