Hooked

by Elizabeth Hunter

  “You gonna tell me where we’re going?”

  “It’s a surprise.”

  “Sorry. You don’t get into my first aid kit until I know where we’re going.”

  Ox muttered, “A first aid kit? Is that what the kids are calling it now?”

  Emmie punched his arm and walked toward the door. “I’m going down to Café Maya. Have fun, you guys.”

  Jeremy held out his hand and reached for the backpack, which Tayla handed over. He slung it over his shoulder and wove their fingers together as he led her toward the door, thrilling at the feeling of her hand in his. “See you, guys.”

  “Bye, Ox!” Tayla looked happy, but there was an evil glint in her eye.

  Perfect.

  When she fell for him, he wanted her to fight it. Just a little. It would make the surrender all the more satisfying.

  Hot. Mountain man hot. Bearded, chiseled, mountain man hot. Tayla eyed Jeremy from across the cab of his truck, which was as clean as she’d ever seen it. Jeremy looked like he could be in an outdoor-gear catalogue. She might not have wanted to climb boulders, but she definitely appreciated the definition rock climbing gave Jeremy’s shoulders.

  I’d climb him.

  He glanced at her and the corner of his mouth turned up. He’d caught her staring.

  “You should look outside,” he said. “Enjoy the scenery. The wildflowers are incredible this year.”

  “I’m enjoying the scenery.” Her eyes didn’t move from his profile.

  Jeremy chuckled. “I love it.”

  “You like when I stare at you?”

  “You play the best games without playing any games.”

  Tayla burst into laughter. “You’re right. I make no secret of my purely superficial appreciation. You’re an incredibly handsome man.”

  “Thank you. And you are a very beautiful woman.”

  “Thank you. We definitely need to take pictures together.”

  “Don’t you worry.” He glanced at her before his eyes turned back to the twisting road. “You’ll have plenty of Instagram-worthy moments.”

  “It doesn’t bother you?”

  “Your Instagram habit?” He shook his head. “Nope.”

  “A lot of it is business.”

  “I know. It’s smart.” He glanced at her backpack. “You pay for that?”

  “Nope.” She picked it up with a smile. “Freebie from a company looking for placement.”

  He nodded. “See? Smart. I know a perfect spot to take a picture of you with it.”

  Tayla felt her dimple popping. “You’re kind of awesome.”

  “Miss McKinnon”—he cut his eyes to the side—“I’m just straight awesome. No kind of.”

  “So why did you wait so long to ask me out?”

  “Good question.” He kept his eyes on the road and took a long time to answer. “Why didn’t you ask me out?”

  Tayla nodded. “Fair.”

  “But you asked first?”

  “No, I’m not gonna cop out.” She cocked her head and thought about all the reasons she’d been keeping her distance from Jeremy Allen. “Because I’ve always known that I probably wasn’t staying in this town. And you’re not the flinging kind.”

  “The flinging kind?” He looked over. “I’m not flingable?”

  Tayla laughed. “Do you want to be flingable?”

  Jeremy’s laugh was deep and full. “I don’t even know how to answer that.” He pulled the car over into a curve of the road and leaned toward her. “I don’t want to think about tomorrow. Or next month. I want to be with you right here and now.” His mouth was so close she could feel his breath on her cheek. “You with me?”

  She looked him straight in his big brown eyes. “Yes.”

  His smile nearly took her breath away. “Good.” Jeremy reached across and popped her door open. “First stop, let’s get you that pretty picture.”

  He led her toward a gate in the barbed wire fence, and she followed him over a dirt trail across a pasture teeming with wildflowers.

  “Are those cows?”

  Jeremy smiled. “Yes. The friendly kind.”

  “Is there an unfriendly kind?”

  “Any cow with a calf,” he said. “Bulls sometimes. If you end up in a pasture with either of them, stay away. Even if the babies are cute.”

  “Or just stay away from any animal larger than you?” She held his hand as they walked. The path was fairly even, in a mild rising slope. She could see oak trees in the distance and wildflowers were everywhere. “How about here?”

