She wore a dress with flowers printed all over it that swept the skin above her knees and she wore Converse sneakers on her feet. She had a gray sweater on that she hugged tightly to herself and he wondered how many of those sweaters she had because she seemed to always be wearing one in every color there was. And her hair was thrown up in a ponytail, a braid amongst it. Her hair was long and wavy and so blonde and so shiny, sometimes, when Yuriel dared himself to, he would admit to no one except in his brain that her hair was probably his favorite thing about her.
She looked at him with those big blue eyes of her and nodded though he didn't believe for one second that she actually was good. He still had no idea why her mood has switched so suddenly. She then slowly turned her head and looked towards her house, a small sigh exhaling past her lips.
"You okay?" He asked before he could stop himself from doing so.
She nodded and crossed her arms over herself even tighter. She kept her eyes looking towards the house. "My sister is going to smother me when I get in there."
"Literally?" He raised an eyebrow at that and she looked back at him, smiling faintly.
"No," she shook her head a little. "It's just the way Vicky is. It will feel like she is. I can't take a walk without her wanting to put a bell around my neck."
"Wasn' exactly walkin' earlier. Gettin' lost is more like it," he pointed out to her.
She kept smiling that small smile of hers and she shrugged her shoulders. "I wasn't lost. You found me."
He wasn't sure what to say to that. He wasn't sure what to say to any of this. So he was quiet and found himself still looking at her. He had never talked to her like this before. He usually just grunted or didn't say anything at all and didn't go into the office where she was unless he absolutely had to. He tried to tell himself that he didn't like her. Too pretty and too kind and there had to be something seriously wrong with her because no one that good on the outside was good on the inside. And when it was revealed just what was wrong with her and her true nature was shown, he didn't want to be anywhere near her.
And remembering that, he was finally able to take a step back. "Think you can manage walking from here? Or think you'll get lost with your house in plain sight?"
She looked at him for a moment at his words and he just frowned back, wondering why the hell she was looking at him and what she was seeing.
"I can manage," she finally said, her voice almost too soft to hear clearly. "Thank you for walking me back, Yuriel."
He didn't say anything – just gave his usual grunt – before turning and beginning to walk into the woods and fighting everything inside of himself that told him to look back at her over his shoulder. He didn't want to look back and he wasn't going to. She wasn't his concern. She had gotten lost and he had walked her back to the farm and that was that. He would see her at the garage tomorrow and he wouldn't talk to her and it was how things were always going to be. It was how he wanted it to be.
Knowing that he was finished with hunting for the day, he began heading in the direction of home.
He almost sighed with longing. Home. He knew what most people thought about those who lived in trailers but Yuriel had never really cared what people thought about him. He was a Salas. He was used to everyone always talking shit about him and his family, whether they knew anything or not. And most of the time, they didn't. He knew most people wouldn't be surprised to find out that Yuriel Salas lived in a trailer. After all, he had been called trailer trash for his entire life.
But they didn't know that he lived in a trailer in the woods at the very edge of his boss's property. Martin owned quite a bit of land – his land bordering the Silver farm – and he had found out that Yuriel wasn't really living anywhere, just kind of drifting from one motel room to the other and Martin told him that he had an old trailer he could have if he wanted. Yuriel had been skeptical at first. He had seen Martin's RV parked in the lot behind the garage and it was a piece of shit but Martin had assured him that this wasn't the RV. This was a trailer – small and old – but still in good shape. It was his if he wanted it. And not only could he have the trailer, he could have a bit of the woods to live in if he wanted, too.
Yuriel had almost refused the offer at first. He was a Salas and they didn't accept help from anyone. But Martin had taken him to see the trailer and Yuriel had stood there, staring at it, and he realized that he had never had a place of his own. He had lived with his parents before the fire and then him and his old man lived in a shitty apartment before Carlos came and he began following his older brother everywhere. He had never lived on his own and he stared at the secluded trailer in the middle of the quiet woods – Martin's house about two miles away – and he found himself nodding his head. Yeah, he wanted this.
He came upon it now and unlocked the front door before stepping in, closing and locking the door again behind him. He took a deep breath at the quiet that surrounded him. There were few things he liked in this world more than quiet.
He set his crossbow down, leaning it against the wall beside the door and went to the refrigerator, sticking the rabbit in the refrigerator to be cleaned later. He turned and washed his hands in the sink and then went to the small bedroom in the back of the trailer, sitting down on the bed and untying his boots, kicking them off before falling back and lying down, blinking up at the ceiling.
It was cold in the trailer and he had a space heater he made sure to always unplug when he left but he didn't plug it back in now to heat up the room. He would but right now, he didn't want to get up to do it. He wanted to keep lying there for just a few minutes more and it seemed like the more he told himself not to, the more he kept thinking about Alison.
