Chapter 20
Beau
The damn ring was burning a hole in my pocket.
I had planned on picking it up, making sure I had it, being ready when the mood struck…
but it turned out the mood struck a long time ago and every moment seemed like the right one to ask this woman to marry me.
Hell, I hadn’t even told her I loved her, but I was ready to dive headfirst into this thing.
I’d never been the type to rush. Not with cars, not with women, not with my damn feelings. I’d been satisfied my whole life staying right where I was.
But with Noelle?
I was already gone.
The campground was unusually quiet for weather this nice—the cool breeze of early fall, the bright sun of late summer.
I’d expected a few others, maybe some locals, maybe some tourists…
but the parking area was empty except for a single dusty SUV with fogged-over windows that made it seem like it had been there for a long, long time.
Shane stepped out of the truck first, stretching his arms over his head as Milo followed.
“Spooky out here,” he said. “I love it.”
Noelle stayed seated for a second longer, just looking around with that narrowed, skeptical look she got when something didn’t line up with her expectations—a look I’d gotten an awful lot in those first few days of knowing her.
“Weird how empty it is, huh?” she finally said.
“Off-season?” I offered, grabbing my bag from the back.
Delilah pulled up beside us and rolled her window down. “Where the hell is everyone?”
“Dead,” Whit said, opening his door. “Definitely all dead.”
“You’re ridiculous,” Holden said, climbing out on the other side. “Y’all…it’s fine. Calm the fuck down. In Guatemala—”
“Enough,” Delilah and Whit said at the same time.
Holden shut up.
Noelle finally climbed out and shouldered her backpack, but she didn’t look away from the tree line. Her brows were drawn tight, and there was a crease between them that hadn’t been there earlier.
“You feel that?” she asked quietly.
“Feel what?” I moved closer, instinctively—like I might be able to shield her from whatever it was.
She hesitated. “I don’t know. Like…the air’s different. Stretched thin.”
Shane had his mic clipped already, flipping open the recorder and gesturing for us to start grabbing gear. “Alright, gang. Let’s get this base camp up and then go find something terrifying.”
We followed the trailhead no more than half a mile into the woods, where a fire pit marked a nice camping spot next to Foggy Creek.
The clearing was small and flat, hemmed in by tall trees with bark gone silver from age, their branches high and tangled enough to keep out most of the light.
The creek babbled steadily a few feet away, shallow but fast, and cold enough that you could feel it in your teeth if you got too close.
The air had that strange stillness to it—not quiet, exactly, but emptied.
Like the usual sounds of birds and bugs had all decided to take a collective break.
Everyone stood around for a beat too long, like we’d all arrived at the same unspoken thought.
“This’ll do,” I said, mostly to break the silence. I swung my pack off my shoulder and crouched down to start unpacking the tent. “Should be room for both here and another by that big log.”
Whit nodded and moved to help, tugging the tent poles from his own bag. “Gonna be a cozy night for Holden and me. Hope you don’t snore, baby brother.”
“I do,” Holden said without looking up. “You’ll survive.”
Delilah wandered toward the water’s edge, crouching down to skim her fingers through the current. “It’s colder than I expected.”
Noelle had her phone out again, scowling at the screen. “Still no signal. Not even one bar.”
“Could be the hills,” Shane offered. “Or the Gloamstrider’s ancient curse.”
She shot him a look.
“Or, you know, basic geography,” he amended.
I moved closer to Noelle, tilting my head toward the woods. “You still feeling that weird air thing?”
She nodded, slow. “Yeah. It’s like…” She searched for the word. “Like when you walk into a room where people have been fighting, and everything still feels charged.”
My hand found hers again—light at first, but when she didn’t pull away, I curled my fingers around hers and squeezed.
“I’ve got you,” I said, low enough just for her.
She looked up at me, and that look—wide-eyed, wary, beautiful as hell—just about knocked the wind out of me.
I’d ask her soon. Maybe not tonight. Maybe not in the middle of the goddamn Blair Witch forest. But soon.
“You guys wanna help me set up some trail cams?” Shane asked, swinging his bag over his shoulder.
Whit groaned dramatically and dropped his pack. “Shane, I came here to drink by a fire and see somethin’ spooky. I didn’t sign up for manual labor.”
“You signed up the second Delilah told you to come,” Holden said, already halfway through assembling his tent.
“Exactly,” Delilah replied, not looking up from where she was digging her toiletries out of a canvas bag. “And I told you to be helpful.”
Whit saluted her lazily and wandered over to help Shane with one of the camera rigs, Milo at his heels sniffing the air like he was casing the joint.
The tension eased a little as everyone scattered into familiar rhythms: Delilah laying out a picnic blanket and setting up her folding chair like it was a throne, Holden muttering about tent angles, Shane narrating into his mic as he pointed out possible camera placements.
Noelle was still stiff beside me, though, her spine taut with the kind of alertness she couldn’t shake, no matter how casual the vibe turned.
“Hey,” I said, catching her wrist gently and tugging her just behind one of the tents where we were out of view from the others. “Look at me.”
She did. Those big, dark eyes were still shadowed with unease.
“I know you’re freaked out,” I murmured, cupping her hip. “But I need you to understand something.”
She chewed on her lip as I stepped closer, pulling her in. “I’m listening,” she said.
“Later tonight, I’m gonna unzip this tent and drag you inside.
You’re gonna be warm and full of whiskey, and I’m gonna make you feel so good you forget what you were even scared of.
” My mouth brushed her ear. “I’m gonna get you naked, make you come on my tongue, and then I’m gonna bury myself so deep inside you you’re gonna lose your damn mind. ”
She blinked up at me, lips parted.
“And after,” I added, “I’m gonna hold you so close not even the Gloamstrider’ll be able to get between us.”
Noelle let out a slow breath. “Jesus.”
I kissed her jaw, slow and careful. “You in?”
“I mean, I’m still mad we’re in the woods,” she muttered. “But yeah. I’m in.”
I pulled back with a grin. “That’s my girl.”
Behind us, Shane called out, “If you two are gonna start fucking before sundown, can you at least warn me so I don’t record it by accident?”
“Go bother Whit!” Noelle called back.
“You know,” I said, “it wouldn’t take much convincing to get me to skip the trail and just spend the whole damn trip in that tent with you.”
Noelle raised an eyebrow, eyes still bright with that wary edge, but now softened by heat. “Oh yeah? You gonna build a fire, filter water, and scare off whatever cryptid comes snooping around all by yourself?”
I took her face in my hands. “I’d do all that and more. I’d rub your feet. Make you instant coffee with river water. Fight a whole-ass antler demon just to keep you warm at night.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“You love it.”
Her mouth twitched. “Maybe I do.”
I kissed her before she could finish that smirk—just a breath of a thing, soft and slow and nothing like the hungry, filthy promises I’d made a minute ago.
Fuck…I’d never felt anything like this in my life, and I didn’t want to rush it, didn’t want to scare her, but god, it was starting to swell in my chest so big I didn’t know how much longer I could keep it inside.
When I pulled back, she looked dazed. Just a little.
“Beau…”
“I know.”
She blinked at me. “You don’t even know what I was gonna say.”
“I don’t need to,” I said. “Not yet. Just let me take care of you tonight.”
Her throat moved as she swallowed, then she nodded. “Okay.”