  “Let’s see.” He let go of her hand. “Give me your phone.”

  “Okay.” Tayla handed it over and slung the backpack over both shoulders, adjusting the straps. “How does it look?”

  “Cute,” he said. “Not as cute as you.”

  “You got all the lines, Mr. Allen.” She was wearing her sunglasses and took them off to check her appearance in the lenses. “Is my makeup okay?”

  “I’m probably the wrong person to ask about that, ’cause I always think you look great.” He narrowed his eyes. “But for now unlock your phone and walk ahead of me.”

  “Oh, gotcha.” She grabbed her phone back and opened the camera. Then she hooked her fingers in the straps of the backpack and started walking up the slope, surrounded by flowers.

  She could hear Jeremy moving around behind her. “Walk back a little and do that part again.”

  “Okay.” She turned and saw him sitting on the ground.

  “I’m trying to get the tree in the distance.”

  Tayla glanced at the tree. It was a good idea; the sky was bright blue and fluffy clouds rose over the mountains on the horizon. “Cool.”

  She continued walking up the hill, keeping her eyes on the tree and ignoring the sound of Jeremy taking pictures. She stopped when she heard him running to catch up with her.

  “Check these out.” He handed her the phone. “I think they’re good.”

  They were good. He’d captured several pictures of Tayla walking up the verdant hill with swaying red and yellow flowers surrounding her. The flowers in the field echoed the flowered pattern on the backpack. The twisted oak tree created a focal point in the distance.

  “These are great.”

  His smile lit up his face. “Excellent. Let’s keep going.” He grabbed her hand and kept walking. “So what’s this I hear about you not liking the outdoors?”

  “I have no idea. I love dining alfresco. Visiting beach clubs. Enjoying an irish coffee at a ski resort. I’m practically a Girl Scout.”

  “Were you really?”

  Tayla laughed. “Not a chance. Far too pedestrian for my parents. I was in all the kids’ classes at the yacht club though.”

  “Ah, so you come from snobbery. I didn’t know that about you.”

  “Yes, we had only the finest snobbery at the Bay City Yacht Club.”

  He shook his head. “I’m trying to imagine you at a yacht club and failing miserably. When you said you grew up in San Francisco, I was thinking Haight-Ashbury.”

  “Sadly, closer to the Marina. The Haight is my people though.”

  “So how did the yacht club like the pink hair? Or were you dying it blue then? To fit in?”

  Tayla burst into laughter. “I can’t decide if you’re making a joke about old ladies or not.”

  He smiled. “I wasn’t. My pop would smack me upside the head if I made jokes about any woman’s hair.” He stepped over a creek that cut through the meadow. “I was thinking about blue hair and… I don’t know. Boats? You might be shocked to know that I was not raised near any kind of yacht club.”

  “You didn’t miss anything.” She shook her head. “No blue hair. I just kept my head down and left as soon as I could. I played the obedient daughter, got them to pay for school, and got my own place as soon as I got a job. Then I started dying my hair. Getting the tattoos. Generally driving them even crazier than I did before. We don’t speak much anymore, but no one is surprised or shocked by that.�
��

  Jeremy paused at the top of the hill. “That’s sad.”

  She shrugged. “It’s my normal. It’s not a big deal. Most of the people I grew up with hate their parents. It’s practically a tradition among the country-club set. They hate them until they turn into them.”

  “Maybe it’s tradition, but it’s still sad. Your family should be your biggest fans.”

  “Is yours?”

  “Embarrassingly so.” He closed his eyes. “Do you know my mom started reading comics after I bought my shop? She said if I was going to sell something, she had to know what it was so she could recommend it. She’s addicted to Saga and Lumberjanes now. And yes, she tells all her patients her son has a comic book shop.”

  “Your mom sounds adorable.”

  “She is. Now, come this way. Let’s see if the light works.”

  Jeremy led her across the top of the hill and toward the oak she’d seen in the distance. Beneath it was a tumble of moss-covered granite rocks and what remained of the twisted roots of another oak. Tayla looked at the waning light and the shadows the tree cast on the rocks and roots below it.

