I slap my forehead. “Why are you smiling?”
“He’s just so different from literally every single person I know. It’s…cute.” Her eyes flit to the side like she’s thinking of something, her smile only growing. “He and his siblings built their own cabins with the help of some of their friends, including Kai, and their aunt and uncle.”
What else can I do but simply stare at her? She’s not making any sense.
Then my eyes widen when she just seems to stay in lala land, thinking about whatever else it is she’s thinking about that has her in this smile-lock.
“You really did just stay up and talk,” I state in slight disbelief.
“It’s amazing how much you find interesting when you’re not actively seeking something to be wrong,” she says in that prim way of hers that keeps her from ever sounding like she’s doing anything wrong, irresponsible, or highly dangerous at all.
“What was in that weed? You’re a way bigger bitch than me,” I remind her very seriously.
She shrugs unapologetically and glances toward the bedroom door, where the overnight guest is lightly snoring, before looking back at me.
“I’m not going today. At least one of us should be around to tell the search party where to find the trusting city girl who wanted a sexy mountain man to tell the girls about back home,” I state defiantly as I cross my arms over my chest.
“Bitch,” she chirps as she walks with a little extra sway in her hips back toward the room. “Tell Kai yourself when he comes to meet us.”
“You tell him. I’m going for a ride so that I can avoid the ‘trying to talk me into it’ portion of the morning,” I say as I pull on my coat, boots, scarf, gloves…
I’m surprised she’s still standing there and watching me by the time I finish dressing for the snowpocalypse outside.
“What should I tell them that won’t ruin everyone’s fun?” she asks, lips thinning like she’s genuinely disappointed in me.
“I’m sure Hale’s great. Kai is already entangled in one undetermined-relationship status,” I say diplomatically, not sounding like an ass just because I don’t want to go.
She simply stares expectantly, and even gives me an impatient sigh, before glancing at the clock on the wall.
“Tell them I have altitude sickness and I’m going to get checked out,” I finally say as I turn and walk out, ignoring her judgmental eyes.
She’s the one judging me, and I’m not judging them. I’m just making a personal freaking choice.
It’s a lot harder to stop being a douche when your sister is using unreasonable logic.
Since I’m bundled up enough to use the snowmobile Reese rented, I do. And I drive really, truly, laughably slow because I haven’t driven one since I was sixteen.
I’m still unsure where exactly the property ends, and the survey guy is apparently a joke around here, because he literally carved an x on trees to mark our property lines. Apparently the surrounding area all belongs to Kai Wilder’s family, if I understood him right last night.
Took me ages to figure out the ‘survey system,’ just before I saved and ate Bambi on back-to-back days.
The trees can’t possibly be accurately placed in exactly all the right spots our property reaches, so I have no idea if I’m trespassing or not as I slowly wind through some of the trees.
I startle when something moves, and I look over just as a fox or something darts out of sight.
“Not cool,” I say under my breath as I continue to drive at a crawl.
What’s the worst sound in the world when you’re out in unfamiliar woods on a snowmobile? The sound of a motor sputtering as your snowmobile suddenly shuts off and refuses to crank again.
“No. No. No,” I say in a slightly panicky tone.
Over and over I try turning it on, but…all I get is a gargled response from the worthless piece of shit we rented just yesterday…
What the—
“How am I out of gas?! We just filled it up and have barely even used it!” I snap, finally spotting the reason for my demise.
The low fuel sign is on, and the gage is below the E. Is that what I heard last night? Did Reese and Hale slip up and raise hell outside the cabin? I thought I dreamed that.
Damn it.
Damn it.
Damn it.
Smashing my hand to my forehead, I whimper and groan, and then I peer between my fingers around at the woods.
The snow has started falling a little heavily, and I’ve clearly gone farther than I realized. The tracks I forged while coming in here are already being covered up. And…my phone has no signal.
Shiiiiiiiiiiiiit.
I’m so screwed.
Maybe I can catch a bar on my phone if I get really lucky.
Abandoning the snowmobile, I hop off the ride and my feet kick up pounds of snow, even though these boots are supposed to be epic snow boots.