Alison. He wanted to snort at himself. He had no reason whatsoever to be thinking about her. And he wasn't even thinking of anything in particular. Just her hair and her smile and those damn eyes of hers. When he had come upon her in the woods, he had been surprised but only for a moment. He reminded himself that her dad's woods and Martin's woods converged together and she had as much right to be in them as he did; probably even more right than him.
But he went into the woods to be by himself and Alison Silver being in front of him, it just ruined his day because when she was around, he couldn't concentrate on anything else. He tried. In the garage, he tried to ignore her very existence because if he didn't, he didn't know how he would get any of his work done. She mixed him all up and he hated not being in control of himself.
The other mechanics all flirted with her and she smiled politely but let them know in a few words that she wasn't interested. He was the only one she seemed to go out of her way to talk with and he had no idea why. It wasn't like he was dropping hints to her that that was what he wanted her to do. He didn't want her smiles and gentle voice and soft songs. He wanted her to just stay away from him.
So why couldn't he stop thinking about her right now?
He was pathetic – that was why – and he almost wished Carlos was here to smack the back of his head to snap him out of this. Whatever the hell this was.
…
Every morning, he was always the first one to arrive at the garage. After he had been there for three months and had to keep sitting out in the parking lot, waiting for Martin to get there to let him in, Martin finally just gave him his own key and had him open up for the day. He was the only mechanic to have his own key but he didn't see the big deal about it. Martin just liked that he got there early to start working and he liked Martin and respected the man. He wouldn't feel right if Martin was paying him for showing up late and leaving early and taking too many smoke breaks in between.
He got there around seven and Alison was usually the second person to arrive. He had opened all of the bay doors when she pulled up in her four-door blue sedan that he knew was actually her dad's. He pretended not to watch her as she got out and she was wearing another damn dress – this one yellow like her hair and white sweater and he wondered why she had to wear dresses every damn day.
He looked at her but she didn't say anything. Just kept holding the box with that smile of hers and he wanted to snap at her to stop smiling like that around him.
"Thanks," he grunted out as he took a glazed and a chocolate frosted.
"You're welcome," she smiled – always smiling – and then turned, heading into the office and he quickly looked away so he wouldn't watch the way her hair bounced down her back or the way her skirt swished with each step.
Pathetic, his brother taunted in his head and Yuriel took a big bite of the glazed donut and agreed.
Suddenly, he heard a high-pitched screech from the office that carried out into the garage and he didn't even hesitate as he went rushing towards it.
"Alison?" He burst through the door and saw her standing pressed against the wall, her face more pale than usual. "What is it?"
She swallowed and pointed towards her desk. "I felt… something brushed against me ankle," she said and he could see that she was trembling slightly.
"Here," Yuriel handed her the two donuts he was still holding and then slowly approached her desk, instantly sliding into hunter mode.
His eyes searched beneath the piece of furniture for a few minutes and when he saw it, he couldn't help but smirk a little. He moved slowly and scooped up the grey mouse that was just as scared as Alison, pressing himself again the leg of the desk and practically trembling itself.
"You can breathe again, girl," he said, standing up. "Got your ferocious beast right here," he held out his hands so she could see.
He expected Alison to screech again or yell at him to kill it but instead, Alison saw it and sighed deeply and then laughed softly.
"It scared me," she then stated the obvious. "But it's so cute."
"It ain't cute," Yuriel couldn't help but frown. "It's a mouse."
"An adorable mouse," she was almost giggling now and she leaned in closer, looking at the small animal in his palms, smiling as the mouse twitched its nose at her. She then looked at him and her eyes were practically sparkling. "It kind of looks like you," she then smiled and Yuriel felt his scowl deepen.
"How the hell can a mouse look like me?" He asked, forgetting all of the vows he had had made to himself about not talking to her and staying the hell away from her.
She laughed a little. "It just does. Do you think I could keep it?" She then asked and he looked at her and she just looked so damn hopeful as if she was waiting for him to say no; as if he had any right to say no to her about anything.
He shrugged. "Your mouse. Can do what you want with it," he said.
Alison was practically beaming now. "I need a box. Do you think there's a box around here somewhere?"
Yuriel heard himself sigh heavily. He couldn't quite believe he was doing this but he gestured Alison to put the donuts down and once she did, he passed her the mouse. She held it as delicate as she would an egg and without a word, he turned and went back into the garage. He only searched for a moment before he came back to her, a small empty cardboard box in his hand that a car part had come in the other day. When he came into the office and she saw what he was holding, she burst into a smile. Without a word, he set the box down on the desk and then turned, going into the employee bathroom to wash his hands.
When he came out again, she smiled at him and slipped past him to wash her hands as well. He looked down at the mouse in the box, sitting there, his whiskers twitching, and Yuriel shook his head at the stupidity of this all before taking his two donuts once more. He turned his head when Alison came from the bathroom and she smiled the instant their eyes locked.
"I'm going to take him out and let him loose in the barn. He'll love it there," she said.
Yuriel didn't say anything. He had decided he was done talking with her. He had already reached his quota with her. Hell, he was good for at least the next month.
