by Lola Gabriel
“What?” she mouthed at him.
River smiled at her briefly, trying to maintain eye contact with her as long as he could, but she looked away. Clearly, she was still pissed off at him. He had to fix it.
As soon as they left the classroom, River caught up to Quinn in the hallway.
“Hey,” he said with a slight smile.
Rather than greeting him, she asked, “What do you want?”
“I’m good, thanks for asking,” he said.
“I didn’t, and I don’t care how you are,” Quinn replied, turning away from him to keep walking.
“There’s no need to be rude to me when you’re pissed off at Carla,” he said.
She stopped abruptly and whirled around to glare at him. “You really need to mind your own business, you know. Did she talk to you or something?”
“No, I just noticed you didn’t come to class together, and you were avoiding each other like the plague.”
Quinn narrowed her eyes at him and pursed her lips. “Why are you talking to me?” she asked.
“Why not?” Her shoulders slumped, and she turned away from him. “Okay, wait, wait!” River called out to her. She glanced back at him over her shoulder. “I’m sorry for being vague.”
“That’s the understatement of the century,” she pointed out.
River smiled. “Yeah, I should stop that. I was just wondering if you had any plans today? I’d like to have that coffee with you.”
Quinn’s eyebrows shot up, and she looked at him in slight disbelief. “I thought you didn’t drink coffee.”
“I don’t, but that doesn’t mean I can’t watch you drink it,”
“That is equally sweet and creepy,” she said. Her following silence made him believe she was about to turn him down, but then the corner of her mouth curled up into a smirk. “Okay. You can watch me drink coffee.”
A flood of relief filled every nerve of River’s body. “Great. Should we go now?”
“Now?” she asked him, her eyes widening. “Well, you don’t waste any time, do you?”
River shrugged nonchalantly, and Quinn walked with him toward the parking lot. “We’ll take my car, then we can come get your car afterward.”
“Okay,” she agreed, “but I should tell you that I can scream really loud.”
I know, he thought with a smirk. “Noted. Luckily my windows are bullet- and soundproof.”
Quinn stopped in her tracks, and River had to laugh at the befuddled expression on her face.
“I’m kidding,” he said, defensively raising his hands. “I promise I’m not going to kill you and drag you into the woods to hide your body in a secluded cave.”
“That was very specific,” Quinn said, still staring warily at him. She narrowed her eyes at him, but her smile came back. “Then again, you wouldn’t have saved me last night just to kill me tonight, right?”
“Right,” River answered with a wink.
The café that River had chosen was both small and intimate, especially since he picked a table at the back. Quinn ordered herself a coffee, but River didn’t order anything, despite Quinn’s insistence. Her coffee arrived at the table, and he glanced at her as she took the first sip. She closed her eyes for a second as she sighed with a dreamy look on her face.
“That is good coffee,” she whispered.
“You have goosebumps,” he pointed out.
“Yeah, it’s that good,” Quinn said, her eyes opening to look at him. “Are you sure you don’t want to try it?”
“No, thank you,” River answered. “I said that I’d take you out for coffee, and that’s exactly what I am doing.”
“And they say chivalry is dead,” Quinn said with an amused tone in her voice. “So, what’s your deal?”
River frowned slightly. “My deal?” he asked.
“Yeah, I mean, what’s your story?”
Too long, too soon, Quinn. He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t have a story. I’m just me.”
“River Wylde.”
“Exactly,” he said.
“That is your real name, right?” Quinn asked, cocking her head to the side.
“Of course it is. My mom…” River’s voice trailed off, and he lowered his gaze. He had expected that the screams inside his head would return, as they did every time he spoke or even thought about his mother, but they didn’t. He looked up at Quinn and said, “She loved the outdoors, and she said my eyes reminded her of a jewel-blue river in a forest.”