  “This is perfect!”

  “Good! So find a spot sitting in there and… pose. Or whatever you do with your product-placement stuff.”

  She unlocked her phone for Jeremy and walked over, climbing up the roots before she turned. “Do I look okay? I didn’t even check my hair.”

  “You look great.” His smile was infectious. “Just climb around like that for a little bit and I’ll take pics.”

  She explored the mangled roots and rocks beneath the tree, then she found a broad boulder and took off her backpack, sitting and propping the backpack beside her. “How’s this?”

  “Fantastic.”

  She changed positions a few more times, showing the bag at different angles. “Okay, I need my phone for some close-ups.”

  Jeremy jumped up the rocks like a mountain goat and handed her phone to her. While she positioned the backpack for a few close shots, she watched him from the corner of her eye.

  Mountain man hot. Thoughtful. Cute, cute, cute. Good sense of humor.

  If Tayla was the keeping kind, she’d totally want to keep him.

  But she wasn’t. So she focused on what Jeremy had said.

  I want to be with you right here and now.

  Here and now? That she could do.

  Tayla leaned her head into the sunbeam on the far side of the truck. She’d taken off her jacket to enjoy the sun on her fair skin. Her eyes were closed, and she was more relaxed than he could ever remember seeing her. Jeremy smiled and sped toward the surprise he’d planned on the edge of Lower Lake. They’d been on their date for a little over an hour, and so far, so good.

  She’d taken the walk through the meadow in stride. He thought she’d even had fun climbing around on the roots and rocks of the old oak. That land used to belong to his grandfather, and he’d grown up playing in the fields and trees. He’d learned how to ride a horse in that meadow. He’d gone there to cry privately when his grandmother passed. Seeing Tayla there made him happy.

  “You hum under your breath,” she said, her eyes still closed.

  “Does it bug you?”

  “No.” She opened her blue eyes and watched him. “I just realized you don’t have music on.”

  “Sometimes you don’t need music.”

  “I always have music on. Or a podcast. Or… something.”

  “Noise.” Jeremy shrugged. “I love music, but sometimes I like quiet. It’s good for the soul.”

  “You have mentioned the soul unironically, and this is officially the weirdest first date I’ve ever been on.”

  Jeremy smiled. “I think I’m going to take that as a compliment.”

  “It’s not an insult.”

  “Good.”

  “Are we almost there? Wherever there is?”

  “Yep. In fact…” He made one last turn through the gates of the recreation area. “We’re here.”

  “The lake?”

  “Have you been?”

  She squinted. “Once. Late last summer. It was very hot.”

  “Then you haven’t seen it in springtime. Which is the only time to see it.” He stopped at the pay station to grab a permit for the rest of the day. Then he jumped back in the truck and continued the winding drive to the lakeside. They passed families starting barbecues and fishermen heading out for the dusk catch.

  “Are we swimming?” She was smiling. “I didn’t bring a suit.”

  “The water’s still a little cold for that.” He left the main recreation area and headed to the group site he’d called and reserved the day after she said yes. It was a little bit away from the other picnic tables and usually only available for groups, but the ranger was an old friend of his dad’s and he let Jeremy reserve it.

  They drove around the last bend, and he watched her face as she spied what Daisy and Ethan had set up.

  Tayla’s mouth dropped open. “What is… Are we camping?”

  “You call this camping?” Jeremy stopped the car and hopped out, waving at Ethan and Daisy as they drove away. “This is, at the very least, glamping.”

  “How did you even…?” She spotted Ethan’s truck. “Ethan and Daisy helped with all this?”

  The group barbecue site sat directly on the edge of the lake, secluded by a stand of sycamore trees. A series of logs had been laid in a circle to create a firepit. There was a pavilion and a large group of picnic tables, but that wasn’t where Jeremy and Tayla would eat.

  He’d driven to the lake this morning and set up a canvas safari tent facing the shore and laid out colorful blankets and a low table with cushions around it. Daisy and Ethan had come later to put up the finishing touches.

