Chapter 4
Chapter Four
The pleasant aroma of smoked bacon teased her nostrils.
Then, the hiss of grease in a fry pan wafted into her ear canals.
She opened her eyes, hoping this wasn’t a dream.
Surprisingly, she found herself alone in the tent.
Whispers outside the tent pulled her into reality.
She was the last one up. Unusual. Even more unusual was the fact that she hadn’t woken at all throughout the course of the night.
That was something that hadn’t happened since Sebastián—dread coiled in the pit of her stomach—since he’d begun to stalk her. She swallowed hard.
She curled into a tight ball, sucked in a deep breath, and then willed herself to relax, to take advantage of a few more moments of peaceful solitude. Sebastián wasn’t here. She was fine.
Maybe it was the fact that she was in the wilderness’s security that helped to calm her mind and had allowed her to get a good night’s rest. Guys, cowards like Sebastián would never venture into the wild.
She was safe here. Safe from assholes anyhow.
Though her guide was a man, she felt like she could trust him.
She saw the goodness in his eyes. But she once thought Sebastián was a good person, and look how that turned out.
Once he knew she wanted only friendship from him, he lost it.
Called her a tease, among other horrible names. Then, stalked, kidnapped her, and...
“Hey sleepyhead, your eggs and bacon are ready,” Alyssa called out, shaking her from the unwanted reverie.
The same reverie that ruined most every day and night, except for last night.
Hannah slipped out of her sleeping bag, did a quick clothing change, and poked her head out of the tent.
Her gaze landed on the tall man scooping eggs and bacon onto Bianca’s plate.
It looked delicious. He looked delicious.
There was nothing better than a good-looking guy cooking breakfast in the wilderness for her and her friends.
Yeah, they paid for this service, but it was still nice to see a man who could cook.
Maybe it was the full night’s sleep that put her in this good mood and gave her a bit of a change of heart when it came to men.
The mood change was welcome. She was sick of being bitter and angry, and sick of being afraid of men.
She knew good men were out there. Her father and older brothers were proof, but her experience with Sebastián had changed her—damaged her.
“That smells delicious,” she commented.
Hunter’s warm chestnut gaze caught hers. Amber flecks flashed in his irises. Her stomach swirled. She hadn’t noticed those in his eyes yesterday, but today they seemed to sparkle. Maybe it was the way the sun shone on him today that caused the brightness of that amber color.
“You’re up. Grab your plate. You’ll need the nourishment for our adventures today,” Hunter said with a full-blown, contagious smile.
Alyssa looked at him with adoring eyes and scanned him over from head to toe.
She couldn’t blame her friend. The guy was tall and handsome.
Muscular, but not too bulky. He had great hair, too.
Not too long and not too short. Thick, wavy, and dark, almost black.
And his sun-kissed skin looked inviting to touch.
If he was truly a nice person, he’d have the whole package going on.
Hannah slipped out of the tent and walked toward the picnic table.
Alyssa handed her one of those blue enamel plates used for camping.
With her plate in hand, she stepped over to the fire pit where Hunter waited for her with a pile of eggs on a spatula.
He plopped them onto her plate, then scooped up a few strips of bacon for her.
“This looks delicious, thanks,” she said.
His smile reached his eyes, and his white teeth gleamed.
“Got coffee, too,” he said as he pointed at the metal coffee pot, with a tempered glass top, sitting on the cooking rack over the flames, but off to the side.
It looked just like the coffee pot she had in her camping supplies. Almost everybody who camped had that model.
She inhaled, catching just a hint of the eye-opening coffee scent among the mouthwatering bacon aroma. Her stomach growled.
With the spatula, Hunter pointed at her stomach. “You’d better get to it before you starve.”
They shared a laugh.
“I guess so.”
Hannah set her plate down and snagged a coffee cup from the table, and allowed Hunter to fill it. The liquid looked dark—strong, and that was fine by her.
Hannah sat next to Alyssa, who sat across the picnic table from Bianca.
Here they’d just spent the night, crammed in a small tent, and Bianca still rolled out of the sack looking like a beauty queen.
Her icy blue eyes were outlined with eyeliner, long lashes thickened with mascara, powder perfect nose, and her long, blonde hair was pulled into a tidy bun.