“She wasn’t wrong,” Quinn mumbled softly, like she hadn’t wanted River to hear it, so he pretended he hadn’t. Quinn sighed. “You’re lucky to have blue eyes. I wish I had blue eyes. Or eyes of any other color.”
“Why?”
“Have you looked at them?” she asked, almost exasperatedly.
All the time, River thought, keeping those words to himself. “Come closer,” he said, and to his surprise, Quinn leaned closer so that he could pay attention to her eyes. They were a rich brown color, much like the coffee in front of her, and he smiled. “I think they’re beautiful.”
Quinn rolled her eyes, though there was a soft blush on her cheeks. “Well, that makes two of you,” she muttered.
“What do you mean?” he asked and sat back in his chair.
“There are now two people who think my eyes are beautiful,” she said. “You, and my mom.”
“Sounds like your mom is a smart woman,” River said with a smirk.
“She is. What about your parents? Do they also live around here?”
River lowered his gaze. “My parents died.”
He didn’t miss the gasp Quinn let out, and he looked back at her in time to see her eyes widening and her shoulders slumping. “Oh, I’m… I’m so sorry.”
“Why? You didn’t kill them.”
“I know, but I asked you about them. When did this happen?” she asked.
“A long time ago,” he answered.
“May… may I ask what happened?” Before River could even think about her question, Quinn quickly shook her head. “You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to. I didn’t mean to pry.”
“It’s okay,” River told her. “Really. It’s just that I haven’t spoken to anyone about them.”
“Why not?”
“I guess because I’ve never felt comfortable enough with anyone to do so,” he responded. Immediately, he heard how Quinn’s heart started to beat a little faster inside her chest, and he bit back a soft smile.
“That’s probably the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me,” Quinn said breathlessly.
“Then you really need to hang out with a different kind of people,” he replied.
Quinn held her hands up in the air in defeat. “I stand corrected,” she said, which made River laugh, though it was short-lived. He took a deep breath and began to speak.
“Our house burned down,” he started, “and my parents never made it out. My brothers and I—”
“You have brothers?” Quinn asked in disbelief.
“Yes, four of them. I’m the youngest. Both my parents came from big families, so I guess they wanted one as well.”
“Right.” She nodded. “Where are they now?”
River shrugged. “I don’t know. After the fire, we all went our separate ways.”
Quinn seemed to be about to ask something else, but then her brow furrowed. “Wait, you said it happened a long time ago. Weren’t you just kids back then?”
River’s eyes widened slightly. Shit! He cleared his throat and mumbled, “Yeah.”
“So, you were all adopted or fostered and never ended up together?” she asked, her voice laced with sympathy, and River was glad that she had come up with a plausible explanation for him.
“Yes.”
“That’s… that’s so awful, River, I’m sorry. I’m an only child, and I can’t even imagine what it’d be like to have a sibling and then being split up from them, let alone four.”
River forced a smile. “It was fine. We fought a lot, but we were
brothers.”
“Aren’t you curious as to where they are now?”
“I guess I haven’t really thought about it.”
“My mom’s a teacher,” Quinn said, “so I can ask her to—”
“No,” he interjected, placing his hand over hers. She instantly stopped talking, and she looked down at his hand on hers as if she couldn’t quite process what was happening. River pulled his hand back. “Sorry, I just…” He heaved a sigh. “I don’t want to get my hopes up.”
“I… I think I get it,” Quinn said with a reassuring smile. “After what happened to your parents, I can imagine that the whole concept of family is a little lost on you, huh.”
“Right,” River nodded. “You get me.”
“Family is a touchy subject with me, too. I mean, not my mom. She’s great. It’s the rest of them who are just a bit…”
“Annoying? Undependable?”
“Yes, and yes,” she answered with a smile.
River smiled at her, and he took in every single inch of her face, forever etching it in his mind. “Can I ask you something?”
“Of course.”
“Are you okay with what happened last night?”
“Oh, yeah. I’m tough as nails,” she said nonchalantly.
