Off the Grid

He shook his head. “No need to apologize.” He understood grief whether it be the loss of a person or a lifestyle.

“I’ll go start unpacking.” As she rushed over to her pack, he couldn’t help but wrestle with the anger slowly dissipating. Lilac didn’t set this up. He knew Alexa could be flaky. She had a string of broken engagements and exes. She’d always been on a different wavelength than him, but they had a great time together. The chemistry between them was effortless. Perhaps he’d confused that with compatibility. Seeing Lilac’s easy acceptance of his life made him think about things. She got it. At the least, the next month would be pleasant.

Chapter Three

Lilac

She couldn’t call Thorn mean or unpleasant but he was quiet and distant. His orders were always clear and concise, as he remained firmly placed in business only mode. It made the days stretch on. His authoritative tone reminded her of the men in her family. With his clean-shaven face, he resembled the boy she’d secretly crushed on in high school. His features had matured and made him even more devastatingly handsome.

His jaw was more prominent and chiseled like the rest of his body. Hard work certainly does a body good. She felt like an interloper seeing the changes she knew he must’ve made for Alexa. The ruffled pillows, flowers, and updated appearance smacked of wooing. It stuck in her craw that the woman was playing Thorn again.

The man had literally been through hell and back. Wasn’t one Dear John experience enough? She’d been in a few serious relationships, but none had taken. Yet here was a woman holding the interest of two men and she couldn’t care less. Peter could be a bit sleazy, but Thorn was one of the good guys.

Her quads, calves, and hamstrings were tight from the brisk hike, and her thighs ached. Running on a treadmill was a hell of a lot different than being on uneven terrain. She rolled her shoulders to loosen them up after gathering all the sticks and leaves she’d need to build a nest of sorts to keep her warm and give her shelter from the elements.

It was the first lesson he taught. Tonight she’d be in charge of starting the fire, and gathering food for their meal under his supervision. He wanted to test her skills.

“Now that we have our piles ready for tonight, I want to talk a bit more about your knowledge of the woods.” He rested on his haunches a few feet away.

“I know how to gather some edible and medicinal herbs and such. I know what to avoid, what’s poisonous, and some signs of animals … like bear, coyote, and deer tracks.”

“So more than the average person,” he mumbled more to himself than her.

She shrugged. “I guess?”

“Trust me you do. Can you set a snare?”

“Umm no. That I don’t know how to do.”

“Well, you’re about to learn. I’m going to go over it with you and then we’ll go check my traps. We’ll retrieve my catches so you can reset them.”

“I’ll do my best,” she said, hoping he’d grade her on a learning curve.

“Don’t worry. I’ll shadow you while you gather edible items and help you if you need it. Can you skin an animal?”

“It’s been a while. I won’t promise you it’ll be pretty, but I’m positive I can still get the job done.”

“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?”

She shrugged, unable to decipher his tone. He could’ve been amused of irritated. She’d seen the glares he’d tossed her way.

He sank down on his haunches beside her with a spool of fishing line and his knife. “I prefer to use fishing line because it’s easy to come by, light to carry, and does the job. In a pinch, you can use this same method with any kind of thin chord or wire, even the right kind of vine. The most important part of setting a snare isn’t the mechanism. It’s reading the terrain. If you set them up all without purpose, you won’t catch anything. You want to set it in heavy traffic areas.

“That means we’re looking for animal pellets, burrows, and prints. Rabbits are the easiest thing to catch around here. Now a snare consists of four parts: the noose, which we have the line for, the trigger, which we’ll carve from wood, a leader line, which we’ll make from the line also, and the engine, which will be a bent sapling.”

“Okay?” She tried to put a picture to his words.

“It’ll make more sense when we do it all together, but I want to make sure you understand why it works and the proper terminology.”

“Got it,” she said, glad he wasn’t expecting things to click just yet.

“For most small game, your noose should be between eighteen and twenty-four inches.” He cut the length of the wire. “You’ll fold the end back on itself and tie an overhand knot. Then run the other end of the line through the loop and we have the noose. You try.”

Her hands shook slightly as she took the spool from him and cut off the length, trying hard to replicate what he’d done.

“Good. Now let’s move on to the trigger. It’s basically two hardwood sticks. One is staked into the ground, and the other is tied with more of the wire. The important part is that they notch together.” He carved one of the pieces and fit it with the other one. “Can you do that?”

“Not the best with a knife, but I can try.” Taking her knife, she attempted to carve out similar indentations.