by Debbie Mason
Haley and Haven grinned at each other and then at her. “You like him,” Haven said, leaning forward and fluttering her eyelashes.
“No. I don’t,” Abby said, then realized she’d contradicted herself. “I mean, yes, I like him as in he’s a kind and helpful neighbor. But I don’t like him the way you’re implying. Stop making googly eyes at me. The last thing I want is another man in my life. Take it from me, girls, you don’t ever want to have to depend on a man. So don’t let yourself get distracted at Stanford.”
If Abby had an education, if school had come as easily to her as it had to her sisters, she wouldn’t be in the mess she was in. But even if she’d known what she did now, it wouldn’t have mattered. She had difficulty reading. The words jumbled up and didn’t always make sense. It’s why YouTube had been her medium of choice. “You keep your eyes on—”
Bella, who’d been happily trotting after her, now darted past her, growling and snapping. “Hang on a minute, Boo. You’ll hurt your throat,” Abby told the dog straining against the leash. She moved forward to loosen the tension. As soon as she did, she saw what Bella was trying to reach.
A snake was coiled and ready to strike.
Bella lunged.
“No!” Abby cried and, thinking only to protect Bella, darted forward to scoop her up. She wasn’t fast enough. The snake’s fangs locked on her forearm. She cried out, jerking her arm away.
“Abby, what happened?” Her sisters’ voices came through the phone in her hand, startling her from her shock. “A snake bit me.” She stumbled backward as it slithered beneath the house.
“What kind of snake? What did it look like?” Haven asked.
“Big, light brown with a reddish head. It’s under the house.” She glanced back with a shiver as she put distance between herself and the snake.
“Abby, don’t panic or anything. But, um, I just looked up snakes in North Carolina, and there are some poisonous ones.”
She swallowed, remembering that the Uber driver had said the same thing. “It can’t have been poisonous. It doesn’t hurt. Much.” She looked down at the red mark on her forearm. “I feel faint. My legs are shaky.” Bella whined and licked her cheek. “It’s okay, Boo. I’m fine.”
“Abby, stop saying you’re fine when you are absolutely not fine!” Haven yelled at her.
“Go, Abby. Go right now and get Hunter. And don’t you dare drop us. We’re coming with you this time,” Haley said.
Abby did as her sisters told her, running across the meadow. Her heart pounded, her ragged breath searing her dry throat as she raced for the barn with Bella tucked under her good arm. Panting, she could barely get Hunter’s name past her lips. When she did, it was at the level of a normal conversation, as if he was standing right in front of her.
And then he was there, and she thought he might be yelling at her again but she couldn’t hear him over the buzzing in her ears. He slid an arm behind her back and bent to put his other arm behind her knees, scooping her up and into his arms. He was strong, solid, and safe, and the panic that had her chest muscles and vocal cords in a stranglehold relaxed a little.
“Abby, calm down. Just breathe slow and easy. You’re gonna be fine.” His eyes went to the red mark on her arm as he strode toward the barn. “Can you describe the snake? Its color, markings?”
When she told him, he didn’t say or do anything other than search her face and nod.
She heard her sisters crying and went to pick up the phone tucked between Bella and her chest.
“Hang on.” He shifted her in his arms, reaching around her to retrieve her phone. At the feel of his strong fingers brushing against her breast, the breathing she’d managed to slow down seconds ago hitched, and her cheeks heated. Embarrassed by her reaction, surprised that she had one when she could very well be dying, she focused on the screen he held up for her. Her sisters’ faces were red and blotchy, and their eyes were tear-filled.
“Thank you,” she murmured, wondering if he heard her when he stared straight ahead.
“Don’t cry. I’m not going to die,” she told her sisters, looking up when Hunter shouldered his way into the yellow barn. It was cavernous, with very little light, and smelled like cedar. Two large fans hung from the ceiling, their gentle whoop whoop swirling the warm air. “I’m not, am I?”
“No, not from the snake bite.”
It sounded like he wanted to kill her though. She thought better of asking why and instead said, “Did you hear that? Hunter says I’m not going to die.”