“You looked terrified,”
“Honestly, I was.”
“Do you know those men?” he asked, hoping she would give him some sort of indication as to why they’d be after her.
“Not at all. I’ve never even seen them in town before.”
“And you don’t know of any reason why someone would be after you?”
“No,” she retorted, and then frowned after a short while. “Unless…” She shook her head. “No, forget it.”
“What? What is it?” River demanded, almost pleadingly. If Quinn had the slightest idea of why the Crescents were on her trail, he had to know what it was.
“It’s my dad. He…”
River glanced at her expectantly, but Quinn didn’t say another word. Sometimes he wished he had gotten his older brother Kodiak’s ability to feel what others felt. Then again, he didn’t know if he’d be able to handle the cons of that particular ability: his brother was often plagued with others’ emotions, feeling them as if they were his own, which caused terrible mood swings and sometimes even violent outbursts during his first lunar year. Kodiak seemed to adjust well enough after that, but their family continued to be careful around him, as to not provoke him.
The night of the fire, Kodiak’s behavior had surprised them all—he had been way too calm and collected, though it was thanks to his clear head, and River’s sense of hearing, that at least they had made it out alive.
“You know what, I’d rather not talk about him right now,” Quinn said after a while, staring down at her coffee. River could see it was a bit of a sore subject to her, and he supposed it wasn’t something he needed to know right then and there.
“Okay, we can talk about something else, then.”
Quinn let out a big sigh of relief and looked at River for a few seconds before asking, “So were you adopted?”
“Fostered,” he answered. “I got to keep my last name.”
“Oh, right,” Quinn muttered. “Do you still live with them?”
“No, I have a house in Avalanche Canyon.”
“Holy crap!” she cried in surprise. “Seriously? The houses there are huge!”
“Eh.” River shrugged his shoulders. “They’re okay.”
Quinn narrowed her eyes at him and bit her bottom lip, studying him for a while. “I would have never pegged you as a rich kid, but it makes sense now.”
“What do you mean?”
“First of all, your car—”
“It’s an SUV.”
Quinn rolled her eyes. “Second, you live in Avalanche Canyon, most probably in a huge house. You’re always dressed in designer clothes, and you look like you belong in a boy band, not in a sleepy mountain town in the middle of nowhere.”
“I like Jackson,” River said.
“No one likes Jackson.”
“The people are nice.”
“They’re intrusive,” Quinn corrected.
“They’re helpful.”
“They’re nosey.”
“You’re impossible to please,” he replied.
“That I am,” she agreed with a nod. “At least you got that right.” River grinned at her. “So you live in a big house all by yourself? Aren’t you afraid?”
“Of what?” he asked.
“You know, burglars, wild animals, ax murders?”
“No, no,” he said and looked at her, “and no.”
“You’re crazy,” Quinn chuckled, shaking her head. Her eye caught her wristwatch, and she winced. She looked around until her gaze fell on a clock on the wall. “Is that the time?”
“I guess so,” River said, “unless your watch is slow.”
Quinn groaned to herself. “I have to go.”
“Okay. I’ll walk you out.”
At the counter, Quinn started to search her bag for her wallet, but River put his hand on her arm and shook his head. “I’ll get this.”
“Are you sure?” she asked him with a small frown. “I really don’t mind.”
“I’m sure,” he reassured her.
“Okay.” Quinn smiled.
River paid for her coffee, and they left the café. They climbed into his SUV, and he drove Quinn back to her truck.
“Thank you, River,” she said. “This was really nice.”
“You’re welcome,” River told her. “I had fun, too.”
“If you ever want to have dinner at my house, my mom makes an amazing apple pie,” Quinn said with a smile.
“That sounds great!” River exclaimed, surprised by the fact that he actually meant it. “I’ll let you know when.”
“Great!” Quinn cried.
River opened the door of her truck and Quinn climbed in. He gave her a wide smile as he shut the door and turned to leave. Quinn opened the door and called out to him. “River?”