When and how had she done all of that, and if she had made herself up in the small tent, how had Hannah not awakened?
So, Bianca. Hannah was sure that if she looked in a mirror right now, the results would be quite the opposite of her friend’s.
She’d probably find dark circles under her eyes, and hair run amok. Yeah, that was more her speed.
Hunter took a seat across the table from her, stabbed a fork full of eggs, and emptied it into his mouth. He closed his eyes and chewed. His moan of delight almost made her laugh. They were just eggs, but he acted like he was eating the finest steak.
“Like those, do you?” she asked.
He opened his eyes, and the amber hues mixed in with the dark chestnut color danced with delight.
“Nothing like good farm-fresh eggs in the morning,” he reached forward and snagged his cup of coffee, took a swig, “and a strong, dark brew.”
Like her, he was a morning person.
Following suit, she took a bite of her fluffy eggs, then a bite of that delicious-smelling bacon. Meat was her thing. Yeah, the eggs were tasty, but the bacon was delicious. It was thick, yet crisp, but not burned. Done to perfection.
Glancing across the table, she caught Hunter’s stare.
His smile widened. “Like my cooking, do you?”
She imagined the deeply satisfied look on her face had given her away, and she couldn’t lie to the man who clearly wanted a compliment from her.
“Not bad,” she said with a nod.
“I’ll take that. Just wait until you see what I have in store for dinner tonight.”
Bianca said something that she couldn’t quite make out because her attention was solely focused on those chestnut irises holding her attention.
She took another bite of her bacon. Perhaps she should chew more slowly. Prolong breakfast for as long as possible so she could keep staring into those warm eyes of his.
The clink of Alyssa’s fork against her empty plate pulled her attention away from Hunter.
“So, what’s the plan?” Alyssa asked.
“Well, we’ll pack up and canoe to the next campsite, then hike to Pine Loop Falls. It’s a fun falls to see because the water circles around a big rock that juts out, and the falls surround nearly the entire rock. There’s a bridge we can cross to get ourselves in the center of the rock.”
“That sounds like quite the sight to see,” Alyssa replied.
“That it is. It’s unique. Not that the falls drop too far, but it is fun to see.”
Hannah savored her last bite of bacon as long as she could, then drank the rest of the strong coffee in her mug.
Following suit with Hunter, she rose, fully intending to help him clean up the breakfast mess.
“I can do this while you ladies pack up your tent.”
With a glance over her shoulder, she realized he’d already packed up.
“Okay.”
It didn’t take long to roll up their sleeping bags, reassemble their backpacks, and pack up the small tent.
They loaded their gear into the canoe, as he’d shown them yesterday, and she and Alyssa climbed into it. Hunter was about to push them off when the bright morning sun caused Hannah to realize she wasn’t wearing her sunglasses.
“Wait!” she exclaimed as she turned her head to look at Hunter.
He stilled. “What’s wrong?”
“I need my sunglasses.”
“Where are they?”
She didn’t recall seeing them in the outside, zippered section of her backpack when she dug through it a few minutes ago. She had worn them yesterday. When did she last see them? Maybe they were on the picnic table or the bench.
“I don’t know for sure. Let me check the table,” she said as she hopped out of the canoe and ran back to the picnic table.
No sunglasses.
She looked at the benches.
No sunglasses.
Hunter looked too. Even by the pit toilet.
“Are you sure they aren’t in your backpack?” he asked.
“I’ll check again, but I went through it when I packed up, and I didn’t see them.”
Back at the canoe, she rifled through her backpack.
No sunglasses.
“When do you last remember having them?” Alyssa asked.
“I may have set them on the table after we got back yesterday.”
“Hmm, maybe a raccoon walked off with them,” Hunter said with a chuckle.
Though he was just joking, Hannah didn’t laugh. She felt demeaned.
“Hey, I’m just kidding.”
“I know. But it’s not like me to lose things. Though I will say that I thought I heard a bit of commotion outside the tent last night when I first climbed in.”
Was it possible one of those little masked bandits scurried off with her sunglasses?
“Yeah, I heard stuff, too. That’s not uncommon,” Hunter said in a comforting tone.
She assumed he was trying to put her at ease about the wilderness creatures that roamed during the night.
“Well, I guess I’ve no choice but to go on without them,” Hannah said as she zipped up her backpack and stowed it back in the canoe.