And with the decision made, he turned and left the office, not looking back to her.
"Thank you, Yuriel," Alison called after him softly but he kept walking as if he hadn't heard, heading straight to his bay where he would stay there the rest of the day.
Every time he did look up for the rest of the day, his eyes would slowly drift towards the office no matter how loudly he yelled at himself not to look. And it seemed like every time he did look, he saw Alison looking towards the box and the mouse within and he had never seen anyone with a prettier smile. He knew it was useless to try and convince himself that he didn't like seeing that smile.
Chapter Five.
Another fight. Another stupid fight that hadn't been much of a fight since it was just Vicky yelling and crying and Alison standing there as she always did, not saying anything in defense of herself. Her daddy had tried to get them both to just calm down and go in their separate corners for a while. For Vicky, that meant stomping around the house, yelling at daddy for not doing more and for Alison, that meant leaving the house as quickly as she could.
She walked past the barn, considering for a moment to take her horse, Nelly, for a ride but she didn't want to spare the time to saddle her up. She wanted to just get as far as she could in that moment and she didn't want to linger. She kept walking and slipped into the woods and tried to keep from crying as she walked without a destination in mind or looking to where she was going.
It seemed like all Vicky did these days was yell at her. If she had known that coming back to the farm from Atlanta would just be a constant punching bag for all of her sister's fears and frustrations, she would have told her daddy that he had Vicky and Shawn and he didn't need her, too. But Alison loved her family more than anything and would do anything for them so when Shawn called, asking her to move back home and help with both daddy and the bills, she had done just that without a second thought.
No matter how much she ate, no matter how many pounds she gained back, none of it was ever good enough for Vicky. All Vicky saw whenever she looked at her was a younger girl in a blue hospital gown, a bandage around her wrist and food having to be pumped into her veins through an IV. Alison knew she was still sick – she would always be sick and battling this disease – but she was better. Truly, she was. Vicky just didn't want to see it. When Vicky had asked her what she had eaten for lunch, Alison had thought that Vicky had been asking just to ask and she had truthfully responded rice and some strawberries. Vicky had exploded though because to her, that wasn't nearly enough.
It was never enough.
And Alison was just so tired of never being able to please her older sister in anything she did. She loved Vicky so much. She had always looked to her sister as one of her best friends but she knew Vicky looked to her as nothing more than a burden she always had to take care of even though Alison never asked her to.
She couldn't stop the tears once the first few escaped her eyes and they streamed now in great torrents down her cheeks, sobs ripping from her throat, and she kept walking, leaves crunching beneath her feet, stepping over fallen tree limbs.
She didn't look to where she was going and she knew she was going to get lost again but she didn't care. Anywhere she wound up would be better than being home right now. Her daddy and Shawn trusted her when she said she ate so why couldn't Vicky? Was she forever just going to be sixteen whenever Vicky looked at her?
When she heard thunder rumbling off in the distance, she finally lifted her head and looked at her surroundings. Just as she suspected, she recognized absolutely nothing. She turned in a slow circle as if that would magically help her point herself in the right direction but she saw nothing that sparked her recognition and when she heard the thunder again, it seemed to be growing even closer. She looked up and saw the gray clouds moving in and she sighed to herself. Of course she
would get lost when a rainstorm was about to hit.
She kept walking in the direction she was facing even though she didn't know if this was the right way or not – she doubted it – and as she looked ahead, she saw something white through the trees. She walked a little quicker and couldn't help but sigh with relief when she saw that it was a trailer – a familiar pickup truck parked out in front of it. She stopped for a moment, looking at it. Just a simple white trailer with an awning over the front door, a front deck built onto it with a lawn chair. There was a shed built off to the side, the door closed and locked with a heavy padlock. That must be where he kept his motorcycle.
A crash of thunder seemingly directly overhead made her jump and she hurried from the trees and up the steps just as the first drops of rain began to fall. She knocked on the trailer's door, hoping he was home. And if he wasn't, she hoped he wouldn't mind if she stood on his porch until the storm passed.
She knocked again and heard movement from inside and when the door opened, even though she knew it was his trailer the instant she saw the truck, seeing Yuriel on the other side of the screen door made her feel a rush of relief.
"Alison?" He frowned as if he wasn't trusting that his eyes were really seeing her.
"Hi," she greeted lamely. Through the door, she saw him wearing jeans and a flannel shirt and he looked so relaxed and handsome, she suddenly seemed to realize that she was standing at Yuriel Salas's front door. Her heart began skipping beats. "I was walking and I got lost…"
He looked like he wanted to smirk and he shook his head. "Bad habit you got goin' on there, girl," he said.
"I know," she nodded, almost smiling herself. "I'm sorry to impose but do you think I could come in? Just for a little bit until the storm passes?"
He stood there and she felt herself holding her breath. There was no way he was going to let her in and she felt like an idiot for even thinking of asking the question, let alone actually giving it voice.
Honka Honka (Honk Series Book 1) Page 3