“You promise?” they asked him.
He glanced at the screen. “Yeah. I do.”
She noticed his tone wasn’t as brusque as the one he used with her. She wasn’t surprised. Haven and Haley had that effect on people. They had that effect on her too.
“See, everything will be all right. I’ll call you later, okay?”
“No. We’re not leaving you alone, Abs. And if you hang up on us, we’re telling Mom everything.”
“Yeah, we’ll tell her you’re broke and that she was wrong about Chandler, and we were right.”
Oh my gosh, she had to get them to stop talking. “Okay. I won’t hang up, but—”
“I bet Mom wouldn’t think Chandler was so wonderful if she found out he was having an affair with his lawyer while he was still married to Abs.”
Abby gasped. “Where did you hear that?”
Haven clapped a hand over her mouth, and Haley made a face. “You didn’t know?”
“Yes, but I just found out a few days ago.” She told her sisters what had happened at the mansion in Bel Air. How Elinor had felt bad about Abby’s circumstances and offered for her to have a shower and hot meal and how Abby had ended up hiding in the pantry when Juliette and Abby’s once-best friend, Tiffany, had shown up unexpectedly at the mansion.
The last thing Abby had wanted was for Juliette to discover her there and have her thrown in jail. Sitting on the pantry floor with Bella in her arms, Abby had learned about her inheritance and that Chandler was marrying Juliette after having an affair with her for the past year and a half.
Caught up in the moment and her story, Abby had forgotten about Hunter until he lowered her onto a bed. He looked down at her, and there was something other than the annoyed expression she was used to seeing on his face. She wondered if perhaps she wouldn’t have to pretend to be the ditzy city girl who was afraid of her own shadow (she definitely didn’t have to pretend to be afraid of snakes) and talked from sunup until sundown. Maybe all she had to do was tell him the truth.
Chapter Five
Hunter brought his cell phone to his ear as he watched the snake slither away along the forest floor. He wasn’t particularly fond of carrying the phone but it was a concession he’d made to his family and friends. They’d leave him alone as long as they were able to call and check on him every couple of weeks.
“Gotta tell you, son. I reach for my anti-acids whenever I see your name come up on my screen. Usually means someone died or I’ve got bad guys to go after,” Owen said.
The last time Hunter had called the chief was to tell him Liz was gone. “I just removed a copperhead from under the farmhouse. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”
“Come on, you know me better than that. Snakes give me the heebie-jeebies. All I did was howl under her window some. Which you also know since you were there, sitting in that chair, watching me. Just about gave me a heart attack.”
As much as Hunter hadn’t wanted to check on Abby, it wasn’t in him to sit there and do nothing when someone was in distress. Even someone who was turning out to be a major pain in his ass. So he’d walked over to check things out. Other than Abby, everything was quiet. Nothing to set off alarm bells. As far as he could tell, she’d gotten spooked. Not really a surprise. Still, he’d decided to stick around and parked his ass in the Adirondack chair for the night, thinking that until he got rid of Abby Everhart, he wouldn’t get his eagle carved.
He had the same t
hought not more than a few hours ago when she’d come running across the meadow screaming his name. Her hair was a mass of curls, a fiery red cloud framing her pale, feminine features, her eyes so big they’d practically swallowed her face. He imagined his eyes had gotten pretty big too. Backlit by the morning sunlight, she might as well have been running toward him naked for all that her calf-length white nightgown hid.
“Snake get her or the dog?” Owen asked with a wince in his voice.
Hunter scrubbed a hand over his face, clearing away the image of Abby in the meadow. “Her. She was protecting the dog.”
“Good thing, I suppose. Size of the dog, it wouldn’t have made it. She okay?”
Unlike what most people thought, a copperhead’s bite was rarely deadly to a human. Tissue damage was more of a concern than the venom. Same couldn’t be said for animals, especially animals the size of the rat. Someone needed to take the dog in hand before it got itself or its owner killed.