“Yeah?”
“Would…Would you mind following me home? Just in case… well, you know?”
“Of course,” he said, perhaps a bit too quickly. Thankfully, Quinn didn’t seem to notice.
She jumped out of her truck, walked over to him and gave him a hug. River was a bit overwhelmed by her closeness, startled by the suddenness of her gesture, but he wrapped his arms around her, embracing her back. He listened to her steady heartbeat, which sped up quite rapidly. He breathed in the scent of her, and it reminded him of wildflowers, with a hint of vanilla and cinnamon. He closed his eyes and relished in her warmth.
“Thank you,” Quinn whispered in his ear.
“You’re welcome,” he mumbled as she slowly, reluctantly, pulled away from their embrace.
River watched her as she walked back to her truck, climbed in, and smiled at him through the window. He jogged back to his SUV and followed her home. He waited on the side of the road while she made her way to the front door. Before she stepped inside, Quinn turned around and gave him a little wave, a soft smile playing at the corners of her mouth. River couldn’t help smiling back, and he watched the door close behind her.
Knowing she was safe in the comfort of her home, he drove off.
5
Quinn stepped inside the house with a dreamy smile and closed the door behind her.
“There you are!” Her mother came out of the living area to greet her. “Where have you been?” she asked. “Or should I rather ask with who?”
“Oh, I went for coffee with the guy I was telling you about. River.”
“River, right,” her mother said with a smile. “Did you have fun?”
“I did,” Quinn said, her smile growing wider. “He actually apologized for blowing me off yesterday.”
Her mother’s eyes widened in surprise. “Well, that was nice of him.”
“Yeah.” Quinn paused for a moment. “I… had a really nice time
talking to him, Mom. We actually had a deep and meaningful conversation. He told me about his family, and we laughed—”
“And you couldn’t stop looking at his eyes, right?”
“Right,” Quinn confirmed, chuckling. “He’s just nothing like I imagined. He even followed me home to make sure I got back safe.”
“Such a gentleman,” said her mother, nodding to herself. “Especially after Sheriff Howler issued that wolf warning.” Then she grinned at Quinn. “So, are you going to go out again?”
“Well, I spent a lot of time talking about you, and he’d love to meet you.”
“He would?” Her mother’s grin fell from her face. “Quinn, isn’t that a bit soon?”
“Soon for what?” Quinn asked. “We’re just friends. Aren’t you the one who suggested I bring him here? I mean, I know you were kidding, but you’re really important to me, and I want him to meet you.”
“Well, then maybe his parents can come, too.”
“Oh, um, that… might not be possible,” she said, nervously threading her fingers through her hair. “He…” Quinn stopped herself, wondering how much of what River had told her was appropriate for her to tell her mother. It wasn’t Quinn’s story to tell, but surely she could give her mom a general explanation of it, right? “He was placed in a foster home when he was little, but since he’s above the legal age, he doesn’t live with his foster parents anymore.”
“Oh, is that so?” her mother asked, her voice softening.
“Yeah,” Quinn answered.
“Why did he end up in a foster home? Does he not have any more family?”
“He has four brothers,” Quinn said, “but they weren’t sent to the same foster home. He hasn’t seen them since.”
Her mother brought a hand to her chest, and her mouth was slightly parted. “Oh, no,” she murmured woefully. “That poor young man… it must’ve been terrible…”
“Well, he seems to be doing better now!” Quinn cried hurriedly. “I mean, it was a long time ago. I asked him if he’d like to track his brothers down, but he seemed a bit reluctant.”
“Perhaps he doesn’t remember them all that much,” her mother offered. “If they were separated when they were young, he might feel like it’s better this way.”
“Maybe,” Quinn agreed. River was the youngest of his brothers. “It’s just kind of weird that his brothers haven’t found him yet. Wylde can’t be a common last name.”