She pulled the brim of her ball cap down a little to shield her eyes more from the bright sun rays.
They paddled at a comfortable pace in the slow-moving water. The clear water made it easy to see fish swimming under and around the canoe.
Bianca turned her head and glanced over her shoulder to look at Hunter, who did all the paddling work for their canoe.
“What kind of fish am I seeing?” Bianca asked.
“Brown trout, walleye, perch, among others.”
“Looks like there are some minnows down there, too,” Hannah added.
“Yes. I forgot to mention those. Lots of those.”
After about an hour of leisurely paddling, their guide paddled up close to her canoe and pointed ahead to a small opening in the trees lining the river.
“There’s our next camp. There’s a small sand beach at this one.”
“Nice.”
Though she hadn’t planned on swimming on this trip, having read in the informational packet, she knew there was at least one campsite with a swimmable beach, so she’d packed her swimsuit.
“There’ll be plenty of time for a swim after we set up camp and hike to the Pine Loop Falls.”
Bianca clapped her hands. “Yay!”
Hannah was sure it delighted her friend to show off her perfect body in a skimpy bikini to their good-looking guide.
After reaching the campsite, Hannah hopped out of the canoe and dragged it up onto the tiny sand shore.
Hunter did the same with his canoe. It only took a few minutes to unload their gear and just a few more minutes to set up their minimalistic camp.
She supposed Alyssa and Bianca moved at lightning speed to make sure they left enough time in the day to lie on the beach and soak up some of that fabulously warm sun in the sky.
They were in Michigan. It certainly wasn’t Florida hot, but it was warm.
No doubt, though, it would cool down quickly in the early evening, so sunbathing time was of the essence.
“Chop, chop, ladies. We’ve got a waterfall to see,” Hunter teased.
“I’m ready!” Alyssa replied with her camera in hand.
In that respect, Alyssa was in paradise. The natural beauty of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan was a photographer’s dream.
They started down a narrow dirt path lined with bright green, soft-looking ferns; the forest floor was covered with them.
Those, along with hearty white pines and tall, thin red pines, hence the trail and falls names, she supposed—Pine Loop Falls.
It made complete sense. She paused, lifted her face to the sky, and drew in a long inhalation, basking in the calm, outdoorsy, pine scent.
When she opened her eyes and glanced to her left, then her right, she caught movement of the ferns about thirty feet away. Odd, since there wasn’t a breeze to speak of. Her gaze fixed on that spot. Two beady little eyes came into focus.
“A red fox,” she whispered.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alyssa spin. She supposed her friend would want a photo, but if she moved, she’d surely scare the beautiful creature away.
“Don’t move. Just look,” Hunter said in a hushed tone.
The animal stayed statue still. Didn’t even blink. Gaze glued to her. Orangish-red colored eyes, the same color as his fur, studied her. All at once, the animal bolted. She’d glimpsed the full body of the tiny animal, and then he was gone.
“How cool was that?” Alyssa asked.
Then she frowned. “But he was so quick, I didn’t get a picture.”
“You gotta be on the ready,” Hunter replied with a teasing tone.
Alyssa arched a brow. “A good guide would have told me the fox was there. Instead, you just walked on by,” she teased back.
Bianca threw her hands in the air. “Yeah, we paid good money for this service. I might file a complaint.”
“She’s right,” Hannah added as she placed her hands firmly on her hips.
Hunter lifted his hands into the air submissively. Smart guy. He would not win against the three of them.
His stunning smile stretched. “You’re right, ladies. I’ll try to be more on my game for the rest of the trip. Please don’t tell my uncle, or he’ll put me on latrine duty or something.”
They shared a laugh.
Hunter gestured for them to follow.
Snap!
Hannah halted on a dime and looked in the direction the noise had come from. There was no way that little fox made that noise—that branch break, or whatever it was.
She glanced at the guide. He faced in the direction of the noise as well. Like Bianca and Alyssa, Hannah returned her gaze to where the noise had come from.
Silence.
“Probably nothing,” Hunter said as he began moving down the trail.
The pit of her stomach knotted. She had a bad feeling about this. Bear? Deer? Moose?
Returning her gaze forward, she caught Hunter peering back toward the noise. He looked worried, too. Not good.