“Yeah. She’s fine. It was a dry bite.” A dry bite was a bite from a venomous snake without venom being released. About twenty to twenty-five percent of pit viper snakebites were dry. Still, he’d called Doc and had him come over to check her out to be on the safe side. “I think we may have misjudged her.”
“How’s that?”
“She’s not some rich Hollywood type who has no in interest in keeping Liz’s legacy alive. Sounds like she needs the money. She’s divorced. Her husband was cheating on her with his lawyer.”
“You know what it sounds like to me? It sounds like Fancy Pants has caught your interest.”
“Then you better head over to Doc and get your hearing tested. I’m not interested. In her or anyone else.”
“Here’s the problem. First off, you’re fooling yourself thinking you’re happy living out there all by your lonesome with nothing but Wolf and your woodcarvings for company. After you came back from Afghanistan, me and Lizzie thought you just needed time to heal. Never expected you to become a hermit.”
Hunter looked at the phone—cursing the woman who’d had him making the call in the first place—as he headed down the trail to home. He didn’t like leaving her alone in his place for long. She’d been talking to her sisters when he’d left. Haley and Haven had promised to keep an eye on her, and they had his number. But he didn’t trust Abby not to snoop. She seemed the type.
Nosy, just like Owen. “I’m not—” he began to protest the chief’s accusation that he was a hermit.
But his old friend talked right over him, which was par for the course. If Hunter hung up on him like he wanted to, Owen would keep calling back until he’d stated his case so Hunter decided to let him talk and get it out of his system.
“…Second off, I’m not blind. I saw the way you looked at that girl, and it was obvious you liked what you saw. My pops would’ve said she has the look of the fairies about her. I’m thinking a wood nymph with her big green eyes and long red hair. So you’d best have a care or she’ll put you under her spell, and there’ll be no help for you then.”
“You’ve been hanging out with Aunt Elsa again, haven’t you?” Hunter’s aunt had been best friends with Owen and Liz for as long as he could remember. Along with another of their childhood friends, Ina Graham, Liz and Elsa had owned Three Wise Women Bookstore on Main Street for decades.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Your generation ignores the tales from the old country at your own peril.”
“If I happen upon a wood nymph or a sprite, I’ll be sure to let you know. Now, if you don’t mind, I need to get Abby back to the farmhouse to find a ginormous spider. Her words, not mine,” he said as he walked into the clearing.
“Oh, come on now, son. Do you hear yourself? She’s already halfway to getting you under her spell, and you don’t even know it. But you better break the hold she has over you quick, because she’s not the one for you. Sloane is, and she always was. And once you move past your grief and guilt, you’ll remember what you two had together, and you’ll want it back.”
He supposed it spoke to Owen’s concern for him that he brought up Hunter’s ex-fiancée. Sloane was off-limits. Everyone knew it—his family, friends, and Owen. Hunter hadn’t spoken to or about her since the day he’d broken their engagement. There was no going back.
“I gotta go,” he said. “Let the rangers know that there’s a black bear and her cubs moving toward town along Willow Creek.”
“You do realize it’s their job to track that sort of thing, don’t you?”
“Yeah, just like I realize it’s your job to make sure that Boyd doesn’t have his still running on the ridge.”
“You’ve gotta be shitting me. Boyd’s running shine again?”
“If it wasn’t shine, it had a pretty powerful kick for cider.”
“Dammit, Hunter, you’re not supposed to be shooting the breeze with him and drinking shine.”
“You can’t have it both ways, Chief. You’re always on me about getting out and socializing more.”
“Well, I can’t say I’m impressed with your companions of choice these days, so maybe you should lay off the socializing for a while.”
“Happy to oblige. Enjoy your pancakes at Dot’s.”
“How did you know I was at Dot’s?”
“You’re predictable.” And he’d recognized the older woman’s voice in the background.
Abby was predictable too. He walked into the barn to find her hugging a life-size carving of a black bear. She shot a panicked look over her shoulder. “Hurry! I can’t hold him up much longer.”
