And a wall.
Luckily, I hadn't seen too much of Xavier, because he’d chosen to eat dinner and breakfast with the ranch hands in the bunkhouse.
He’d spent the rest of his days away from the ranch looking for more of the cows that had broken free from the Godfrey ranch located at the base of the mountain. For whatever reason, the man had been determined to find the last few stragglers. I'd remembered what Uncle Curtis had said about that family needing every single cow to help them make ends meet, but my mind refused to believe that Xavier had anything but selfish intentions in mind.
I told my errant cock to settle down and tried to think of something, anything, that would take my mind off the good-looking, asshole foreman I was essentially living with. I was more eager than ever to get out for a run, so when I didn't see Uncle Curtis on the main floor, I yelled down the stairs that I would be back in a few minutes and then I rushed out the door.
The cool air felt good on my skin as I started off with a light jog. I remembered that there was a trail that ran through the woods along one side of the property and ultimately led up the mountain to where there was a small family cemetery. I figured it would be a mile or two each way, the perfect amount to work off my excess energy before the rain arrived.
I'd been running about ten minutes when the trail started to become overgrown with prickly shrubs. Instinct told me to turn back, but the thought of being closed up in the too-small office again with all the randomly marked boxes and nothing to show for it started playing havoc with my mind. I could just picture my father reminding me how much time I’d wasted with this endeavor. How much money I'd wasted. And knowing that I hadn't done Uncle Curtis any good in the three days since I'd arrived was akin to torture.
So I pushed forward, going off the trail but running parallel to the path I’d been on and continuing up the mountain. Thunder clapped above my head and I began to feel the rain pelting my skin. But it felt good… like all the insecurities I’d been feeling were being washed away.
So I continued farther up the mountain.
By the time my lungs ached deliciously from my exertions, the rain had started to fall more heavily and the sky above me looked angry with dark clouds. I glanced at my watch and stumbled to a halt when I realized I'd been gone for more than an hour.
How the hell had that happened?
And if I'd been gone that long, why hadn't I come across the cemetery yet? I'd walked the route to the small parcel of land with my grandfather and Uncle Curtis many times to visit the various gravesites of family members over the years, and it had always been easy to find.
I stopped and looked around in the hopes of getting my bearings. But everything seemed the same and it had become frighteningly dark in the space of the hour I'd been gone. Part of that was likely due to the heavy cloud cover, but it was also approaching the dinner hour. I pulled out my cell phone and felt my heart constrict in my chest when I realized I had absolutely no signal. I tried dialing my uncle’s phone number anyway, but the phone just beeped in my ear.
"Fuck," I whispered to myself as I tried to quell the panic that began to overtake me. Lightning shattered the sky above my head and was quickly followed by a booming thunder that I felt throughout my entire body. I began walking back the way I'd come, but I couldn't find my own footsteps. I also didn't see any trail and cursed myself for not noticing which way I'd been running. Xavier had been the one to tell me long ago how easy it was to get lost in these woods, even when you were just a few yards from your own home.
I tried to remember all the things he’d told me in case it ever happened to me, but the only thing that came to mind was what he’d said about the importance of not panicking.
Which was exactly what I was doing.
I stopped walking and took in my surroundings more carefully. The storm that was brewing above my head was complicating matters by the second. Normally, I would've tried to at least walk downhill so that I was headed back in the direction of the ranch. But with the lightning strikes and the rain growing heavier and heavier by the minute, I knew that I would be putting myself more at risk by trying to navigate the darkening woods in the downpour.