  There were mosquito coils wafting around the site and citronella candles burning in mason jars to keep the bugs at bay. Fresh flowers and dishes—real dishes, not paper—were already laid out on the small table. A string of solar lights hung from the trees to the tent.

  Jeremy unloaded the ice chests from the back of the pickup and set them in the shade beside the tent. “What do you think?”

  Tayla was turning in circles, taking it all in. “This is stunning. You had all this stuff?”

  “The tent is Daisy and Spider’s. They use it for a guest house since their place is so tiny. The blankets are mine and my mom’s. Uh… the little table is mine actually. Long story.” He rubbed the back of his neck. Was it too over the top? “I just wanted to do something fun and surprise you.”

  “I’ll admit I suspected we’d be going on a picnic. But this is like…” She turned to face him. “This is like a luxury picnic from a period movie or something. Only cooler because”—she pointed to the bathrooms in the corner of the group site—“there’s plumbing!”

  Jeremy grinned. “I thought you didn’t like the outdoors.”

  “I like this.” Tayla stepped closer and tugged on the edges of his vest. “I like you.”

  Well, shit.

  There went his heart.

  Jeremy bent down, took her chin between his fingers, and kissed her.

  Chapter Seven

  The kiss spun out like one long, sweet sigh. Jeremy’s lips were soft and warm. His beard tickled her mouth, and she felt a shiver race down her back. She stepped closer and slid her arms around his waist between his vest and his shirt, running her hands along the warm ridges of muscle at the small of his back as their bodies pressed together.

  He was hard and lean. She was soft and curvy. His hand fell at the rise of her hip and he squeezed. Tayla sighed in the back of her throat. His other hand came to rest on her shoulder blade, long fingers running up and down in a line between her shoulders.

  It was perfect. Slow and luxurious. He wasn’t pushing for anything. He was savoring, like she was a treat he’d been waiting to enjoy. Jeremy took her lower lip between his teeth and tugged just a little before he released her.

  “Hmmm.”

  Tayla blinked her eyes
open. “Hi.”

  “Don’t tell my pop, okay?” His voice was rough.

  “That you kissed me?”

  “That I enjoyed my dessert before dinner.” Jeremy squeezed her hip one more time before he stepped back, rubbing his thumb along his lower lip. “Let me get this set up and we’ll eat.”

  Tayla felt flustered. Confused. Dates were charming get-togethers in glittering places where everyone tried to impress each other. This date was all that… but it was also something she couldn’t quite put her finger on. It was going to drive her crazy. He was going to drive her crazy. That wasn’t in the plan.

  “Can I help with anything?”

  Jeremy cocked his head at her. “Are you joking? This is for you. Sit down and enjoy the scenery. Watch the lake. Relax. I know you had a long week. It’s tax season.”

  It was tax season, but she was a bookkeeper this year, not in an accounting firm. “Still, I want to help. You’ve done all this—”

  “You can plan the next date,” he said. “And pick some music. There’s a speaker in the truck.”

  “Okay.” The next date? How was she going to top this? “And don’t think I don’t see what you’re doing, getting me to commit to date two before date one is over.”

  “I’m just saying you’re going to have to work to impress me.” He spread his hands out. “There are candles. And scenery.” He popped open a Tupperware. “And a lot of cheese.”

  She scowled at him. “You fight dirty, Mr. Allen.”

  “The gauntlet has been thrown, Miss McKinnon.” He tossed a cloth napkin on the table. “Okay, that was a napkin and not a gauntlet, but the challenge stands.” He set a bottle of wine on the table. “I await your response.”

  “You are such a geek.” She couldn’t stop the laugh. “Fine. I’ll plan the next one.”

  Wait, wasn’t she going to tell him she didn’t date? Especially in Metlin?

  She could tell him next time. It would be rude to give him the big “I don’t date” speech in the middle of what was—by any objective standard—a truly awesome date.

  Plus hanging out with Jeremy was fun. And relaxing. He was an excellent kisser. He made her laugh. And she wanted to see what he was like when he was being slightly less proper.