He jogged to her side. “What the hell were you doing?”
“To be honest, I kinda thought he was real at first, and Bella was sniffing around him, so…” She lifted a shoulder.
“So what? You decided to attack a bear to save your dog?” The woman needed a keeper.
“No. Once I realized he was a carving…” She wrinkled her nose, admitting sheepishly, “I was petting him.”
He swallowed a sarcastic Why am I not surprised? and placed a hand on the bear’s head, nudging Abby out of the way. Then he crouched to rebalance the carving. He rarely invited anyone into his space, and if they did come, they knew better than to touch his woodwork. The bear had been one of his first large pieces.
At a shift in the air, he glanced over his shoulder. Abby was turning slowly in her bare feet in the middle of the barn. Her head was tipped back to look at the wooden geese suspended in flight from the ceiling, her fiery red curls brushing her lower back and her gauzy white nightgown swirling around her calves.
If Owen saw her now, he’d give Hunter a smug but concerned smile. Abby looked like a wood nymph surrounded by Hunter’s carvings. Except wood nymphs were supposedly ethereal. Abby was curvy, cute, and clumsy. Which meant he didn’t have to worry about his old friend’s prediction coming true. Abby didn’t have him in her thrall.
Or so he thought until he tried to take his eyes off her. “Stop spinning. You’ll make yourself dizzy and fall on your face. You’re the clumsiest woman I’ve ever met.” A touch of pink darkened her cheeks, and he dragged his gaze back to the carving, feeling like a jerk. “You were supposed to stay in bed until I got back.”
“You were gone too long. I got bored.”
He stiffened at the feel of her moving behind him.
“Did you kill the snake?”
“No. Why would I?”
“Uh, because it bit me.”
“It felt threatened. It was just protecting itself.” He knew how the snake felt. Hunter straightened, taking a step back to gauge the steadiness of the carving before turning to her. “You have to be more mindful of your surroundings, Abby. You’re not in the city anymore.”
“I think I know that. I’ve been sucked on by leeches, bit by a snake, dive-bombed by a bird in the middle of the night, and I was chased from my bed by a big-butt spider.” Her eyes jerked from her forearm to his face. “You don’t have black widow spiders here, do you?”
He scratched the ba
ck of his neck, debating whether to tell her the truth. Since he’d just finished telling her she had to be more aware of her surroundings, he went with the truth. Although he kept the fact that the bird she thought had dive-bombed her was in all likelihood a bat. “Yeah, we do. Brown recluse too. But if it’s as big as you claim, it’s probably a wolf spider.”
She looked like she might faint, and he rested a hand on her shoulder. “They’re big, but their venom isn’t deadly. You’re okay.”
“No, I’m really not. If I don’t hurry up and sell the farm, Bella and I will die here.” She wrapped her arms around herself, then winced and released her right arm. “I thought living on the mean streets of LA was scary but it has nothing on Highland Falls. I’d take gangbangers and drug addicts over venomous spiders and snakes any day.” Her eyes filled. “I really hate it here. I’m not meant for this kind of life.”
He wanted to ask her what she meant about living on the mean streets of LA but he could tell she was minutes away from a breakdown. He didn’t blame her. Didn’t mean he was onboard dealing with a hysterical woman though. He’d never been good at it. But the way she was looking up at him, her bottom lip trembling between her teeth, he had to say something before the situation got worse.
“You just have to hang on for a month, two at most.” He gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze.
“Two months?” Her voice rose on a high-pitched note. “I can’t. I can’t do it.” She looked around the barn. “I’ll sell you the farmhouse right now. As is, for a hundred thousand dollars. It’s worth at least double that, probably triple.”
“I can’t. I don’t have any money.”
“You have to have money. Look how you live, and your carvings are incredible. They’re works of art.” She looked at the bear and then glanced at the moose on the other side of the barn that he’d captured in mid-charge. “I mean, they’re a little scary. Mostly because they look so real…and angry. I guess ferocious would be a better word.” She returned her gaze to his. “But I bet your work is in high demand.”